Headscarves and Hymens

February 9, 2015
Egyptian-American journalist and feminist activist Eltahawy unleashes her passion and outrage at misogyny in the Arab world. Raised in Egypt and England, Eltahawy moved with her family to Saudi Arabia in her teens, when she notes she was “traumatized into feminism” by living in a country where women “were infantilized beyond belief.” Covering countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Yemen, Eltahawy highlights how women remain covered up, harassed on the street, subject to genital mutilation, and forced to get permission from a male guardian to marry or divorce. She does not shy away from difficult topics, such as the way some countries allow rapists to escape conviction by marrying their victims. Nor does she avoid her personal struggles grappling with her own sexuality, her reasons for wearing a hijab for many years, and her assault by riot police during the Arab Spring. Blaming the “toxic mix of culture and religion” evident in the modern legal codes in many Arab countries, Eltahawy is staunch (albeit single-minded) in her criticisms. But she finds hope in the “open mic initiative” in Egypt, in which women can broadcast their harassment stories; the march for women’s rights in Lebanon, led by mothers whose daughters had been murdered by their husbands; and women turning to social media in Saudi Arabia, among other examples. This is a timely and provocative call to action for gender equality in the Middle East. Agent: Jessica Papin, Dystel & Goderich.

February 15, 2015
The plight of women in the Middle East.In her debut book, Egyptian-American journalist and commentator Eltahawy mounts an angry indictment of the treatment of women throughout the Arab world. Born in Egypt, she spent her childhood in London, moving with her family to Saudi Arabia when she was 15. Her shock was immediate and visceral: "It felt as though we'd moved to another planet whose inhabitants fervently wished women did not exist," she recalls. Women could not travel, work or even go to a doctor's appointment without male approval. On buses, they were relegated to the last two rows at the back, and schools were segregated by gender. Eltahawy focuses on six areas of women's lives that demonstrate men's hostility: the demand that women enshroud their bodies in public; maintain their virginity until marriage; submit to genital mutilation; have no recourse in cases of domestic violence, rape or divorce; are forbidden to drive; and suffer dire repercussions if they dare to speak out on their own behalfs. In addition to her own experiences, the author draws upon interviews she conducted for a BBC documentary, Women of the Arab Spring, giving voice to a wide range of women, including some who perpetuate patriarchal values and others who risk their lives to oppose them. Her discoveries fuel her rage and dismay. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, women are the property "not only of their sons, but of their babies," mandated by law to breast-feed for two years. In Jordan, a rapist can avoid punishment if he agrees to marry his victim. "When I married him it was like he was raping me again...," one woman admitted. In Yemen and Saudi Arabia, girls as young as 8 can be married off to older men. Although Eltahawy's passionate book contributes to the struggle against women's oppression, in the face of endemic misogyny, the potential for revolution seems chillingly remote.

Starred review from March 1, 2015
In the midst of the Arab Spring struggle for freedom from oppression, women protestors were subjected to virginity tests and the tacit understanding that the revolution wasn't meant to free them. Eltahawy's reaction was a 2012 political essay excoriating the misogyny of the Middle East. In this book, the Egyptian American journalist follows up with an analysis of religious and cultural norms that oppress women, focusing on veils and genital mutilation. Going beyond the debate about religion or the culture clash between Islam and the West, she examines what the practice of veiling has done to perceptions of women and to women's self-perception. Eltahawy criticizes male and female traditionalists as well as the World Health Organization and others whose concerns for cultural imperialism have kept them from protecting the health and lives of young girls subjected to brutal cutting to protect their virginity. Offering details from her own experience and those of scores of women in the Middle East, Eltahawy emphasizes that despite the Human Rights Watch report on massive sexual abuse of women in the Middle East and North Africa, governments continue to deny charges of sexual assault on women on the streets by members of the police and the military as well as individual men. The litany of abuses ranges from the sanctioning of child brides to laws that keep women from driving and laws protecting their abusers, even exonerating rapists if they marry their victims. This is a powerful global feminist demand for equal rights.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2014

In a 2012 piece titled "Why Do They Hate Us?" that appeared in Foreign Policy, Egyptian American journalist Eltahawy explored the misogyny that besets in the Arab world. The result? Some 4,000 posts on the magazine's website, TV and radio interviews, and now this book, which expands on the original to argue that women in the Arab world are fighting two battles: one with men against repressive regimes and one against a political and social structure that debases women.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2015

Journalist Eltahawy builds on the scholarship of women such as Egyptian American writer Leila Ahmed to craft an argument about the complexity surrounding women's sexual and political identities in the Middle East. The author uses her experiences of sexual assault as well as her conflicted feelings about the hijab to unveil what she identifies as false choices for women in Islamic societies. Her juxtaposition of personal anecdotes, media analysis, and feminist theory helps dismantle many assumptions Westerners in general and Western feminists in particular have about women in the Middle East. The overarching conclusion is that a sexual revolution cannot wait. Rather than view womens' need for freedom as something to work toward after resolving other forms of turmoil, Eltahawy explains, "This is our chance to dismantle an entire political and economic system that treats half of humanity like children at best." Such a revolution will be possible when, according to Eltahawy, each woman begins to "talk about her life as if it really matters." VERDICT Based on her 2012 article in Foreign Policy titled "Why Do They Hate Us?," Eltahawy's account is a strong, insightful, and well-researched analysis of many issues connected to Middle Eastern women's autonomy (e.g., the hijab, marriage, female genital mutilation). Her personal insights set this work apart. [See Prepub Alert, 10/27/14.]--Emily Bowles, Building for Kids Children Museum, Appleton, WI

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2015

Journalist Eltahawy builds on the scholarship of women such as Egyptian American writer Leila Ahmed to craft an argument about the complexity surrounding women's sexual and political identities in the Middle East. The author uses her experiences of sexual assault as well as her conflicted feelings about the hijab to unveil what she identifies as false choices for women in Islamic societies. Her juxtaposition of personal anecdotes, media analysis, and feminist theory helps dismantle many assumptions Westerners in general and Western feminists in particular have about women in the Middle East. The overarching conclusion is that a sexual revolution cannot wait. Rather than view womens' need for freedom as something to work toward after resolving other forms of turmoil, Eltahawy explains, "This is our chance to dismantle an entire political and economic system that treats half of humanity like children at best." Such a revolution will be possible when, according to Eltahawy, each woman begins to "talk about her life as if it really matters." VERDICT Based on her 2012 article in Foreign Policy titled "Why Do They Hate Us?," Eltahawy's account is a strong, insightful, and well-researched analysis of many issues connected to Middle Eastern women's autonomy (e.g., the hijab, marriage, female genital mutilation). Her personal insights set this work apart. [See Prepub Alert, 10/27/14.]--Emily Bowles, Building for Kids Children Museum, Appleton, WI

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.