She writes of her experiences as a Muslim woman in each of these various different countries, and how she has struggled with the immense complexity of both wearing and taking off her headscarf. Arrested twice for her activism – once for protesting during the Arab Spring and once for defacing racist graffiti in New – Eltahawy once described herself as a ‘secular, radical, feminist Muslim’, which succinctly highlights the tone and spirit of her text. Mona Eltahawy identifies as both Egyptian and American born in Egypt, she lived in the UK and Saudi Arabia as a child before moving to the US for university. I welcomed the book’s insightful access to a first-hand, Egyptian-American, female perspective on the place and role of women in North Africa and the Middle East, as opposed to the white, Western voices which so often control the dialogue surrounding it. It is brutally honest, with many upsetting moments, and yet is a strongly compelling read. I recently finished Mona Eltahawy’s book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution and feel it is a critical read for anyone seeking to educate themselves on the complex relationship between women’s rights, Islam, and the Middle East. MAYA WILSON AUTZEN champions Mona Eltahawy’s 2015 polemic, which challenges Arabic misogyny and calls for an urgent sexual revolution.
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