'Shocking, heartfelt and well-researched' New Statesman

'A ground-shaping book that defines the edge of so many vital contemporary debates. Hers is a voice simultaneously behind and beyond the veil' Colum McCann

'A fascinating, can't-look-away, whistle-stop tour of the Middle East' Daily Telegraph

'Brave and impassioned . . . A shocking book, and one that will make anyone who has seen veiling as a cultural issue think very hard about what is really going on' Mail on Sunday

Headscarves and Hymens explodes the myth that we should stand back and watch while women are disempowered and abused in the name of religion.

In this laceratingly honest account, Eltahawy takes aim both at attitudes in the Middle East and at the western liberals who mistake misogyny for cultural difference. Her argument is clear: unless political revolution in the Arab world is accompanied by social and sexual revolution, no progress will be made.

Headscarves and Hymens is the book the world has been crying out for: a powerful, fearless account of what it really means to be a woman in the Muslim world.

'A fascinating, can't-look-away, whistle-stop tour of the Middle East' Daily Telegraph

'Brave and impassioned . . . A shocking book, and one that will make anyone who has seen veiling as a cultural issue think very hard about what is really going on' Mail on Sunday

About the Author

Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning journalist and commentator on Arab and Muslim issues. She has appeared as a guest speaker on CNN, the BBC and Al Jazeera, and her essays on Egypt, the Islamic world, and women's rights have been published by the WASHINGTON POST, the GUARDIAN and the NEW YORK TIMES. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including the EUROPEAN UNION'S SAMIR KASSIR PRIZE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS in 2009. NEWSWEEK magazine named Mona as one of its 150 Fearless Women of 2012. She lives in Cairo and New York.

@monaeltahawy

Reviews
So we have a winner for book-title of 2015 @monaeltahawy's 'Headscarves & Hymens - Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution.' BRAVO -- Caitlin Moran
Now Eltahawy has written this fearless roar-to-arms, which sets her own experiences - including how she was groped while on Hajj in Mecca - alongside those of dozens of other women. She illustrates the misogynistic and sometimes downright barbaric attitudes towards women in the Arab world; from the Hobson's Choice of the hijab and the Saudi cleric who declared that women shouldn't drive because it damages their ovaries; to FGM and Rawan, the eight-year-old Yemeni "bride", who died of internal bleeding after being violently penetrated on her "wedding night". Sometimes we need books that will make us angry enough to want to change things. This book will certainly disturb you, and possibly make you very angry indeed - but you must read it. -- Caroline Sanderson * THE BOOKSELLER - Editor's Choice Book of the Month *
Shocking, heartfelt and well-researched * NEW STATESMAN *
This feisty Egyptian lady made headlines after she was arrested by police, beaten and sexually assaulted in 2011 during the Egyptian revolution. Her subsequent article for Foreign Policy magazine, Why Do They Hate Us?, was a no-holds barred attack on the treatment of women in many Arab countries. "When it comes to the status of women in the Middle East," she wrote, "it's not better than you think. It is much, much worse" -- Camilla Cavendish * SUNDAY TIMES *
'Headscarves and Hymens is an impassioned, deeply felt and affecting memoir that confronts a very real problem. -- Tahmima Anim * THE TIMES *
Brave and impassioned . . . A shocking book, and one that will make anyone who has seen veiling as a cultural issue think very hard about what is really going on * MAIL ON SUNDAY *
Inequality, state brutality, resentment, sexual frustration, religious indoctrination, shame culture and struggle for power . . . Eltahawy holds a match to this combustible mix . . . A brave call for gender equality * GUARDIAN *
(What are you currently reading?) Headscarves and Hymens by Mona Eltahawy. I was lucky enough to interview Mona recently and she is enormously inspiring and very, very funny. -- Laura Bates * THE INDEPENDENT *
This is a fascinating, can't-look-away, whistle-stop tour of the Middle East through the eyes of an angry but lucid observer. Eltahawy is brave as well as perceptive: her reports cause outrage and controversy. She blames the West as much as Middle Eastern attitudes for the lack of change, especially Western liberals who criticise imperialism and yet turn a blind eye to the cultural imperialism that doesn't push misogyny to the fore, as if there might time to sort that out later when more important matters have been "fixed". -- Viv Groskop * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
This a call to arms against misogyny in the Arab world is furiously plain-speaking. -- Viv Groskop * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
To Eltahawy, the root of this inequality is clear: "a toxic mix of culture and religion", particularly Islam, and more particularly the spread of its ultra-conservative Saudi-style interpretation. -- Rachel Aspden * THE GUARDIAN *
Overall, however, it is the oscillation between the personal and the political that makes Headscarves and Hymens a tour de force...Sometimes we need books that will make us angry enough to want to change things. This courageous book will certainly disturb you, and may make you very angry indeed. But you still must read it. -- Caroline Sanderson * MSLEXIA *
Headscarves and Hymens is less a call to arms and more a protracted bellow for equality, progress and common sense. -- Anakana Schofield * IRISH TIMES *
This book should be made compulsory reading in all those schools where British Muslim girls are being groomed to go abroad to be Islamic State brides. Eltahawy is laceratingly honest about how hard it has been for her as an Arab Muslim woman to confront the institutional misogyny of her culture, to free herself of the "taboos and silence". Only when there has been a revolution in the relations between the sexes, she insists, will there ever be genuine political change in the Middle East. -- Daisy Goodwin * MAIL ON SUNDAY *
Headscarves and Hymens is useful for those who are new to the situation in the Middle East, as it's a good overview of the main social issues affecting the region. * NEW INTERNATIONALIST *
This is a timely and provocative call to action for gender equality in the Middle East * PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY (USA) *
Eltahawy's passionately argued case is irrefutable. But how to harness this rage to achieve real political change remains the unanswered question. * SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) *
In her debut book, Egyptian-American journalist and commentator Eltahawy mounts an angry indictment of the treatment of women throughout the Arab world. * KIRKUS REVIEWS (USA) *
This is a ground-shaping book that defines the edge of so many vital contemporary debates. Hers is a voice simultaneously behind and beyond the veil. -- Colum McCann
This a powerful global feminist demand for equal rights. -- Vanessa Bush * BOOKLIST (USA) *
Headscarves and Hymens is a call to arms by a woman who's plainly proud of her justified rage. She brings to mind those angry, outspoken women in the 1970s who were branded "strident" feminists - the ones who yelled, who offended, but who generated change. "It is the job of a revolution to shock, to provoke, and to upset," Eltahawy writes, "not to behave or be polite." Mission accomplished. -- Marcia Kaye * TORONTO STAR (Canada) *
Mona Eltahawy brings a journalist's keen eye, a revolutionary's prophetic courage, and a feminist's incendiary intellect to this work, demolishing the last cultural relativist myths. And she writes so well that it's hard to put down this audacious, information-packed treasure about the half of the Arab world that's female. Miss this book-the real key to the Middle East-at your peril. -- Robin Morgan
Headscarves and Hymens is timely, important and much needed. It should be translated into many languages, especially those spoken in the Middle East. Eltahawy encourages the girls of the Middle East and North Africa to be "immodest, rebel and disobey" and know they are entitled to be free. Her book deserves to be widely read, discussed and acclaimed. -- Elif Shafak * LITERARY REVIEW *
A passionate and brilliantly argued polemic....When I put down Eltahawy's deeply affecting book, I felt that a bit more Enlightenment universalism is in order. Instead of bellyaching when some idiotic man calls a woman "dear" or a hideous professor sends his student a creepy email, feminists should wake up and recognise the cruel, systematic violence that millions of women still face throughout the world. -- Jane O'Grady * THE TABLET *
Informative and engaging, a brave and much needed insight into suffering which is rarely talked about openly. * THE F WORD *



Book Information
ISBN 9781780228877
Author Mona Eltahawy
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher Orion Publishing Co
Weight(grams) 224g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 128mm * 30mm