Title: Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution
Author: Eltahawy, Mona
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages: 240
Date Read: 09 July 2017
Bookshelves: read, favorites
My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Here, Mona Eltahawy, very passionately, tries to decry the middle-eastern system of patriarchy. Her anger stems from the reality that the clerics and policy makers have skilfully used a mix of religion, politics and culture to whip the Arab woman into perpetual submission. i find her take very interesting although there are a few of her opinions i do not agree with.
I’d also like to point out that Mona failed to properly identify the cause of the problem of misogyny and patriarchy in the society. Although with good intentions, she ended up lumping religion and culture together in a way that left me confused for the most part. I would like to think that the real issue here is not Islam in itself but the manner in which regions and states approach its interpretation. What people have done over time was to embed their selfish interests and propagate such dangerous doctrines under the teachings of Islam. The author did not do enough to make the average reader understand this.
That said, Mona did an excellent job at opening my eyes to the reality and depth of state-sponsored misogyny in the middle-east.
Excellent read.