I picked this up of the New Book shelf yesterday and it\u2019s a short enough book and a compelling enough that I read it quickly enough to summarize it for you now. \u00a0What Eltahawy has to say is very much connected up with the attacks in Cologne, though the book doesn\u2019t address the question of Arab emigrants to Europe, just the situation in their home countries \u2014 the Arab-speaking countries of North Africa and the Middle East, where the sort of harassment that these women in Cologne endured is nothing new.<\/p>\n
Her book starts with a chapter called \u201cWhy They Hate Us,\u201d which is not, as typically is the case, a discussion of what \u201cwe\u201d in the West have done to upset\u00a0Arabs; rather the \u201cthey\u201d is Arab men and the \u201cus\u201d refers to \u201cArab women.\u201d \u00a0She gives a brief biography: \u00a0the daughter of two highly educated Egyptian parents, she lived in the UK for 8 years beginning at age seven, then moved to Saudi Arabia when her parents got jobs there, and lived there for six years, experiencing the awfulness of the country\u2019s treatment of women, before returning to Cairo and ultimately becoming a journalist and activist.<\/p>\n
The book is, simply summarized, a litany of the mistreatment of women \u2014 not just in Saudi Arabia but in the whole of the Arab world, even in countries which are given the label of \u201cmoderate,\u201d and not just by governments but by men themselves.<\/p>\n
Eltahawy doesn\u2019t mince words: \u00a0\u201cThe Islamist hatred of women burns brightly across the region \u2014 now more than ever,\u201d she writes (p. 11), and clerics all over the region condone FGM, husbands abusing their wives, and the general inferiority of women.<\/p>\n
Here are some specifics:<\/p>\n
In a 2008 survey by the Egyptian Center for Women\u2019s Rights, \u00a0more than 80 percent of Egyptian women said they\u2019d experienced sexual harassment, and more than 60 percent of men admitted to harassing women. \u00a0A 2013 UN survey reported that 99.3 percent of Egyptian women experience street sexual harassment. \u00a0Men grope and sexually assault us, and yet we are blamed for it because we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, wearing the wrong thing. \u00a0(p. 13)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She writes extensively on her experience choosing to wear the hijab, then, after 8 years, taking it off again \u2014 though the choice to wear it was made out of a hope that it would free her from the harassment and groping she experienced, and even so:<\/p>\n
Still, the garments I wore did not protect my body from wandering fingers and hands. \u00a0If I were to use paint to indicate the places where my body was touched, groped, or grabbed without my consent, even while wearing the hijab, my entire torso, back and front, would be covered with color. (p. 53)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She further describes women who, even without a legal mandate, are effectively obliged to wear the hijab due to family pressure (even to the point of being threatened with being expelled from the family home for failing to do so) or out of fear of harassment from men in public.<\/p>\n
She addresses the issue of street sexual harassment: \u2014 it is<\/p>\n
not exclusive the the Middle East and North Africa. \u00a0It is a disturbing reality for too many women around the world. \u00a0But a combination of societal religious, and political factors has made the region\u2019s public space uniquely dangerous for women.<\/p>\n
Activists . . . concluded that harassment was unchecked across the region because laws don\u2019t punish it, women don\u2019t report it, and the authorities ignore it. (p. 79) . . .<\/p>\n
Levels of street sexual harassment have soared throughout the Arab world, and everyone asks why. \u00a0One answer \u2014 always met with howls of denial from conservatives \u2014 is that the more women cover up, the more it lets men off the hook. \u00a0The \u201cpurity culture\u201d that exists across the Middle East and North Africa burdens girls and women with the responsibility for their own safety from sexual violence, and for ensuring they don\u2019t \u201ctempt\u201d boys and men.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She also reports on the comments she received after publishing an op-ed in an Egyptian paper, complaining about groping \u2014 repeatedly, she was told that she had deserved being groped, for not wearing a hijab.<\/p>\n
And she describes the state-sanctioned sexual assault of \u201cvirginity tests\u201d, and the sexual attacks by Egyptian security forces, and the abuse women experience even in refugee camps.<\/p>\n
(I\u2019ll skip over her chapter on FGM.)<\/p>\n
At home, too, women suffer abuse, and receive no protection from the state, as there are either no laws on the books to protect them, or the laws are not enforced. \u00a0She tells an anecdote of hearing an Islamic scholar, on a TV call-in show, advising an abused woman to stay with her husband, because she must have been doing something that merited being beaten.<\/p>\n
And she cites studies:<\/p>\n
In the 2005 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, 47 percent of women who are or had ever been married reported being victims of physical violence. \u00a0In Tunisia, a 2012 survey showed that 47.2 percent of women had been subjected to physical violence in the home. \u00a0Over 40 percent of women polled in Lebanon said they had suffered from physical abuse, a third reported sexual abuse. . . (p. 145 \u2013 146)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
and it should go without saying that there are no domestic violence victims\u2019 shelters in the region, and they don\u2019t even have the support of their families to return home.<\/p>\n
And as far as rape itself, there is likewise little protection, as so many countries continue to allow rapists to escape prosecution if they marry their victim \u2014 and so many families pressure\/oblige their daughters to do exactly this. \u00a0\u201cA September 2014 article in The Jordan Times<\/em> estimated that as many as 95 percent of rape cases in Jordan are resolved with the survivors marrying their rapists.\u201d \u00a0(p. 167)<\/p>\n
Eltahawy laments the status of Saudi Arabia in particular \u2014 the requirement for a male guardian, the prohibition against driving (which traps many women in their homes, since, contrary to the usual impression, not every Saudi family can afford a driver), the fact that the United States and other Western countries turn a blind eye to this, and that Saudi Arabia buys its way onto UN commissions and makes claims about supporting women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n
And, finally, Eltahawy advocates for a \u201csexual revolution\u201d in the narrower sense that it was used in the United States in the \u201960s, for women to be free to have sex outside of marriage. \u00a0While I\u2019m not going to affirm her desire in a \u201cfree sex\u201d sort of way, the fight against criminalizing nonmarital sex, as she describes in Morocco, is still important.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s that. \u00a0Lunch break over. \u00a0Except this:<\/p>\n
It should go without saying that this book sets out unmistakably the challenge that Germany, and Europe in general, face: \u00a0it is men with these attitudes, who believe\u00a0they have the right to grope women, abuse them, demand they \u201ccover\u201d, who are arriving in Europe. \u00a0It is preposterous to think that education, an \u201cintegration course,\u201d will be sufficient for these men to change their ways. \u00a0 I honestly don\u2019t care whether you call it \u201cMuslim culture\u201d or \u201cArab culture\u201d or \u201cMiddle Eastern\/North African culture\u201d but we can\u2019t ignore it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I picked this up of the New Book shelf yesterday and it\u2019s a short enough book and a compelling enough that I read it quickly enough to summarize it for you now. \u00a0What Eltahawy has to say is very much connected up with the attacks in Cologne, though the book doesn\u2019t address the question of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":1386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,17,301,46,250,222],"class_list":["post-3587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-from-the-library","tag-germany","tag-hijab","tag-immigration","tag-misogyny","tag-muslims"],"yoast_head":"\n
From the library: Headscarves and Hymens; Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I picked this up of the New Book shelf yesterday and it's a short enough book and a compelling enough that I read it quickly enough to summarize it for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the library: Headscarves and Hymens; Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I picked this up of the New Book shelf yesterday and it's a short enough book and a compelling enough that I read it quickly enough to summarize it for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-11T18:59:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-09T15:53:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/02\/library.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html\",\"name\":\"From the library: Headscarves and Hymens; Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-11T18:59:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-09T15:53:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"I picked this up of the New Book shelf yesterday and it's a short enough book and a compelling enough that I read it quickly enough to summarize it for\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From the library: Headscarves and Hymens; Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From the library: Headscarves and Hymens; Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy","description":"I picked this up of the New Book shelf yesterday and it's a short enough book and a compelling enough that I read it quickly enough to summarize it for","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From the library: Headscarves and Hymens; Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy","og_description":"I picked this up of the New Book shelf yesterday and it's a short enough book and a compelling enough that I read it quickly enough to summarize it for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2016-01-11T18:59:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-08-09T15:53:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/02\/library.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html","name":"From the library: Headscarves and Hymens; Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-11T18:59:24+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-09T15:53:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"I picked this up of the New Book shelf yesterday and it's a short enough book and a compelling enough that I read it quickly enough to summarize it for","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/from-the-library-headscarves-and-hymens-why-the-middle-east-needs-a-sexual-revolution-by-mona-eltahawy.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From the library: Headscarves and Hymens; Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}