ID#: 2285 Oct 7 : Houston : Mona Eltahawy:

The Arab Spring acted as a catalyst for regime change across the Middle East. Old regimes were overthrown while new regimes promised a more democratic future, but one thing remained the same: women’s rights across the region did not experience the same revolution.

Eltahawy’s book, Headscarves and Hymens: Why The Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, seeks to inspire outrage in its readers. In it, she details her personal story and journey to feminism alongside a larger portrait of what it means to be a woman in the Middle East. Her book extends the argument originally made in her seminal article for Foreign Policy entitled, “Why do They Hate Us?”. She argues that although the Arab Spring may have overthrown tyrannical regimes, the revolution for women has yet to begin.

Eltahawy is an Egyptian-American freelance journalist. Her essays and op-eds have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the Miami Herald, as well as numerous other publications. She has also appeared as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Al-Jazeera, PBS, and NPR.

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