Headves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

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Review ------ So we have a winner for book-title of 2015 @monaeltahawy's 'Headves & 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 , 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 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) 'Headves 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?) Headves 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) Book Description ---------------- One of the most controversial, talked-about books of 2015, in a fresh new package, published to coincide with International Women's Day.