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" The first time I wore a head scarf, I was 16. I looked and felt like a nun. I missed the wind in my hair. For me, it was not a comfortable thing to wear. "
Mona Eltahawy
Hair
Head
Me
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" I'm a survivor. I'm a messenger. "
Mona Eltahawy
Messenger
Survivor
" Too many on the Left are earnest about nothing at all, sadly. They've been rendered spineless by snarkiness - not least on Twitter. "
Mona Eltahawy
Too
Been
Left
" For years, successive Arab dictators have tried to keep discontent at bay by distracting people with the Israeli-Arab conflict. "
Mona Eltahawy
Conflict
People
Dictators
" My feminism does not demand that a woman have an equal opportunity to torture, alongside men. Torture is no less wrong because a woman, not a man, carries it out. "
Mona Eltahawy
Wrong
Men
Man
" I wore the hijab - a form of dress that comprises a head scarf and usually also clothing that covers the whole body except for the face and hands - for nine years. Put more honestly, I wore the hijab for nine years and spent eight of them trying to take it off. "
Mona Eltahawy
Dress
Trying
Head
" Anti-black racism is not just an Egyptian problem. It exists in many parts of the Arab world. "
Mona Eltahawy
Just
Problem
World
" When the only two sides fighting are conservative - even if one of them is just conservative in appearance - then everyone loses. And women don't just lose; they're also used as cheap ammunition. "
Mona Eltahawy
Appearance
Fighting
Lose
" Too many have rushed in to explain the Arab world to itself. "
Mona Eltahawy
Itself
Explain
Arab
" I detest the niqab and the burka for their erasure of women and for dangerously equating piety with that disappearance - the less of you I can see, the closer you must be to God. "
Mona Eltahawy
God
Less
You
" I do not subscribe to a feminism that demands perfection or super heroic nobility of women. But I do insist that putting women at the service of patriarchy is no victory for us. "
Mona Eltahawy
Perfection
Service
Women
" When Tunisians overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 29 days and Egyptians Hosni Mubarak in 18 days, it was an appropriate rebuke to dictators and Bin Laden. "
Mona Eltahawy
Egyptians
Dictators
Days
" The military belongs in its barracks, not our ballot boxes. "
Mona Eltahawy
Boxes
Belongs
Ballot
" The Tunisian revolution left every Arab dictator in fear; Egypt's toppling of Mubarak left them terrified - even one of the U.S.' best allies in the region could fall. "
Mona Eltahawy
Fall
Revolution
Fear
" For years I looked at the Iranians with envy - not at the outcome of their 1979 revolution, but because it was a popular uprising, not a euphemism for a coup. "
Mona Eltahawy
Revolution
Outcome
Envy
" I was born in Egypt, and my family moved to London when I was seven. I grew up mostly in Clapham, where I also went to school after a brief stint in Whitechapel. "
Mona Eltahawy
Born
School
Family
" When we complain to Egypt's Western allies about whichever autocrat is in power, we are asked, 'But who is the alternative?' It is a question designed to frustrate. "
Mona Eltahawy
Complain
Question
Power
" The religious fundamentalists of the Republican party are a mirror image of the religious fundamentalists of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. "
Mona Eltahawy
Party
Brotherhood
Republican
" When Mubarak does die, he will be remembered as the most bland of those military men turned dictators: compare him with Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Anwar Sadat. The legacies most associated with him are a network of bridges and highways and 'stability.' "
Mona Eltahawy
Will
Bridges
Military
" Saudi Arabia isn't just a conservative country with different values we shouldn't judge. It is a modern Gilead. "
Mona Eltahawy
Country
Judge
Values
" A source of embarrassment for Libyans, Gadhafi has never been a joke: disappearances, a police state, zero freedom of expression, and poverty for at least a third of the population of country tremendously wealthy thanks to oil. "
Mona Eltahawy
Police
Freedom
Country
" Banning hate speech doesn't end racism or antisemitism. Social pressure does that. It becomes socially unacceptable. "
Mona Eltahawy
End
Speech
Racism
" There was always something sickening about tourists taking pictures of themselves posing in front of that big gaping hole called Ground Zero. "
Mona Eltahawy
Pictures
Big
Always
" My parents' generation grew up high on the Arab nationalism that Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser brandished in the 1950s. "
Mona Eltahawy
Parents
Nationalism
High
" I was 15 when my family moved to Jidda from Britain in 1982. Living in Saudi Arabia was such a shock to my system that I like to say I was traumatized into feminism. "
Mona Eltahawy
Living
System
Family
" Too often, when Muslim women speak out, some in our 'community' accuse us of 'making our men look bad' and of giving ammunition to right-wing Islamophobes. "
Mona Eltahawy
Giving
Women
Community
" The fight against racism must be seen as a revolutionary one. "
Mona Eltahawy
Racism
Seen
Fight
" As an Egyptian-American, I want both sides of that hyphen to enjoy the forms of freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment, as I want both sides of that hyphen to move beyond the deceptive simplicity of the question, 'Why do they hate us?' "
Mona Eltahawy
Enjoy
Hate
Want
" Across the globe, fundamentalists of all religions are on one side, and their attitudes towards women and towards female sexuality are almost identical. "
Mona Eltahawy
Globe
Women
Side
" I am appalled to hear the defence of the niqab or burka in Europe. A bizarre political correctness has tied the tongues of those who would normally rally to defend women's rights but who are now instead sacrificing those very rights in the name of fighting an increasingly powerful right wing. "
Mona Eltahawy
Women
Powerful
Political
" I will never ally with Islamophobes and racists. But in the choice between 'community' and Muslim women, I will always choose my sisters. "
Mona Eltahawy
Women
Community
Choose