Dear Mona El Tahawy has caused an uproar online yesterday with her long essay in Foreign policy’s special Sex issue with the title “Why they hate us !?”
In 24 hours there have been strong reactions mainly from Arabs and Muslims who refused this orientalist view to women and men in the Arab and Muslim world.
- From Dima El Khatib : Love , not hatred , Dear Mona !
- From Karim Malek : Case in Point : Mona El Tahawy’s FP article
- From Mona Karim : “Why Do they hate us !?” A blogger’s response
- From Samia Errazzouk : “Dear Mona El Tahawy , you do not represent us”
- From Phil Brennan : On Muslim-Arab issues and the Danger of Aiding the Neo-Liberal Colonialist Agenda
Now to my short comments as I think the people above have covered all what the points I want to say and have said in details , they even did it better than me.
I am fed up as Egyptian Arab Muslim African woman of that stereotype Westerners and orientalists put me in that I am being oppressed and needed to be saved as soon as possible by the Western values , you know the White man complex !! I am fed up of that stereotype at the time the Egyptian and Arab women like Samira Ibrahim , Zeinab El Khawja , Tawakel Karman, Bothiana Kamel , Noha El Zeiny made history for real in 2011 and 2012 !!?
The women who wear Niqab in Bahrain and Yemen made the dream of freedom possible , these are the same women insulted in the disgusting photos of FP.
If we are going to speak from feminist view in the same way El Tahway did in her essay , well not only the Men of Muslim world and Middle East hate the women ; the men of the world hate the women considering the abuse women witness not only in MENA but in Europe , Asia and the two Americas !! Shall I speak about how the Neocons look to the women ? Shall I speak about underage prostitution trade in Europe ? I do not need it to.
I am seriously fed up with that look to Muslim and Arab ladies !!
This is my comment , I can’t go in a full debate about views now based on radical feminism mingled with Islamophobia now as I got other things to follow including real ladies fighting for their rights and their families’ rights.
I would seriously think again about your views on how women are perceived in the West. Your notions about the Neocons in America make no sense as you do not explain what they are. As far as underage prostitution it is against the laws. This leaves your suggestions, oh let's say naked of any reason or logic. Women fought hard for many years to achieve equality in everything in life (in salaries too) and by keeping them in hijab it only does one thing: It keeps them dominated by men...
ReplyDeleteI liked Mona El Tahawy's article and I liked the body paint pics. Not sure why anyone wouldn't like it except ladies jealous of such a hot model. There are no doubt plenty of plain or homely Muslim ladies who favor full-body covering as a means to level the playing field.
ReplyDeleteI think I speak for many in the Anglosphere when I say that we love naked ladies in body paint. It's nothing to get all butthurt about. Look, here are the 1998 Playboy Playmate Dahm Triplets naked except for American flag body paint. Here are some similar Canadian ladies. And some Kiwis. If you don't like pictures of naked ladies in body paint, don't follow the links. And don't buy that issue of Foreign Policy.
Z, you made some allusion to neocon treatment of women and about about underage prostitution in Europe. What are you talking about? You seriously think Western neocon women are treated worse than women in Egypt? We don't subject female protesters to virginity tests or rape female reporters in public squares.
New York Times: Egyptian film actor and comedian Adel Imam found guilty of insulting Islam. Maybe you should worry more about this and less about naked ladies in body paint.
ReplyDeleteMona's writing is tough to digest for all (female and male) hypocrites in Muslim countries. I am truly shocked that you, Zeinobia, whom I considered an open-minded and modern Muslima is suddenly taking such a retro-graded almost Salafist stand.
ReplyDeleteInstead of focussing on your won short-comings you fall into the that boring and annyoing pattern of holding the West responsible for everything that is wrong in the Muslim world.
The difference between the West and the Muslim world, besides being far more advanced and successful, is that we know every well, if we violate our values and even if it might take a while we correct such wrong doing.
Muslims, however, pretend the niqab being a religious obligation, which is not true and if women's genitals are mutilated they feel it is correct, if women are raped they should shut up and are guilty anyway, because Muslim men cannot control their cavemen instincts.
Arab men, dear Zeinobia, are the best customers of underage prostitutes and you know very well that only a few weeks ago FJP member Abdul Mawgoud Dardery almost got indicted for child pornography.
So I have to ask you: What are your values? What is your moral standard? Why do you complain about sexual harassment by Egyptians and attack Mona who is complaining about that very same "Muslim Male Macho Attitude"
Finally, you know of course that joke about the shortest description of an Egyptian man: "A dick with an attached hand begging for money!"
If Arab women cannot see what male domination under the disguise of Islam has become since the inception of Islam, then they have learnt nothing! Women were treated better and more equally in the early days of Islam than Salafists, Wahhabi, etc do today.
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