{"id":5199,"date":"2012-05-03T22:53:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T03:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=5199"},"modified":"2012-05-03T22:53:57","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T03:53:57","slug":"global-mama-muslim-women-misogyny-and-the-arab-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2012\/05\/03\/global-mama-muslim-women-misogyny-and-the-arab-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"GLOBAL MAMA: Muslim women, misogyny, and the Arab Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven\u2019t had a chance to tune into the debate started by Mona Eltahawy in the current issue of Foreign Policy<\/em>, you should.\u00a0\u201cWhy Do They Hate Us<\/a>\u201d takes a scathing look at the \u201creal war on women\u201d in the Middle East.\u00a0Eltahawy makes an impassioned case for why misogyny in the Muslim world needs to be named and dismantled.\u00a0Her controversial article has sparked a truly global debate.<\/p>\n

After reading Eltahawy\u2019s essay, check out Eltahawy\u2019s conversation with Leila Ahmed and Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC.\u00a0(Thanks to Samhita at Feministing<\/a> for posting about this, and bringing her own valuable perspective to the conversation!)<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

It\u2019s such a wonderful conversation that I\u2019ve changed my whole lecture on transnational feminism for a class tomorrow so that I can show it.<\/p>\n

What I love about this interview: Eltahawy\u2019s eloquence and passion.\u00a0Harris-Perry\u2019s deep understanding and on-point questions.\u00a0Ahmed\u2019s deeply thought yet gentle critique.<\/p>\n

Eltahawy<\/strong>: \u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to do is go straight for the jugular.\u00a0I\u2019m shaking people into having a discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue I want to discuss is the misogyny, which plays out in different ways, but ultimately it\u2019s a mix of religion, culture, and law in these various countries.\u00a0 What are we going to do about that?\u00a0 At a time of revolution, when everything is in flux?\u00a0 Let\u2019s jump in and turn this [into a] gender revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris-Perry<\/strong>: \u201cAs an academic, I love nuance.\u00a0As a media personality, I know that sometimes it is the straightforward, loud voice that gets it heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmed<\/strong>: \u201cYou see the glass as half empty, and more than half empty, and I see it as half full. [\u2026] I am focusing on the extraordinary people who brought down tyranny, regimes, absolutely dictatorial regimes, these are young people who believe in justice, who believe in liberty, who believe in free speech, who are out in the square risking their lives [\u2026] and my faith is in them [\u2026] I see both men and women participating in this fight, I don\u2019t see young men hating young women [\u2026] I think we do have a new generation, and my trust is in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmed\u2019s critique is valid, as is her observation that some readers might find their Islamophobic and anti-Muslim feelings confirmed after reading the article.\u00a0But Eltahawy refuses to stay silent despite this possibility.\u00a0She insists that women\u2019s rights should not wait until after the revolution\u2014because then it will not be a true revolution.<\/p>\n

Eltahawy is right.\u00a0Consider the history of anti-colonial movements and civil rights movements, which reveals the following pattern: even though many women have participated in the fight for freedom, their rights are often subsequently ignored.<\/p>\n

Eltahawy rejects the idea that Muslim women need to be “saved.” Many women continue to be active in protests. But she wants other governments to understand that “it’s our culture” does not give a pass to women-hating cultural practices that were not created by women. Among other things, Eltahawy wants Egypt to pass a violence against women act.<\/p>\n

What this conversation also models\u2014and why I want to show it to my students: Eltahawy and Ahmed eloquently and respectfully disagree.\u00a0Where do we see this anymore?\u00a0These women (all three of them) are my heroes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven\u2019t had a chance to tune into the debate started by Mona Eltahawy in the current issue of Foreign Policy, you should.\u00a0\u201cWhy Do They Hate Us\u201d takes a scathing look at the \u201creal war on women\u201d in the Middle East.\u00a0Eltahawy makes an impassioned case for why misogyny in the Muslim world needs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1916,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21105,1],"tags":[12199,167,21524,21573,21608,8502],"class_list":["post-5199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-mama","category-uncategorized","tag-arab-spring","tag-foreign-policy","tag-leila-ahmed","tag-melissa-harris-perry","tag-mona-eltahawy","tag-muslim-women"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1916"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}