by Ilisha
H/T: Solid Snake
In Spring of 2012, Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy sparked widespread controversy with her scathing critique of Arab society entitled Why Do They Hate us? Her premise was that Arab society has waged war on women, and seemed to suggest that Arab men are uniquely misogynist.
By singling out Arab society and making sweeping generalizations, Eltahawy was not just highlighting women’s issues. She was reinforcing widely-held stereotypes about Arab and Muslim men, two overlapping groups strongly linked to rampant sexism in the public imagination, especially in Western countries.
Danios published Why Do They Hate Us? They Don’t in response, discussing some of the troubling aspects of the article at the time. The controversy resurfaced again when Al-Jazeera’s program Head to Head recently hosted a debate between Mona Eltahawy and Mehdi Hassan, framed by a similarly provocative title: Do Arab men hate women?
After watching Eltahawy making sweeping generalizations and insisting Arab men really are uniquely misogynist in a world where there is no shortage of discrimination against women, I found myself asking a corresponding question: Does Mona Eltahawy hate Arab men?
