I was on “In the Arena” with Elliot Spitzer to talk about why Pres. Obama didn’t release pictures of a dead Osama Bin Laden. On CBC Connect I discussed reasons behind the frat-boy scenes of celebrations we’ve seen at Ground Zero.

By Mona Eltahawy The Guardian May 3, 2011 I could hear the cheers as I got out of the taxi, two blocks away. I could hear them from right in front of Park 51, the site of a planned Islamic community centre and mosque that met ferocious opposition last year for being too close to [...]

Arabian Business magazine recently compiled a list of 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2011, which placed me at 51 and a list of 500 Most Powerful Arabs in the World, which placed me at 124. It was interesting to compare the Arabic-language bio they’ve posted for me with their English-language one – quite different!

I spoke on a panel on media and popular culture along with Spike Lee, Donna Byrd and Will Griffin at the Aspen Institute’s Symposium on the State of Race in America (our panel starts at 1:21:00). It was a pleasure to introduce Ronit Avni of JustVision and to present her and the team behind “Budrus” [...]

As the ban on niqab (face veil) went into effect in France, I debated the issue – with Sarah Joseph on CNN International’s Connect the World – with Sam Harris and Tariq Ramadan on BBC Newsnight here . – with Hebah Ahmed on CNN’s In the Arena

It was a thrill to be featured on Jezebel which described me as “The Woman Who’s Explaining Egypt to the West”. Trying my best to amplify the voices and courage of Egypt’s uprising.

By Mona Eltahawy Toronto Star Dec. 31, 2010 NEW YORK CITY—If the adventures of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have lulled you into believing censorship is a quaint fly we’re swatting into the past, then spare a moment for a young Palestinian man who’s been in jail for two months. Walid al-Husseini, 26, was arrested in [...]

By Mona Eltahawy Dec. 26, 2010 NEW YORK CITY – Take one comedian, mix in a beauty queen, throw in some bigots and an exploding crow and you’ll open an unorthodox window into the past year for Muslims in America. It’s been a tough year, so let’s start with the crow. One of the stupendously [...]

By Mona Eltahawy Jerusalem Report Jan. 3, 2011 How do you discuss virginity with a class of  American university students without the conversation sounding irrelevant to their lives or, worse, an exercise in exoticizing another culture? Women, sex and culture can be a Bermuda Triangle that threatens to demolish discussion through either defensiveness – when [...]

By Mona Eltahawy Dec. 10, 2010 I’m a Muslim. I’m a feminist. And I’m here to confuse you,” I told attendees at the TEDWomen conference, where I was a speaker, in Washington this week. The conversation on Muslim women usually revolves around our head scarves and our hymens — what’s on our heads (or not), [...]

By Mona Eltahawy The Jerusalem Report I was 23 years old and I was interviewing an Egyptian feminist who had just taken over as editor-in-chief of a women’s magazine of the cooking-and-fashion variety, which she had vowed to turn into the go-to magazine for women’s rights. I was excited to meet her because she was [...]

November 20, 2010 Mona Eltahawy Toronto Star NEW YORK – The statistics were bad enough: nearly half of London men aged 18–25 think sex with women too drunk to know what is going on is not rape. A quarter of those young men don’t believe it is rape if a woman says no to sex [...]

I’m excited and honoured to be a speaker at TEDWomen in December in DC. It’s great to be among so many inspiring and accomplished women.

Journalist Claire Berlinski and I recorded a conversation on women and Islam for Bloggingheads TV. The New York Times website excerpted a part of our conversation in which we discuss feminist interpretations of Islam and in which I mention Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family. The whole conversation is [...]

By Mona Eltahawy Common Ground News Service Sept. 14, 2010 New York – I have developed an overwhelming urge to tell everyone I meet I’m a Muslim. As a Muslim woman who doesn’t wear a headscarf, I’m often mistaken for a Latina and other ethnicities that my features match. But as anti-Muslim sentiment has risen [...]

Every day during Ramadan, I shared a book from my shelves which has influences me and helped me on my journey towards a better understanding of Islam and faith. Here are the recommendations compiled into one list: Day 1 recommendation: “Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari’a” by Abdullahi An-Nai’m. The Quran [...]

By Mona Eltahawy IslamComment Sept. 13, 2010 I’m a big fan of offense. It was offense that drew me to Park51, the proposed Islamic community centre and mosque in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from Ground Zero. But not for the reasons you think. For once, Muslims are not the ones offended but the ones being [...]

By Mona Eltahawy Toronto Star Sept. 10, 2010 Offence drew me to Park51, the proposed Islamic community centre and mosque in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from Ground Zero. But not for the reasons you think. For once, Muslims are not the ones offended but the ones being accused of offence by choosing to build Park51 [...]

Common Ground News Service Sept. 7, 2010 I live in Harlem on a street that is home to three churches and a mosque. The mosque is next door to one of those churches and when male congregants mingle on the sidewalk, it’s impossible to tell who had just been in church and who in the [...]

The Jerusalem Report September 13, 2010 When the planes flew into the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, I was living in Seattle, on the other side of America. My brother and his wife were visiting me. We did not leave the house for two days because we were worried that [...]