I was on public radio’s Marketplace today with a review of Rabih Alameddine’s “The Hakawati”.

NEW YORK – When I was only 4 years-old, and still living in Cairo, a man exposed himself to me as I stood on a balcony at my family’s home, and gestured for me to come down. At 15, I was groped as I was performing the rites of the Haj pilgrimage at Mecca, the [...]

By Mona Eltahawy NEW YORK — Are Muslim women more than the sum of their hymens and veils? Judging by two bizarre verdicts in France, the answer is a resounding “non.” A verdict in April essentially punished a Muslim woman for not being a virgin before marriage. The second denied citizenship last month to a [...]

I was on Public Radio International’s To the Point today to talk about Muslims, Arabs and the Obama campaign. I come on at 14:52.

By Mona Eltahawy NEW YORK — As soon as I saw the New Yorker cover spoofing right-wing fear mongering over Barack and Michelle Obama, my first thought was that my friend Sanjay in Mumbai had a point about Americans and stupidity. What was it but stupidity that left so many Americans gullible to right wing [...]

Today, I had planned on going to Ajmer, home of one of India’s most important Muslim pilgrimage sites – the shrine of Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti, a Sufi saint and founder of the Chishti order, the main Sufi order in India to this day. I’d been told that Muslims and non-Muslims visited the shrine, seeking the Saint’s [...]

How do I even begin to describe Jaipur, the pink city? To welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876, the entire city was painted pink and like the Lonely Planet guidebook says, it doesn’t look like it’s been touched up since. While the various shades of pink – think of a sunset in a polluted [...]