I got my first death threat. When the Washington Post published my column on Yale University Press and the Danish cartoons, I expected strong reactions and I got them. But then an Egyptian portal called Masrawy.com cherry picked two or three paragraphs from it, said AIPAC the Jewish lobby shared my position and set the [...]

By Mona Eltahawy The Washington Post In deciding to omit the images from a book it is publishing about the controversy sparked by Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, Yale University Press has handed a victory to extremists. Both Yale and the extremists distorting this issue should be ashamed. I say this as a Muslim [...]

I was proud and thrilled when Sen. Edward Kennedy, at a Senate session on human rights, read from an oped I published in the Washington Post about human rights violations in Libya. May he rest in peace.

  UPDATE -MALAYSIAN AUTHORITIES RELEASED KARTIKA ON MONDAY SAYING THE CANING WILL TAKE PLACE AFTER THE END OF RAMADAN. PLEASE WRITE LETTERS OF PROTEST!   Leading women’s rights activists and civil society organizations in Malaysia and around the world are deeply concerned about the current case of Madam Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, who has been [...]

Stifling this conversation can have deadly consequences By Mona Eltahawy Toronto Globe and Mail Sex has ruffled many in the Arab world lately. About time. Just this past week, Saudi Arabia shut down all local operations of a Lebanese TV station that broadcast an interview with a Saudi man who spoke frankly about sex. When [...]

By Mona Eltahawy International Herald Tribune July, hot and usually slow for many of us, was a month of humiliation and pain for 164 Muslim women sentenced to a public flogging for “crimes” as varied and absurd as wearing trousers in public to having sex outside of marriage in countries as far afield as the [...]

I’m an opinion writer and as anyone who puts their opinions out there knows, feedback can be swift and quite harsh. Criticism I can take, disagreement I expect but this kind of vile, misogynistic and racist drivel is beyond any acceptable pale. I will no longer be quiet about the hate mail I receive. Till [...]

I am honoured and happy to have been selected as the 2010 recipient of the Anvil of Freedom Award by the Edward W. and Charlotte A. Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media.

By Mona Eltahawy Published in the Jerusalem Report, Metro Canada, Qatar’s Al Arab and Denmark’s Politiken As a special gift for my 42nd birthday I met two awe-inspiring women in Kuala Lumpur. We were in the Malaysian capital to attend the second gathering of WISE – Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, a program [...]