Egyptian-born columnist and lecturer Mona Eltahawy argues in favour of the proposed French ban on the burka in public; actor and playwright Stephanie Street takes the opposite view The Observer, Sunday 21 March 2010 YES: Mona Eltahawy Egyptian-born columnist and lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues As a Muslim woman and as a feminist I [...]

The Jerusalem Report March 29, 2010 When I read that Egypt’s Journalist Union had punished two senior Egyptian editors – one a member of the country’s ruling party and the other an expert on Jewish affairs for violating its ban on contacts with Israel, I wondered if Omar Sharif ever thinks of me. My nemesis [...]

Menstruation Haiku Bleeding vagina– another month not pregnant. Time to celebrate. -Vi ________________________________________ Menstruation By Anonymous As I write this, I am currently going through that time of the month. There is a dull pain in my abdomen, lower back and thighs, but I am able to think, articulate, reason and live, perfectly well! When [...]

The Morning I Became a Woman By Roxanne, Brooklyn, NY Women gathered around my bed first time she came to me I was young, eleven Did not quite understand the diversity of emotions before me: Tenderness, happiness…sympathy “You’re a woman now,” my grandmother said I was just embarrassed at the sudden attention It felt like….nothing [...]

Menstruation By Anonymous There’s a joke that goes something like this: how do you trust something that bleeds once a month and doesn’t die? Funny that menstruation is now our weakness when earlier it was our power, what connected us in a life-cycle with the moon. The men knew so little then… But they know [...]

I Don’t Menstruate, But… By Jacob Steele 1. Fag. Faggot. Queer. Cocksucker. Dicklicker. Dyke. Carpetmuncher assmuncher ass-spelunker. Assfuck asswad gaywad fuckwad fucktard retard reject fuckhead dickhead asshat candy ass pansyass sissyboy ladyboy fucktoy oh boy. 2. Scrotum. Clitoris. Vagina. Penis. Anus. Rectum. Prostate. Labia Minora, Labia Majora. Semen. Clitoral hood. Anal sex. Vaginal sex. Oral [...]

Here are some of the essays and poems women have sent me. I publish them in the order I received them and with much gratitude to their writers. Thank you! By Anonymous Periods. I wish it would be just a dot or handful of dots in my life. It is anything but a dot as [...]

Happy International Women’s Day! I am launching a series of essays and poems women have sent to me to protest how menstruation is used against women. It was inspired by a young Egyptian woman called Eman Hashim who wrote to tell me via Twitter that at a demonstration she attended in support of women judges [...]