Thread by @monaeltahawy

Nada Abdul Maksoud was 14yo. She is dead because of a patriarchal determination to control female sexuality.

#Egypt: THERE IS NO REVOLUTION unless the destruction of patriarchy is at its heart, unless consent & agency are at its heart. google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.…

Too many women in my extended family have been subjected to FGM. It ended in our extended family just before I was born. I am lucky. It is a form of torture that continues today against too many girls in #Egypt, my country of birth. This must end.

Fuck the patriarchy.

It shatters my heart that so many women I love were subjected to #FGM. It shatters it more when I reflect on how much more the pain was knowing their mothers were complicit and what that exacts - of mothers and daughters.Fight the powers behind FGM at all levels, not just mothers

We must fight patriarchy at all levels - community leaders, faith leaders, doctors and practitioners who perform #FGM and parents. #Egypt

- There is NO excuse or justification for #FGM.
- There are ZERO benefits for it.
- It must NEVER be justified as “tradition” or “religious teaching” or anything.
- The goal of FGM is to control female sexuality.
- FGM is a harmful practice that must END. Everywhere.
#EndFGM

When I am asked why mothers continue to subject their daughters to a pain and horror they themselves were subjected to, I suggest the question should be instead “Why do the men of the community continue to insist that girls be subjected to #FGM or else they’re “umarriageable”?”

In 1994 when I was reporting on the UN population conference in #Cairo, an #Egyptian feminist group shared research they’d conducted. One anecdote about FGM and men’s demand for it has stayed with me. #EndFGM

A 17yo bride - who had not been cut - was returned to her mother on her wedding night with a note from the groom: “If you want your daughter to be married, you know what you need to do.” The mother called the traditional midwife and had her daughter cut and returned to the groom.

The above excerpt is from my 1st book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, in which I devote a chapter to #FGM.

These % prove the lie behind "it's women who cut their daughters, it has nothing to do with men." #EndFGM

I wrote this in 2014 about #FGM in #Egypt: Fighting #FGM must be part of the social justice & human dignity revolution that we began in #Egypt in January 2011

nytimes.com/2014/11/17/opi…

I wrote this in 2016 about #FGM: need to break the silence around #FGM by breaking the silence around sex theguardian.com/society/2016/a… #EndFGM

MY HEART IS CRUSHED every time I hear we have lost another girl to #FGM.

ENOUGH!

This torture in the name of patriarchy MUST END.

Fuck the patriarchy and all who uphold it.

#EndFGM #Egypt

How do you explain to a girl in #Egypt that we began a revolution to be free while she has a healthy part of her body cut? THE ONLY BODY PART THE SOLE PURPOSE OF IS PLEASURE.

Whose fucking revolution is that?!

WHO IS THE REVOLUTION FOR? WHO DOES THE REVOLUTION FREE?

Laws are not enough. Countries that have succeeded in lowering the rate of female genital mutilation, like #Senegal, have used varied methods: alternative rites of passage into womanhood, campaigns in which brides and bridegrooms state that they both reject the custom.

The 2008 #Egyptian ban has done little to curb #FGM.

“Medicalized” cutting - done by doctors, as was the case with Nada - was in 2014 at 77% up from 55% 20 yrs previously. google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…

When I interviewed a 53yo FGM survivor in #Cairo for a BBC radio documentary on women and the revolution, she said, “It must be carried out, because that’s the way to maintain the purity of girls”

Mothers must not bear the blame alone. They subject daughters to same harm & pain they themselves experienced because they understand what is required of their daughters in order to be married.Our society must learn to stop brutalizing girls in name of controlling their sex drive

We need nothing short of a recognition that ending #FGM is part of the “social justice & human dignity” revolution that we began in #Egypt. We can better protect our girls when we recognize that those chants of our revolution are essentially demands for autonomy & consent-for all

Our bodies, our stories, our autonomy, our consent, our agency: fuck the patriarchy

There is no revolution unless sexual liberation and gender liberation are at its heart.

#FGM in. #Egypt

https://twitter.com/28toomany/status/1046301182766063616?s=21

#EndFGM