Thread by @monaeltahawy

Freedom is astonishing & breathtaking. Freedom is terrifying when those who insist on that freedom are those whose submission you have been socialized into believing is your bequeathed right.

For 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring, new essay on Thursday feministgiant.com/p/coming-soon?…

This week is the 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring.

This is the dedication of my book:

To the girls of the Middle East and North Africa: Be immodest, rebel, disobey, and know you deserve to be free. #FeministRevolution

“Rise up, women wake up! As in the struggle workers are engaged in against capitalists to break down the class system, our demands for freedom and equality with men...will not be won if we do not raise our voices, if no blood is shed.”
- Kanno Sugako, 1906 #FeministRevolution

You had better understand once and for all that our mission is not reducible to raising your children & washing your clothes and that we also have a right to emancipate ourselves and to be free from all kinds of tutelage, whether economic or marital.
- La Voz de la Mujer, 1896

Equality is a practice, it’s not just about words, about having a nice clause in a constitution. Women are fighting many different types of extremism: economic extremism, cultural extremism, and various forms of violence.
- Fatma Jgham, Tunisia, 2014

The real difference will come when I feel safe everywhere I go. If I stand here in the street, do you really respect me as a woman, can you guarantee my safety?
- Fatma Jgham, Tunisia, 2014
#FeministRevolution

All these compañeros, however radical they may be in cafes, unions, even (Anarchist) groups, seem to drop their costumes as lovers of female liberation at the doors of their homes.
- Lola Iturbe, Mujeres Libres, 1935

When people took to the streets Dec. 2010...they were calling for employment,freedom,dignity.I think they weren't ready to accept freedom means all freedoms...women's freedom,sexual freedom,individual freedom.They're not ready for such a revolution
- Lina Ben Mhenni, Tunisia,2014

It is the job of a revolution to shock, to provoke, and to upset, not to behave or to be polite.
- Me, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

“Our political revolutions will not succeed unless they are accompanied by revolutions of thought — social, sexual, and cultural revolutions that topple the Mubaraks in our minds as well as our bedrooms.”

I wrote this in 2012 foreignpolicy.com/2012/04/23/why…