Thread by @monaeltahawy

An Egyptian friend and I yesterday talked at length yesterday at how enthralled we are at the feminist revolution in Iran; especially that it centres feminism in the way ours in Egypt did not. We are thrilled that it will change the region and the world! feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-…

The in the Arabic-speaking countries were sparked by a man — Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor–who set himself on fire and in so doing sparked revolutions and uprisings in the region that have stumbled and remain incomplete.

And here now are women in Iran reigniting our revolutionary hearts with the feminism those Arab uprisings lacked.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-… #Mahsa_Amini #IranRevoIution

Iran is not an Arab country but here come the women there to take up the baton, not by self-immolation but by setting alight a tool of their Patriarchy; a tool many other women in the countries around Iran recognize all too well. #Mahsa_Amini #IranProtests2022

There's a reason my first book--about the multiple revolutions women need--is called Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution.

And why I dedicated it to girls feministgiant.com/p/essay-when-g… #Mahsa_Amini #IranRevoIution

When I was writing Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, I would hear from some men that it “wasn’t the time for feminism.” 
“Men aren’t free either, you know,” these men would tell me.

And my answer would always be, “Indeed, the State oppresses us all, men and women. However, together the State, the Street, and the Home oppress women.”
#Mahsa_Amini #IranRevoIution

In too many revolutions women have died, been beaten, shot at, and sexually assaulted, fighting alongside men to rid their countries of that uppercase Patriarch yet so many lowercase patriarchs still oppress us. 

feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-… #Mahsa_Amini #IranRevoIution

It is the revolution against that Trifecta of Patriarchy—State, Street, Home—that will liberate us all.

Do you think those schoolgirls in Iran will ever be the same, their eruptions magnificent and monumental?

feministgiant.com/p/essay-when-g… #Mahsa_Amini #IranProtests2022

A feminist revolution targets patriarchy in the State, Street, and the Home because it recognizes that there is no liberation without sexual liberation, gender liberation, queer liberation. It states as a revolutionary statement: I own my body, not the State, Street, Home. I do.

A feminist revolution dares to imagine liberation from the militarism of the State and from its echo in the conservatism of the Street and the Home. A feminist revolution recognizes that the hardest revolution of all is the one at the Home, because all dictators go home.

And a feminist revolution disobeys all those who insist “People are not ready,” because as revolutionaries we must recognize that if our communities are ready for us, we are too late.

Are you ready? feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-… #Mahsa_Amini #IranRevoIution

So many typos, missing words, and repeated words in the above thread because I’m thinking faster than I can type!

Anyways!

Follow and support my work here. It’s free to subscribe—no paywall or ads.

If you can pay, it helps to keep it free feministgiant.com