Eltahawy Mona Quotes

Western liberals who rightly condemn imperialism [are] yet are blind to the cultural imperialism they are performing when they silence my critiques of misogyny. They behave as if they want to save my culture and faith from me, and forget that they are immune to the violations about which I speak. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Why is violence significantly less traumatizing than our naked bodies? ~ Mona Eltahawy

Words are important - the fight silence, alienation, and violence. Words are flags planted on the planets of our beings; they say this is mine, I have fought for it and despite your attempts to silence me, I am still here. Just as important, words help us find each other and overcome the isolation that threatens to overwhelm and to break us. Words say we are here. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Now that I'm older, I can see that feeling terrified is how you recognize what you need. Terror encourages you to jump, even when you don't know if you'll ever land ~ Mona Eltahawy

What would the world look like if girls were taught they were volcanoes, whose erruptions were a thing of beauty, a power to behold, a force not to be trifled with? ~ Mona Eltahawy

My own feminist revolution evolved slowly, and traveled the world with me. To this day I have no idea what dissident professor or librarian placed feminist tests on the bookshelves at the university library in Jeddah, but I found them there. They filled me with terror. I understood they were pulling at a thread that would unravel everything. Now that I am older, I can see that feeling terrified is how you recognize what you need. Terror encourages you to jump, even when you don't know if you will ever land. ~ Mona Eltahawy

But it is the job of a revolution to shock, to provoke, and to upset, not to behave or to be polite. ~ Mona Eltahawy

I am DELIGHTED that I upset you so much. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Equality is a practice, it's not just about words, ~ Mona Eltahawy

I'm here to confuse you. Confusion is my right and left hook. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Why were women alone responsible for sheltering men from the sexual desires women supposedly elicited in men? Why could men not control themselves? Why, if men were the ones being tempted, were they not the ones being policed? ~ Mona Eltahawy

When Westerners remain silent out of 'respect' for foreign cultures, they show support only for the most conservative elements of those cultures. Cultural relativism is as much my enemy as the oppression I fight within my culture and faith. ~ Mona Eltahawy

A male editor I once worked with tried to dissuade me from the personal: "Who care about what happened to you?" The most subversive thing a woman can do is talk about her life as if it really matters.

It does. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Why do those men hate us? They hate us because they need us, they fear us, they understand how much control it takes to keep us in line, to keep us good girls with our hymens intact until it's time for them to fuck us into mothers who raise future generations of misogynists to forever fuel their patriarchy. They hate us because we are at once their temptation and their salvation from that patriarchy, which they must sooner or later realize hurts them, too. They hate us because they know that once we rid ourselves of the alliance of State and Street that works in tandem to control us, we
will demand a reckoning. ~ Mona Eltahawy

The god of virginity is popular in the Arab world. It doesn't matter if you're a person of faith or an atheist, Muslim or Christian - everybody worships the god of virginity. Everything possible is done to keep the hymen - that most fragile foundation upon which the god of virginity sits - intact. At the altar of the god of virginity, we sacrifice not only our girls' bodily integrity and right to pleasure but also their right to justice in the face of sexual violation. Sometimes we even sacrifice their lives: in the name of "honor," some families murder their daughters to keep the god of virginity appeased. When that happens, it leaves one vulnerable to the wonderful temptation of imagining a world where girls and women are more than hymens. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Freedom is astonishing and 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 ~ Mona Eltahawy

My escape route was to emphasize the
idea of "choice." If a woman had a
right to wear a miniskirt, surely I had the right to choose my headscarf. My choice was a sign of my independence
of mind. Surely, to choose to wear
what I wanted was an
assertion of my feminism. I was a feminist, wasn't I?
But I was to learn that
choosing to wear the hijab is much easier than choosing to take it off. And that lesson was an important reminder of how truly "free" choice is. ~ Mona Eltahawy

I do wonder, sometimes, if I had had a daughter, how I would have brought her up. How - when it's taken me so long to unlearn the things I believe are most damaging to the cause of women's liberation and equality - would I have raised my daughter to disobey? ~ Mona Eltahawy

To the girls of the Middle East: Be immodest, rebel, disobey, and know you deserve to be free ~ Mona Eltahawy

Misogyny has not been completely wiped out anywhere. Rather, it resides on a spectrum, and our best hope for eradicating it globally is for each of us to expose and to fight against local versions of it, in the understanding that by doing so we advance the global struggle. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Slavish obedience to the clerics, who know how to squeeze every last drop of advantage out of religion, is killing our girls. We must speak-blaspheme, if necessary; be accused of being apostates, if that is what is required. Muslims are taught that Islam put an end to the Arabian practice of burying alive newborn baby girls because they were considered worthless and a burden, but as long as we stay quiet in the face of the abomination of child marriage, we are effectively burying our girls alive today. ~ Mona Eltahawy

...it is imperative to understand how civility, decorum, manners and the like are used to uphold authority...and that we are urged to acqquiesce as a form of maintaining that authority. Whether we are urged to be civil to racists or polite to patriarchy, the goal is the same: to maintain the power of the racist, to maintain the power of the patriarchy. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Saudi women who support the guardianship system - they sadly exist - are foot soldiers of the patriarchy in the same way that white American women voters who voted for Trump uphold white supremacy and its attendant misogyny. Both groups of women mistakenly believe their proximity to power in their respective countries will protect them from the worst ravages of patriarchy. ~ Mona Eltahawy

We will have a reckoning with our culture and religion, with military rulers and Islamists - two sides of one coin. Such a reckoning is essentially a feminist one. And it is what will eventually free us. Women - our rage, our tenacity, our daring and audacity - will free our countries. ~ Mona Eltahawy

No matter how broken you are, you are not too broken for God to fix. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

It seemed to me that there was nothing new to be discovered ever again. Our society was utterly, ruinously derivative (although the word derivative as a criticism is itself derivative). We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can't recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show. ~ Gillian Flynn

Also, since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced. Anyone who understands the work of art owns it. We all own the Mona Lisa. ~ Sol LeWitt

The Swedes must be integrated into the new Sweden , the old Sweden will not return. ~ Mona Sahlin

Empowerment is the most effective and sustainable way to improve the lives of others. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

In Isaac Newton's lifetime, no more than a few thousand people had any idea what he looked like, though he was one of England's most famous men, yet now millions of people have quite a clear idea - based on replicas of copies of rather poorly painted portraits. Even more pervasive and indelible are the smile of Mona Lisa, The Scream of Edvard Munch, and the silhouettes of various fictional extraterrestrials. These are memes, living a life of their own, independent of any physical reality. "This may not be what George Washington looked like then," a tour guide was overheard saying of the Gilbert Stuart painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "but this is what he looks like now." Exactly. ~ James Gleick

The world shouldn't be comprised of people in boxes. Minding their own business. It should be full of people raising their voices, using their power and presence, standing up for what's right. Minding one another's business. That's the world I live in. And that's the world I want to live in. ~ Mona Hanna-Attisha

When a wise woman speaks, smart people listen and learn from her. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

My mother was a single parent, a speech therapist who worked for a company that kept a substantial percentage of the income they billed for her to teach stroke victims in convalescent hospitals to talk again. ~ Mona Simpson

Sometimes we stumble and fall, it doesn't mean we are failures, it simply means we are moving forward. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

Look to the future with appreciation instead of apprehension. ~ Mona Rodriguez

God is so good and His goodness is for our own good. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

In every person's face, there is one place that seems to express them most accurately. With my grandmother, you always looked at her mouth. ~ Mona Simpson

Police are killing black men. Mona Scott-Young is killing black women. ~ Darnell Lamont Walker

The horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it. ~ Ginnifer Goodwin

Like the famous lady in the frame (Mona Lisa), to many we remain a mystery ~ Kris Jenner

you tomorrow, Bruce." The man gave a quick nod and walked away. Maddie watched him make his way through the revolving door. "I'm so glad the new owners of the building kept that revolving door in place. It adds to the charm of the lobby, don't you think?" He gave her an odd look, ~ Mona Ingram

I didn't know much about computers. I still worked on a manual Olivetti typewriter. ~ Mona Simpson

Too many times I'd left him reaching for me, from a babysitter's arms. "Am I still a mother?" I asked myself ... What parts of the day could I cut out and still give him enough? Paul never asked himself that. He thought he was a great dad. ~ Mona Simpson

You need only one taste of madness, and the timeless journey can be spent in thoughts that follow behind like the fiery tail of a comet. And this glowing chaos, the soul will carry under the linings of its peace, to weave beautiful memories with. ~ Mona Soorma

She arched and farted like Mona Lisa if you really looked at her and for good fruitarian measure. ~ Joseph McElroy

My life, my soul is anything but finished hence it is not perfect. Only masterpieces are finished and could be considered perfect. So unless you are a "David" or a "Requiem" or perhaps a "Mona Lisa" you are not perfect. We'll be prone to errors and we will make mistakes. But at least these allow us to become something closer to perfection. ~ Daniel Gyorki

There is no harm in doing no harm to others. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

We are not governed by armies or police, but by ideas. ~ Mona Caird

A woman is like the colour of the rainbow, very colourful and so beautiful. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

If they stay away during your hard times, they should also stay away during your great times. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

In politics, arts / no issue's dramatic / nor will 'play' till its heart's / simplified to fanatic. ~ Mona Van Duyn

They do not deserve you, if they desert you in times of distress. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

And yes, okay, I think she's pretty, but so? Lots of people, places and things are pretty. The Mona Lisa is pretty but you don't see me crushing on her. ~ J.C. Lillis

Your best will never be good enough, to the ones constantly searching for your flaws. But for you to be the best, you need to ignore your flaws and do your best. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

Writers collect stories of rituals: John Cheever putting on a jacket and tie to go down to the basement, where he kept a desk near the boiler room. Keats buttoning up his clean white shirt to write in, after work. ~ Mona Simpson

A woman of peace knows which battles to fight and which ones to leave. Her intent is not to fight people, but to live a peaceful life. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

'Casebook' is my attempt at a love story. I had a vision of a difficult love. ~ Mona Simpson

You mind is like a gold mine, if you dig deep you will find something golden. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

Mona ... lots of things are more binding than sex. They last longer too. ~ Armistead Maupin

Life is a jungle, and we may not always have a map for it. Sometimes, it is for the best
to get lost and make a house of hope in the middle of nowhere and let the sky and the stars lead you wherever your soul desires.
Hope itself is light enough to illuminate the dark paths. ~ Mona Soorma

God is always in control, even when you lose control of yourself or any situation; nothing changes His position. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

You fought well on Mona, my Mules, but I have brought you here for a little more javelin practice.' The words carried along the line and Valerius could see men grinning at the unlikely familiarity. 'Those who stand before you have murdered, tortured and raped Roman citizens, men, women and children; innocents whose only crime was to attempt to bring civilization to this land. They butchered and mutilated your comrades of the Ninth, and the brave veterans of Colonia who fell defending the Temple of Divine Claudius.' He paused and the silence was filled by a growl, like an enormous dog gathering itself for the attack. 'We offered them our friendship, our trust and our aid, and they took all with smiles of thanks, but when we turned our backs they reached for the knife and the sword and the spear, as is their way. They believe you are already defeated.' 'No!' The massed roar carried across the valley and echoed from the banks. 'They are the true face of barbarism. They are your enemy. They show no mercy and they deserve no mercy. Give them none. For Rome!'
'For Rome!' The words erupted from ten thousand throats and Valerius felt the ice in his belly melt and the first stirrings of life return to his heart.
'For Rome,' he whispered. ~ Douglas Jackson

Be faithful till the end. In the end, you will be fruitful. ~ Gift Gugu Mona