Mona Eltahawy On How Patriarchal Oppression Permeates Society

Hosted by Paul Holdengräber, The Quarantine Tapes chronicles shifting paradigms in the age of social distancing. Each day, Paul calls a guest for a brief discussion about how they are experiencing the global pandemic.

For Mona Eltahawy, one of the biggest lessons she learned from her activism in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution is that the patriarchal system is at the root of all oppression. Today on episode 69 of The Quarantine Tapes, Paul Holdengräber and Mona examine how patriarchal oppression permeates all of society—from the state capitol to the streets and in our homes—and the importance of using our voice to speak out against injustice.

From the interview:

Mona Eltahawy: It’s about more than police brutality. It’s about the systems of oppression that will not leave us to be free, that we must rise up against in order to be free. This is the widest, largest, most incredible protest movement in US history and I absolutely think of it as a revolution.

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Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator and disruptor of patriarchy. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2015) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls (2019) took her disruption worldwide.