I'm Here to Confuse You
The cultural nuances that must be negotiated as one moves from country to country are massive, and Mona found herself growing up in countries with starkly different values of women's rights and self expression.
I'm Here to Confuse You
On a random Tuesday, I found myself in the depths of TED Archives on YouTube, skimming through the usual content. When I heard “I am a Muslim, I am a feminist, and I am here to confuse you,” I looked at the video to put a face to the accent, only to see a light brown woman, without a hijab, trying to confuse me?
She explained how instead of being governed by secular civil law, certain countries in The Middle East are governed by "personal status law," or Islamic law. These outdated regulations fail to protect women against child marriage, marital rape, domestic violence or inequality in divorce and child custody. More, she says Islam is a religion of peace that often gets twisted, and its victims are women. To Eltahawy, the seed of corruption is clear: intertwining culture and religion.
People argue that it is difficult to find feminism in monotheism, and that a patriarchy is automatically created through that structure. But somebody like me can understand that the only way Mona could actually puncture politics is by sticking to her label; shedding Islam is not only taboo, it is prohibited. In fact, this video was posted 7 years after it was recorded, "they wouldn't post my video back in 2011 because they said 'it might upset Muslims.'" Yes... it takes that long to spread radical ideas to an audience like that. Everybody needs a lot more context from Mona.