Mona Eltahawy Launches Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls!

October 9, 2019

Mona Eltahawy Launches Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls!
"I’m a big fan of discomfort - that’s your privilege being challenged."

As we launch Mona Eltahawy's Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls this evening, we set the stage for a powerful discussion.

"Where am I safe?"
At what age does my body belong to me?"
"I don’t want to be protected - I want to be free."

"I want women and girls to know that we deserve attention. Demand attention - know that you deserve it. Find ways to defy, disobey, disrupt the patriarchy, but to survive is the number one lesson in all of this."
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"I don’t want to give everything away - you need to read my fucking book."--Mona

On privileging race over gender: "The hijab argument is a really convenient way to distract from what really matters - an entryway into racism. I always wonder what is not being discussed...[while they argue about veils.]"

From the audience: "Rage is so refreshing - it’s like I’m being washed clean."

Mona: "Where is the rage? I’m fucking done with women crying! No more crying - no more calling my senator. They have to fear us." 

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We listen, rapt. "If all attacks on women were reported on the news, it would be recognized for the epidemic - the war - that it is."

From the audience: "What happened to bring you to the sense that this is more effective than conversation? At the risk of pushing people away..."

Mona responds: "My family and I have come a long, long way, but many of those convolutions have come to pass through yelling matches."
"I urge you to consider this: Why are we the ones that have to be careful what we say? To be polite, to
tiptoe around things if they don’t want to listen? I worry that we censor our message."

Thinking back to the time she made #whyisayfuck: “You don’t need to convince them of anything...These polite conversations only privilege those in power."


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As colorful as her setting. "Many women have seen how White Feminism has left them behind."

Further reading: Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard “'We’re not as bad as America!' That kind of delusion and overconfidence that gets Canada off the hook." - on the hierarchy of whose lives matter remains.
Trauma and Recovery by Judith L. Herman: “The legal system was created to protect men from the superior power of the state, not women from the superior power of men.” - noting the notion of optimal violence of Mary Anne Franks.

The crumbs of privilege trickle down to those near whiteness... "I don’t want crumbs - I want the entire fucking cake."
"There’s a hierarchy for men too - I don’t want to be equal, I want to be free."

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The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls

Mona Eltahawy

A bold and uncompromising feminist manifesto that shows women and girls how to defy, disrupt, and destroy the patriarchy by embracing the qualities they've...

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Policing Black Lives

Robyn Maynard

Delving behind Canada’s veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons,...

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Trauma and Recovery

Judith L. Herman

WhenTrauma and Recovery was first published in 1992, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work. In the intervening years, Herman’s volume has changed the...

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