Egyptian-American writer, Mona Eltahawy, has penned a controversial cover article for the latest Foreign Policy magazine, entitled: “Why Do They Hate Us?” In it, she argues that women must finish the revolutions started by the Arab Spring, and a semi-nude woman models a body-paint niqab.

The essay, which covers everything from her describing how she was sexually assaulted during the Egyptian uprisings near Tahrir Square, “by at least four Egyptian riot police,” who broke her left arm and right hand, seeks to conjure up discussion about why Arab societies hate women, and what must now be done.

The issue has been dubbed “The Sex Issue”…

She writes in her essay:

When more than 90 percent of ever-married women in Egypt — including my mother and all but one of her six sisters — have had their genitals cut in the name of modesty, then surely we must all blaspheme. When Egyptian women are subjected to humiliating “virginity tests” merely for speaking out, it’s no time for silence. When an article in the Egyptian criminal code says that if a woman has been beaten by her husband “with good intentions” no punitive damages can be obtained, then to hell with political correctness. And what, pray tell, are “good intentions”? They are legally deemed to include any beating that is “not severe” or “directed at the face.” What all this means is that when it comes to the status of women in the Middle East, it’s not better than you think. It’s much, much worse. Even after these “revolutions,” all is more or less considered well with the world as long as women are covered up, anchored to the home, denied the simple mobility of getting into their own cars, forced to get permission from men to travel, and unable to marry without a male guardian’s blessing — or divorce either.

Eltahawy speaks about the outdated laws women often have to endure:

And says the time for excuses is over:

First we stop pretending. Call out the hate for what it is. Resist cultural relativism and know that even in countries undergoing revolutions and uprisings, women will remain the cheapest bargaining chips. You — the outside world — will be told that it’s our “culture” and “religion” to do X, Y, or Z to women. Understand that whoever deemed it as such was never a woman. The Arab uprisings may have been sparked by an Arab man — Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire in desperation — but they will be finished by Arab women.

Eltahawy spoke to the BBC’s Katty Kay, and said that post-Mubarak Egypt has not provided women with the basic freedoms that all Egyptians asked for during the revolution:

[Source: ForeignPolicy]