Mona Eltahawy (Arabic: منى الطحاوى, IPA: [ˈmonæ (ʔe)t.tˤɑˈħɑːwi]; born August 1, 1967) is a freelance Egyptian-American[2] journalist and social commentator based in New York City.

She has written essays and op-eds for publications worldwide on Egypt and the Islamic world, on topics including women's rights, patriarchy, and Muslim political and social affairs.

[3][4][5][6] Eltahawy has spoken publicly at universities, panel discussions and interfaith gatherings on human rights and reform in the Islamic world, feminism and Egyptian Muslim–Christian relations, among other concerns.

[11][15] She wrote a weekly column for the Saudi-owned, London-based international Arab publication Asharq Al-Awsat from 2004 to 2006 before her articles were discontinued by editor Tariq Alhomayed for being "too critical" of the Egyptian regime.

[20] Eltahawy's first book, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, was published in the United States on April 21, 2015, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Covering the protests at Tahrir Square, she was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted by Egyptian riot police, breaking both of her arms.

[26] In 2009, The Economist said Eltahawy used the phrase "the opium of the Arabs" referring to Israel, describing, as the magazine elaborated, "an intoxicating way for them to forget their own failings or at least blame them on someone else.

Arab leaders have long practice of using Israel as a pretext for maintaining states of emergency at home and putting off reform.

In a May 2012 article in Foreign Policy, she wrote, "Name me an Arab country, and I'll recite a litany of abuses [of women] fueled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend.

[30] In a 2012 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) interview with Piya Chattapadhyay, Eltahawy "says being civil, respectful and polite are ineffective, and instead women must harness the seven qualities — or "necessary sins" — of anger, attention, ambition, power, profanity, violence and lust."