Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning columnist and an international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues. She is based in New York.

She is a columnist for Canada's Toronto Star, Israel's The Jerusalem Report and Denmark's Politiken. Her opinion pieces have been published frequently in The Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune and she has appeared as a guest analyst in several media outlets.

Before she moved to the U.S. in 2000, Ms Eltahawy was a news reporter in the Middle East for many years, including in Cairo and Jerusalem as a Reuters correspondent and she reported for various media from Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia and China. Ms Eltahawy was the first Egyptian journalist to live and to work for a western news agency in Israel.

Her public speaking has taken her around the world, including to the first TEDWomen where she spoke about the virtues of confusion in breaking stereotypes of Muslim women.

In 2010 the Anna Lindh Foundation awarded her its Special Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism and the Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media at the University of Denver gave her its Anvil of Freedom Award.

In 2009, the European Union awarded her its Samir Kassir Prize for Freedom of the Press for her opinion writing and Search for Common Ground named her a winner of its Eliav-Sartawi Award for Middle Eastern Journalism.

Ms. Eltahawy is a lecturer and researcher on the growing importance of social media in the Arab world. She has taught as an adjunct at the New School in New York, the University of Oklahoma and the U.N.-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica.

Mona was born on Aug. 1, 1967 in Port Said, Egypt and has lived in the U.K, Saudi Arabia and Israel. She calls herself a proud liberal Muslim. In 2005, she was named a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the American Society for Muslim Advancement and she is a member of the Communications Advisory Group for Musawah, the global movement for justice and equality in the Muslim family.

For speaking fees, write toinfo@monaeltahawy.com

Eltahawy speaking at the 2011 Personal Democracy Forum
Born	August 1, 1967 (age 44) Port Said, Egypt^[1]
Education	American University in Cairo
Occupation	Journalist
Nationality	Egyptian/American
Religious belief(s)	Islam

Mona Eltahawy
(born 1 August 1967, Port Said, Egypt) is a freelance Egyptian-American journalist based in New York.
Eltahawy was educated at the American University in Cairo, from which she has an MA in Journalism.
Before moving from her native Egypt to the United States
in 2000, Eltahawy was a news reporter for a decade. She was a correspondent for Reuters News Agency in
Cairo and Jerusalem, reported from the Middle East for the UK's Guardian newspaper and was a stringer
for U.S. News and World Report.
She wrote a weekly column for the Saudi-owned international Arab publication Asharq Al-Awsat for some
years before her articles were discontinued for being "too critical" of the Egyptian regime, she claimed
in an article written for the International Herald Tribune in 2006.
However, the ban imposed by Asharq Al-Awsat's editor in chief, Tariq Alhomayed, gave Eltahawy a platform
and she now writes essays and op-eds for publications worldwide on Egypt and the Islamic world, including
women's issues and Muslim political and social affairs. Eltahawy is active in the Progressive Muslim Union,
and has been a strong critic of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood. Her work has appeared in the Washington
Post, The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and the Miami Herald among others.
Eltahawy is a frequent guest analyst on U.S. radio and television news shows. She also speaks publicly at
universities, panel discussions and interfaith gatherings on human rights and reform in the Islamic world,
feminism and Egyptian Muslim-Christian relations in addition to her other concerns. From 2002 to 2004, she
was managing editor of the Arabic-language version of Women's eNews, an independent, non-profit news website
that covers women's issues from around the world.
The Economist in 2009 credited Eltahawy with coining the phrase "the opium of the Arabs", referring to "an
intoxicating way for (Arab leaders) to forget their own failings or at least blame them on (Israel). Arab
leaders have long practice of using Israel as a pretext for maintaining states of emergency at home and
putting off reform.
On 24 November 2011, she tweeted (@monaeltahawy) "beaten arrested in interior ministry" amid renewed
protests in Tahrir Square. She was held in custody for 12 hours and accused those who held her of
physical and sexual assault.[4] Her left arm and right hand were fractured.
Eltahawy is a board member of the Progressive Muslim Union of North America.
[edit]Awards & honors

Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press, for opinion writing by the European Commission (2009)
Cutting Edge Prize, for distinguished contribution to the coverage of the Middle East by Next Century Foundation. (2006)
Distinguished Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo (2006)
Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the American Society for Muslim Advancement (2005)

Mona Eltahawy Reportedly Detained, Sexually Assaulted In Egypt

Mona Eltahawy, a prominent U.S.-based Egyptian journalist, reported that she was detained, beaten, and sexually assaulted by Egyptian security forces Wednesday night while reporting on the protests that have gripped Cairo over the past week.

On Thursday morning, Eltahawy began describing her ordeal in a series of tweets on her Twitter account.

She reported that she had been been detained for 12 hours by the interior ministry and military intelligence, during which time she was sexually assaulted by five or six men. "5 or 6 surrounded me, groped and prodded my breasts, grabbed my genital area and I lost count how many hands tried to get into my trousers," she tweeted.

She spent hours blindfolded before finally being released with an apology from military intelligence but no explanation for why she was detained.

After visiting the hospital, she said that her left arm and right hand were broken and tweeted a photoof her casts.

"The past 12 hrs were painful and surreal but I know I got off much much easier than so many other Egyptians," she wrote.

A representative of the U.S. embassy in Cairo told The Guardian that Eltahawy's detention was "very concerning" and that "U.S. embassy consulate officers are engaging Egyptian authorities."

Eltahawy is a freelance journalist based in New York who has written for such publications as The Guardian, The Washington Post, and the International Herald Tribune. She has also blogged for The Huffington Post.

Mona Eltahawy is a US-based Egyptian journalist. Photograph: Observer

The US-based Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy has been released, according to her personal Twitter account, after 12 hours in detention at the hands of Cairo security forces. A later tweet from the account @monaeltahawy said that she was sexually and physically assaulted while being held inside the interior ministry in Cairo, in the early hours of Thursday morning.

A US embassy representative in Cairo told the Guardian that the reports of her detention were "very concerning" and that "US embassy consulate officers are engaging Egyptian authorities".

At 10:30am on Thursday, the former Reuters Middle East correspondent who has been lauded for her recent coverage of the Egyptian uprising, began tweeting that she had spent 12 hours in detention under the authority of interior ministry and military intelligence officials and that she had suffered a serious sexual assault by up to half a dozen members of the Egyptian security forces. She also said that she had been kept blindfolded for hours and also posted a picture of her severely bruised hand and then both her arms in casts.

She also thanked supporters after #freemona began trending around the world on Twitter.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday night, Eltahaway who is a columnist for various papers including the Toronto Star, the Jerusalem Report and Denmark's Politiken, and has also written for the Guardian, described scenes in and around Tahrir Square including news that a family friend of hers had been killed. She ended the message by damning the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) who have control overEgypt's transition.

At approximately 11pm GMT she wrote "Pitch black, only flashing ambulance lights and air thick with gas Mohamed Mahmoud #Tahrir". At around the same time she then described the violence occurring around the gates of the American University in Cairo of which she is an alumnus.

"Across street from AUC gate I used to enter every day Mohamed Mansour. Can't believe it. A cacophony sirens, horns, flashing ambulance lights" In a penultimate tweet she appeared to write "Beaten arrested in interior ministry".

Other journalists are also thought to have been detained on Wednesday night. Eltahawy last wrote for the Guardian on Friday about a young Egyptian female blogger who had decided to post a naked photo of herself on her blog in an act of defiance.

The 44-year-old was born in Port Said, but later lived in the UK, Saudi Arabia and Israel, settling in the US in 2000.

In 2009, the European Union awarded her its Samir Kassir prize for Freedom of the Press, and last year she was awarded the Anna Lindh Foundation's special prize for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism.

The Egyptian embassy in London has yet to comment on her detention.

Mona Eltahawy

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Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning columnist and an international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues. She is based in New York.

She is a columnist for Egypt’s independent daily Al Masry Al Youm, Qatar’s Al Arab and Israel’s The Jerusalem Report. Her opinion pieces have been published frequently in the International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, Denmark’s Politiken and she is a frequent media analyst.

In 2009, the European Commission awarded her Samir Kassir Prize for Freedom of the Press for opinion writing.

Mona was born in Egypt and has lived in the U.K, Saudi Arabia and Israel. She calls herself a proud liberal Muslim. In 2005, she was named a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the American Society for Muslim Advancement. She blogs atwww.monaeltahawy.com/blog.

Known For: Columnist and International Public speaker
Country: United States

About

Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning columnist and an international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues. Ms. Eltahawy writes for Egypt’s independent daily Al Masry Al Youm, Qatar’s Al Arab and Israel’s The Jerusalem Report. Her opinion pieces have been published frequently in the International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, and Denmark’s Politiken. She is a frequent media analyst.

Before she moved to the U.S. in 2000, Ms Eltahawy was a news reporter in the Middle East for many years. She worked in Cairo and Jerusalem as a Reuters correspondent and she reported for various media from Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia and China. In 2006, the Next Century Foundation awarded Ms Eltahawy its Cutting Edge Prize for distinguished contribution to the coverage of the Middle East. In 2009, she was awarded the European Union Samir Kassir Prize for freedom of the press for her opinion writing.

Ms. Eltahawy was born on Aug. 1, 1967 in Port Said, Egypt and has lived in the U.K, Saudi Arabia and Israel. She calls herself a proud liberal Muslim. In 2005, she was named a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the American Society for Muslim Advancement. She is based in New York.