The Wonder Chronicles: 21
The Wonder Chronicles: 21
On Being a Proud Savage
Photo: Kristy Leibowitz
This is part of a running series. Read the previous Wonder Chronicle: On Wandering
September 25 is my oldest nephews’ birthday–he of the “Tante Mona lives at the airport,” fame.
And September 25, 2012 is the day the proud savage in me was born. And arrested.
The morning of that day, I texted a friend in Cairo to let him know that he might not hear from me because I might get arrested.
I had dinner plans that day in 2012 with the poet and co-founder of Ms magazine, feminist Robin Morgan. And I texted her too, to let her know that I might not make it for dinner because I was probably going to get arrested.
I dressed up that day, less for what I knew could be my arrest for being a proud savage and more because my then-agent and I had several interviews with book editors and publishers lined up to pitch my first book, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution.
The object of my proud savagery was an ad in the New York City subway paid for by Pamela Geller and her American Freedom Defense Initiative, conflating "savage" with Palestinian/Muslim/Arab and with "Jihad".
"In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."
If being pro-Israel was “civilized” then I was a proud savage.
I had seen “alternative ads” on social media posted in protest but this hate speech needed confrontation irl. If being pro-Israel was “civilized” then I was a proud savage.
I was one of many proud savages that day.
On a subway platform with my agent as we headed to our first appointment, a television reporter began interviewing me (unaware that I had bigger plans to protest later that day) about what I thought about the ads which had just gone up that morning.
Mid-interview we heard ripping sounds and turned around to see a man in a suit near us tearing down one of the ads.
“This is New York City and this is fucking unacceptable,” he told the reporter.
My last interview that day was in the Flatiron building, near a Home Depot where I planned to buy a spray can for my protest. I told the two book editors I had just met, and who were excited about my book, my plans to spray paint over the piece of shit ad.
I was indeed arrested.
For my jail phone call I couldn’t call my nephew with birthday wishes because he lives out of state.
“Sorry I couldn’t call you for your birthday, habibi,” I told my nephew the next day.
“It’s ok. I know you were arrested.”
In jail overnight, my cellmates and I exchanged reasons for our arrest, Noni dubbed me a “protestitute.”
In 2012, people applauded the NYPD for arresting me. Today, in the face of nearly a year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, I know more would choose to be proud savages.
If “civilization” applauds genocide, become a proud savage! Be a protestitute!
My goal: that you are found by wonder.
My wish: that you intensely live.
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Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator and disruptor of patriarchy. She is editing an anthology on menopause called Bloody Hell! And Other Stories: Adventures in Menopause from Across the Personal and Political Spectrum. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2015) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls (2019) took her disruption worldwide. It is now available in Ireland and the UK. Her commentary has appeared in media around the world and she makes video essays and writes a newsletter as FEMINIST GIANT.
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