the essential mona eltahawy explains in the jerusalem post how she was born a post-67 egyptian, became a feminist in saudi arabia, a liberal, secular Muslim in Israel and soon after a bumble bee.
I returned to Egypt at the age of 21. Those 14 years away had erased any memory of what it meant to be an Egyptian. What now? An early lesson in the elasticity of identity and how we knead and shape it into what we need. I couldn’t be an “Egyptian” – who defined that anyway? – and instead surrounded myself by like-minded people of equally elastic identity.
she moved to israel for a year and discovered:
an early lesson that fundamentalists are the same everywhere and in every religion.
in her 30s she attempted to settle but:
I didn’t reckon with my innate wanderlust – for which I blame my parents and their love of uprooting us – and with my latent desire to run, run, run – for which I blame those six years in Saudi Arabia, which felt like a life sentence. So I struck a bargain with New York City, the only place that has managed to unseat London as the queen of my heart.
Here’s our deal – NYC is the ultimate understanding lover. The more she understands my need to stray the more likely I will return to her, my perfect honeycomb. But I don’t stray out of greed. I’m a woman on a mission. Or rather a bumble bee. Over the past 10 months I have lectured in eight different countries. Or to put it more romantically, I have bounced and flitted between eight different flowers, picking pollen from one to leave on another. And, occasionally, I sting.
mona’s article resonated on many levels. having lived in dubai (the land of elastic identity), london and now cairo making them all homes that i would happily never return to, i’ll be a bumble bee. (plus new york has been my greatest love affair thusfar).