Removing the veil

When she moved from Britain to Saudi Arabia as a teenager, Mona Eltahawy began wearing a hijab in order to avoid being harassed by men. Here she talks about why, at 25, she decided to stop wearing it
Eltahawy with the injuries she suffered at the protests in Cairo, December 2011
Eltahawy with the injuries she suffered at the protests in Cairo, December 2011
DAN CALLISTER/WRITER PICTURES

Nothing prepared me for Saudi Arabia. I was born in Egypt, but my family left for London when I was seven years old. After almost eight years in the UK, we moved to Saudi Arabia in 1982. Both my parents, Egyptians who had earned PhDs in medicine in London, had found jobs in Jeddah, teaching medical students and technicians clinical microbiology. The campuses were segregated. My mother taught the women on the female campus, and my father taught the men on the male campus. When an instructor of the same gender wasn’t available, the classes were taught via closed-circuit television, and the students would have to ask questions using telephone sets. My mother, who had been the breadwinner of the family for our last year