Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Oct 4, 2018 16 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
“Women for Trump” aka Footsoldiers of the Patriarchy
These “Women for Trump”:
- Who indoctrinated them?
- Who taught them to submit to men?
- Why are they so brainwashed?
- Should I save them?
For decades, I’ve been asked by white people:
- What is wrong with Muslim women?
- Why do they put up with all that patriarchy and misogyny?
And here I am asking the same about these “Women for Trump” who are the 53% of white American women voters who voted for him.
Imagine if these “Women for Trump” were Muslim women. Imagine the headlines that would be written. Imagine the tsk-tsking about Muslim women who submit to oppression, vote against their own interests, etc etc
I’ve written lots about patriarchy & misogyny in my cultural & faith background & I’ve never asked anyone to “save us.” No one saves you. You save yourself.When - always a white - woman at my events asks me “what can I do to help women in the Middle East”I say”Nothing.Fight here”
It’s always easier for - always white - women to wonder how to help women “over there”than to ask how to fight for women “over here.”White patriarchs love to play “You should be grateful to live in America. It’s shit over there for women.” Yeah, it’s shit “over here” too, Mr. Man
It was esp rich when a white woman in Texas asked me “How can I help women in Egypt?” Ha! I reminded her how awful it is for women in Texas. Woman sitting next to her reminded her how awful Texas was re militarism & Christian fundamentalism.
God, guns, white men: that’s what’s indoctrinated these white women & because they’re white it’s not seen as indoctrination it’s considered “normal,” the default, “how things are.” While their equivalents in Muslim/other backgrounds are “abnormal” “brainwashed” and pathologized
A white woman in Midwest once asked my sister-in-law (an OBGYN physician who wears a headscarf) “Does your husband make you wear that?” pointing to her headscarf. Total fucking stranger in the supermarket. This Midwest state is full of white women Trump voters. Ah irony!
And so my sister-in-law has her answer ready now: “Does your husband make you vote for Trump?” My sister-in-law takes shit from no one, especially these white women Trump supporters.
And I promise you TwitterLand, much like the instant experts on Islam & Mideast who after a week in the region write books explaining us to ourselves, I shall write my book explaining white women to themselves. After 18 years in the USA, I’ve earned it.
#MakePatriarchyFearYou
To clarify: I am not pitting women vs women. We are all oppressed by patriarchy but some women accept crumbs from that patriarchy in return for becoming its footsoldiers. Nothing protects you from patriarchy. Stay out of my way. Patriarchy is my target.
#MakePatriarchyFearYou
Those “Women for Trump” have accepted the benefits of white supremacy in return for being footsoldiers of patriarchy. They hurts us all. #MakePatriarchyFearYou
My sister just alerted me to the Bette Mildler fuckery. White women: JUST STOP. The above is part of my daily lectures to get you to STOP this fuckery.

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More from @monaeltahawy

Oct 8, 2018
This is how propaganda for the patriarchy works: it paints women who have been sexually assaulted as the criminals and men who have assaulted as the victims as a strategy to divert sympathy from the former to the latter. For example:
Popaganda for the patriarchy insists that we look at the men who sexually assault as “our brothers, sons, husbands,” rather than seeing the women they assault as “their sisters, daughters, wives” so as to divert sympathy from the latter to the former
Propaganda for the patriarchy succeeds in making people identify with and rally around the patriarchy
Read 8 tweets
Oct 7, 2018
I have barely slept.I have been unable to stop thinking about #JamalKhashoggi. I knew him from when we both were columnists for #Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat b4 I was banned.We met just once, I think. But reports yest of his killing came same day as #Kavanaugh & my worlds collided
Trump has emboldened so many dictators,esp Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman.With so much attention been sucked up by US,the killing of Jamal,who wasn’t an esp outspoken critic,is sure to embolden regimes further & signal to dissidents & opponents that their harm will go unnoticed
To think that you could go to your country’s consulate to get paperwork for an upcoming wedding and be killed and dismembered because of your writing is horrific. It’s evil. And to know that the regime responsible for that has a best friend in the most powerful country in earth!
Read 22 tweets
Oct 6, 2018
Whatever happens today:
- Trump did not invent white supremacy or patriarchy.
- White supremacy and patriarchy will not end if Kavanaugh is not confirmed.
- Defy, disobey and disrupt white supremacy and patriarchy at every turn
- Make them fear you
#MakePatriarchyFearYou
My message is to white Americans who will spend today saying:
- “This isn’t the America I know” - it is and has been for a very long time and you should be asking why you just now paid attention. Where have you been?
To white American women who’ll spend today saying:
-“Roe v Wade! No more rapists in power!”
Rapists have been in power for centuries.Ask indigenous & Black women.Anti-choice legislation in several states already made abortion nearly impossible for many women of colour,poor women
Read 9 tweets
Oct 5, 2018
For too long rape and sexual violence during war was considered a byproduct of conflict. It is more and more finally being seen as weapon of war, not byproduct.
In 2016, my friend & journalist @AhNidzara took me to Vilna Vlas, a hotel & spa in Višegrad which was used as a rape concentration camp in 1992 during Bosnian war. Women & girls were raped individually & en masses in empty swimming pool. It is still being used as a hotel and spa.
In 2017, I went with France-based anti-racist activists from @EGAMofficial to Rwanda to take part in the commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsis. Rape was used as a weapon of war systematically against women who were also mitigated, and many killed.
Read 10 tweets
Oct 2, 2018
Once again: white women never missing a chance to be footsoldiers of patriarchy:
Believe Blasey Ford: 46%
Believe Kavanaugh: 43%
- Quinnipiac University poll
h/t @Jteisele
Believe Blasey Ford:
Black people polled: 83%
Hispanic people polled: 66%
White people polled: 40%
The rot of white patriarchy:
White men
Believe Blasey Ford: 33%
Believe Kavanaugh: 57%
Read 15 tweets
Oct 1, 2018
Look what Trump does to a female reporter part one
Look what Trump does to a female reporter part two
That female reporter who jumped in willingly to ask a “question on trade” after Trump shut down the female reprter asking a question about Kavanaugh: shame on you! When you see a fellow reporter demeaned & shut down like that, ask the Q Trump refuses to answer until he answers!
Read 7 tweets

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