{"id":19911,"date":"2022-03-08T16:39:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T12:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/?post_type=articles&p=19911"},"modified":"2022-03-09T11:19:13","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T07:19:13","slug":"alya-mooro-womens-day-culture","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/alya-mooro-womens-day-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Really Want To #BreakTheBias, Read Alya Mooro’s Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Courtesy of Alya Mooro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Women have often been told what they can and can’t do, what they should and shouldn’t strive for, but this is particularly true for Arab women. We Arab women have been confined to the boundaries and stereotypes set out by society for centuries, but there’s one woman who has broken those doors against all odds, and is helping others #BreakTheBias.<\/p>\n

Alya Mooro is an Egyptian author of the best selling book, The Greater Freedom: Life as a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes.<\/span><\/em> The London-based writer and author eloquently writes about her own experiences as a female Arab who may not look like – or act like – what some may consider the ideal<\/em> Arab woman. If there is one way to best describe her book, it would be it’s charming, humorous and undeniable relatability. The book is available to purchase worldwide on Amazon<\/a> and in select bookstores.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Greater Freedom by Alya Mooro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Below, enjoy an excerpt taken from The Greater Freedom: Life as a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes.<\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n

“Sometime in the months before I decided I even wanted to write this book, I typed \u2018Arab woman\u2019 into Google, already on a quest for some sort of clarity of \u2018identity\u2019, without really knowing why. I had been in a London taxi and was answering the question that crops up in every cab ride I have ever taken, which was, \u2018Where are you from?\u2019 I gave my usual response: \u2018I was born in Egypt but grew up in London.\u2019 The driver spun around in his seat to get a better look at me and commented that he thought I was Spanish, because Arab women are always veiled. I felt my blood boil and yet, later \u2013 as I typed, and clicked on \u2018images\u2019 \u2013 hundreds of eyes stared back at me, peering from beneath niqabs and hijabs. There were a few belly dancers thrown in here and there too, for good measure.<\/p>\n

I had known subconsciously that this is the general stereotype of what an Arab woman is supposed to look like. This is, after all, pretty much all that is depicted in the media. From the reductive movie characterisations to the news reports on how subjugated and repressed we\u2019re supposed to be (when we\u2019re not terrorists), to the surprise on some people\u2019s faces when I tell them where I\u2019m from and they have to reassess their preconceptions.<\/p>\n

But I was still a little shocked that these images remain prevalent, so pervasive, when I know that there is so much more variety than the stereotype suggests. There are, for example, many Arab women \u2013 just like me \u2013 who seem to be invisible to the Google image search function. Labelling 381 million people from twenty-two countries as monolithic \u2018Arabs\u2019 felt evasive, inaccurate and reductive, as did the assumption that this automatically meant we were all the same.<\/p>\n

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Talking about and unravelling some of the restrictions and expectations placed on Arab women, while also trying to dispel the stereotypes surrounding us, is very hard. It\u2019s going to be impossible, if I\u2019m honest. I\u2019m inevitably going to end up feeding the stereotypes with one hand while I try to dispel them with the other. However, it\u2019s actually not as straightforward as that; there are many layers to everything, and indeed to everyone.<\/p>\n

I wanted to know which aspects of my life were being impacted by this pull of cultures and why. But I also wanted to say \u2018Hi, Mr Taxi Driver, guess what? There are people like me too!\u2019<\/p>\n

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Generally viewed as the \u2018weaker\u2019 sex, we have all been subject to the same socialisation and the same prejudice \u2013 the expectations to look and behave in a certain way. We share a language of stereotypes, socialisation and inequality. Regardless of where we live, where we\u2019re from, the colour of our skin and what we call God if and when we pray to him.<\/p>\n

Throughout the course of this book, I\u2019ll be exploring everything from representation, expectations of how a \u2018good Arab girl\u2019 looks, sounds and acts, and the effects of this on sex and relationships, as well as how it feels to live as a Middle Eastern woman \u2013 albeit an \u2018in- visible\u2019 one \u2013 in a post-Brexit, post-Trump being elected as President world. The word \u2018should\u2019 will come up a lot.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always believed that if you don\u2019t like the story, you should write your own. So, shall we begin?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":30736,"featured_media":19914,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[107,260,35,4025],"yoast_head":"\nIf You Really Want To #BreakTheBias, Read Alya Mooro 's Book<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alya Mooro is an Egyptian author of the best selling book, The Greater Freedom: Life as a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes. 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