Book Talk with Yasmin El-Rifae – Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution
CCAS and the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies present a book talk discussing Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution.
In 2012, the joyful hopes of the democratic Egyptian Revolution were tempered by revelations of mass sexual assault in Tahrir Square in Cairo, the revolution’s symbolic birthplace. Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution is the story of the women and men who formed Opantish—Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment—who deployed hundreds of volunteers, scouts, rescue teams, and getaway drivers to intervene in the spiraling cases of sexual violence against women protesters in the square. Organized and led by women during 2012–2013—the final, chaotic months of Egypt’s revolution—teams of volunteers fought their way into circles of men to pull the woman at the center to safety. Often, they risked assault themselves. Register here.
Yasmin El-Rifae is a writer and editor. Her first book, Radius, a narrative history of a militant feminist group within the Egyptian revolution, will be published by Verso in 2022. She recently moved to London from Cairo, where she worked with the independent newspaper Mada Masr. She is also a co-producer of the Palestine Festival of Literature.