Sohaila Abdulali - What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape

The right to our own bodies is the first step in any democracy, and, by that measure, women in generalespecially those of us also de-valued by race, caste or classare still subject to an intimate dictatorship. Read the personal stories in What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape, and see how far we have comeand have yet to go.

Gloria Steinem

Unflinching and nuanced Her structure is disruptive and powerful for itnever letting us forget that there is a person who suffers, a body that gets broken. And, when a body is violated, all of society is at risk. This book could not be more timely, nor could there be a better thinkerherself a survivorto write it. If the #MeToo campaign is to have any lasting impact for change in womens circumstances across the world, it will be because of books such as this.

Preti Taneja, author of We That Are Young, winner of the 2018 Desmond Elliott Prize

This is a vital, eye-opening exploration of a crime which affects too many of us, in often unspoken but always life-changing ways. Sohaila Abdulalis book is an honest, wry, engaging and very human testament to the survivors voice as a necessary tool for change. It is filled will truths that will resonate with millions of usand educate millions more.

Winnie M. Li, author of Dark Chapter

An essential contribution to the current conversation about rape, rape culture, and the personal toll of sexual violence in the world today Abdulali captures the complexity of this disturbing topic with clarity, compassion, and insight. Her prose is, at turns, comforting and enraging, confrontational and engaging, timely and timeless, humane and horrific. Yet, throughout, she focuses on our capacity and responsibility to contribute to a safer, healthier, and more fulfilling world for all. Abdulali teaches us that surviving sexual violence is essentially a creative act, and in her brave book she shares her, and many other, inspiring stories of surviving, thriving, and regaining wholeness.

Richard O. Prum, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, and author of The Evolution of Beauty

Brilliant, frank, empowering, and urgently necessary. A powerful tool for examining rape culture and language on the individual, societal and global level that everyone can benefit from reading.

Jill Soloway

Both hard to read and an amazing, vital read, this is the exact book we all need right nowto do better, we must know more. Empathy is a key character in this book. Sohaila is a brilliant and beautiful writer, and a star and thought leader for our generation.

Alyssa Mastromonaco, author of Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House, and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff

This book is a public square for those who know a lot about rape, and for those who know little. It is a safe space for survivors, and a broad-minded attempt to open the conversation to everyone. Its a global book, relevant in refugee camps and American suburbs.

Sarah McNally, McNally Jackson Books, New York

Know this: the shock is not that Abdulali speaks frankly about rape. The shock is not that she interrogates the content, and limits, of our public discourses about rape culture with candour and warmth, with cool precision and justified rage, with wisdom and, yes, humour. The shock is that there are not more books like this. This is a powerful indictment of the way our socialised silences breed only injustice, fear and disconnection. Abdulali speaks into those voids and misperceptions, using the full register of her humanity in the hope for change. Read it, and do not stop talking.

Dr Sarah Krasnostein, author of The Trauma Cleaner

What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape places the American #MeToo movement in a global context. Drawing on her experiences as a rape survivor and as scholar and advocate, Sohaila Abdulali takes us from the US, to India, South Africa, Mexico, Kuwait, and other countries, providing examples that illustrate both the intense particularity and infuriating similarities of sexual violence around the globe. Courageous, angry, compassionate, informative, hopeful, and wise, this book approaches this hard topic from a variety of angles. She addresses shame and the silencing of survivors, retaliation, victim blaming, the complexities of consent, recovery, and other issues.

Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan

Such a lot of insight in this book. I wish I had written it. An international take on the contemporary movement towards learning to talk about rape. The more we talk, the more we learn. The more we learn, the more we can change. Read this book and be part of the change.

Una, author of Becoming Unbecoming

For Samara, Aidan, and Rafe
Teatime forever