I Killed Scheherazade

Joumana Haddad is angry. She finds the West’s portrayal of Arab women appalling and the image projected by many Middle Eastern women infuriating. “Being an Arab today means you need to be a hypocrite,” Haddad boldly states. “We constantly and obsessively think about sex but dare not talk about it.” In I Killed Scheherazade, Haddad challenges prevalent notions of Arab womanhood and, in the process, shatters the centuries-old stereotype of Scheherazade, the virgin heroine of The Arabian Nights who won the king’s affections. Fiery and candid, this provocative exploration of what it means to be an Arab woman today will enlighten and inform a new international feminism.