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    What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape
    What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape
    What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape
    Ebook240 pages3 hours

    What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape

    By Sohaila Abdulali

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is brilliant, frank, empowering, and urgently necessary. Sohaila Abdulali has created a powerful tool for examining rape culture and language on the individual, societal, and global level that everyone can benefit from reading."
    —Jill Soloway

    In the tradition of Rebecca Solnit, a beautifully written, deeply intelligent, searingly honest—and ultimately hopeful—examination of sexual assault and the global discourse on rape told through the perspective of a survivor, writer, counselor, and activist

    After surviving gang-rape at seventeen in Mumbai, Sohaila Abdulali was indignant about the deafening silence that followed and wrote a fiery piece about the perception of rape—and rape victims—for a women's magazine. Thirty years later, with no notice, her article reappeared and went viral in the wake of the 2012 fatal gang-rape in New Delhi, prompting her to write a New York Times op-ed about healing from rape that was widely circulated. Now, Abdulali has written What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape—a thoughtful, generous, unflinching look at rape and rape culture.

    Drawing on her own experience, her work with hundreds of survivors as the head of a rape crisis center in Boston, and three decades of grappling with rape as a feminist intellectual and writer, Abdulali tackles some of our thorniest questions about rape, articulating the confounding way we account for who gets raped and why—and asking how we want to raise the next generation. In interviews with survivors from around the world we hear moving personal accounts of hard-earned strength, humor, and wisdom that collectively tell the larger story of what rape means and how healing can occur. Abdulali also points to the questions we don't talk about: Is rape always a life-definining event? Is one rape worse than another? Is a world without rape possible?

    What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is a book for this #MeToo and #TimesUp age that will stay with readers—men and women alike—for a long, long time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe New Press
    Release dateNov 27, 2018
    ISBN9781620974759
    Author

    Sohaila Abdulali

    Sohaila Abdulali was born in Mumbai and moved to the United States with her family when she was a teenager. Since then, she has lived in both countries. She has a BA from Brandeis University in economics and sociology and an MA from Stanford University in communication. Her undergraduate thesis dealt with the socio-economics of rape in India. She is the author of two novels as well as children's books and short stories. Her writing frequently appears in The Guardian and other newspapers. She lives in New York with her husband and their daughter.

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    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Title: What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape Author: Sohaila AbdulaliPublisher: The New PressReviewed By: Arlena DeanRating: FiveReview:"What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape" by Sohaila AbdulaliMy Thoughts...This was definitely one incredible read where one will get a wide range of topics under this subject: RAPE. This well written novel will cover this subject from a 'political opinion, factual evidence and personal narratives' that is a easy read even though its a heavy topic with some horrible stories. I definitely found this information definitely eye opening as well as terrifying in what went on. Again, I will say this was quite a read where Sohaila Abdulali will draw one into her own 'experience that she had with rape and its aftermath.' This subject will not be a easy novel to read but in the end one will get a full understanding of what these survivors went through and yet it 'sends a message of empowerment for women.'Thank you to both NetGalley and The New Press for my ARC of this book.
    • 5/5
      I was mesmerized by the first page. This book illustrates the true conformity that people have succumbed to in order to simply exist. Abdulali is compassionate and direct in understanding people’s inability to change due to so many circumstances. She shows that regardless of fear, we must all fight against the “social norms” that we have allowed to continue in this still patriarchal society. Take the time to reflect and ask yourself if you are the type of person who will blame a victim of sexual crime, or who understands that it’s a crime but believes that change will never come; especially if you are a woman. We must hold people accountable, including ourselves. Rape is not a woman’s issues, it is a human being’s issue. Even with the strong direct language, this book is not a preach, it is a true word of experience and hope that tomorrow no person will endure the trauma of this horrible crime.

    Book preview

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

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