What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape

What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape

by SohailaAbdulali (Author), SohailaAbdulali (Author)

Synopsis

Sohaila Abdulali was gang-raped as a teenager in Bombay. Indignant at the deafening silence on the issue in India, she wrote an article for a woman's magazine questioning how we perceive rape and rape victims. Thirty years later she saw the story go viral in the wake of the horrific 2012 Delhi gang rape and the global outcry that followed. This book draws on her own experience, her work with hundreds of survivors as the head of a rape crisis centre in Boston, her research, and three decades of grappling with the issue personally and professionally. What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is about changing the conversation around rape culture, questioning our assumptions, and figuring out how to raise the next generation. Grounding each chapter in an individual story, Sohaila Abdulali looks at what we- women, men, politicians, teachers, writers, sex workers, feminists, sages, mansplainers, victims and families-think about rape and what we say. She asks pertinent questions: Is rape always a life-defining event? Does rape always symbolize something? Is rape worse than death? Is rape related to desire? Who gets raped? Is rape inevitable, like the weather? Is one rape worse than the other? Who rapes? What is consent? How do you recover a sense of safety and joy? How do you raise sons? Who gets to judge? What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is neither a memoir nor an academic study but it is deeply personal and meticulously researched. It is a rallying cry and required reading for us all.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Myriad Editions
Published: 25 Oct 2018

ISBN 10: 1912408066
ISBN 13: 9781912408061

Media Reviews
`Unflinching and nuanced... Her structure is disruptive and powerful for it-never 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 thinker-herself a survivor-to write it. If the #MeToo campaign is to have any lasting impact for change in women's circumstances across the world, it will be because of books such as this' - Preti Taneja; '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; 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape 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. It's a global book, relevant in refugee camps and American suburbs.' - Sarah McNally
Author Bio
SOHAILA ABDULALI was born in Bombay (now Mumbai). She is the author of two novels, The Madwoman of Jogare (HarperCollins, 1998) and The Year of the Tiger (Penguin 2010) as well as children's books, short stories, editorials, columns, and news stories. She writes for the Guardian and other newspapers. She lives in New York with her husband and their daughter.