For this flagship opening night event, leading writers from around the globe presented their worst- and best-case scenarios for where the world may be in the year 2050, offering insights they haven’t yet published, and the opportunity to consider how our future is intimately tied to our present. In conjunction with Egypt’s Revolution Day—celebrated today, June 23—listen to an excerpt from Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy’s speech at the opening night of the 2015 World Voices Festival in today’s PEN podcast. Eltahawy’s essays and op-eds on Egypt, the Islamic world, and women’s rights have appeared in The Washington Post and The New York Times. She has appeared as a guest commentator on MSNBC, BBC, CNN, PBS, Al-Jazeera, NPR, and dozens of other television and radio networks. She lives in Cairo, and is the author of Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, released this year by FSG.
