The hill I will die on: Bum gun, bidet or shattaf – whatever you call it, install one now | Mona Eltahawy

Key Highlights

• He bounds on to the stage after using the bathroom, and the couple yell at him, “Go back and wash your ass!”Like that couple, and Threesome’s playwright, Yussef El Guindi, I’m Egyptian.
• In Egypt, bathrooms in every home, as well as those in public buildings, are fitted with some kind of contraption for washing after using the toilet: a bidet, a standalone low oval basin next to the toilet that one straddles – or, more popularly, a shattaf, a fixture in the toilet itself through which water streams out.
• Sometimes, the shattaf is a small showerhead attached to the wall next to the toilet.
• I’ve recently learned that its name in English is a bum gun.
• It’s my favourite kind of shattaf, because you can control the water pressure. But in Egypt, bidet or shattaf, everyone washes their ass. And now, washing after you use the toilet might finally take off in the US thanks to the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and his wife, Rama Duwaji, who recently moved into their official residence, Gracie Mansion, where they plan to install bidets.