
Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World (Paperback)
Shereen El Feki (author)Published: 23/01/2014

Investigating the multitude of political, religious, generational and economic elements entwined with sex and sexuality, El-Feki’s book is a fresh and frank portrait of intimate life in the Arab world.
Shortlisted for the Guardian first book award and longlisted for the Orwell Prize
'Important, brave and necessary' Naomi Wolf
If you really want to know a people, start by looking inside their bedrooms.
As political change sweeps the streets and squares, parliaments and presidential palaces of the Arab world, Shereen El Feki has been looking at upheaval a little closer to home - in the sexual lives of men and women in Egypt and across the region. The result is an informative, insightful and engaging account of a highly sensitive, and still largely secret, aspect of Arab society.
Sex is entwined in religion and tradition, politics and economics, gender and generations, so it makes the perfect lens for examining the region's complex social landscape. From pregnant virgins to desperate housewives, from fearless activists to religious firebrands, Sex and the Citadel takes a fresh look at the sexual history of the Arab region and gives us unique and timely insight into everyday lives in a part of the world that is changing in front of our very eyes.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9780099526384
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 266 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 23 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Remarkable... Sex and the Citadel should be celebrated - not least for freeing voices silenced by a mixture of taboo and political repression. It provides crucial oxygen for discussions that will need more airing in the long, conflicted years ahead -- Rachel Halliburton * Independent on Sunday *
Compelling, revelatory... No one can be sure where the Arab awakening will lead now -- towards fiercer sexual controls or a slight relaxing of them. The one thing El Feki is sure of is that there will be no seismic shifts. This will be evolution, not revolution -- Jenni Russell * Sunday Times (Culture) *
Fascinating -- Daisy Goodwin * Mail on Sunday *
Frequently eye-popping... The stories emphasise just how bewildering the issue of sex has become across the Middle East -- Nicholas Blincoe * Daily Telegraph *
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