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.

Longlisted for the Guardian first book award, this is a fascinating, groundbreaking look at sexual attitudes and behaviours in the Arab world, against the backdrop of this decade's popular uprisings

About the Author

Shereen El Feki is a writer, broadcaster, and academic who started her professional life in medical science before going on to become an award-winning journalist with The Economist and a presenter with Al Jazeera English. She is former vice-chair of the UN's Global Commission on HIV and the Law, as well as a TED Global Fellow. Shereen writes for a number of publications, among them the Huffington Post. With roots in Egypt and Wales, Shereen grew up in Canada; she now divides her time between London and Cairo.

www.sexandthecitadel.com

Reviews
Important, brave and necessary * Naomi Wolf *
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 *


Awards
Short-listed for Guardian First Book Award 2013 (UK). Long-listed for Orwell Prize 2014 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9780099526384
Author Shereen El Feki
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 268g
Dimensions(mm) 199mm * 130mm * 26mm