“If you really want to know a people, start by looking inside their bedrooms.” For the past decade, Shereen El Feki has been travelling across the Arab region, talking to people about sex: what they do, what they don’t, what they think and why. Shereen’s research and advocacy uses sex as a lens to better understand movements on a bigger stage, in politics and economics, religion and tradition, and how these changes are reflected in the miniature of intimate life—and vice versa.
In this interview with religious studies scholar Rachel Brown, Shereen shares her findings and their implications.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Shereen El Feki is the author of Sex and the Citadel:Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World (Penguin Random House, 2013), an award-winning look at the intersection of gender, sexuality, politics, economics and religion across the Arab region. Sex and the Citadel has been translated into half-a-dozen languages, and recently showcased in a series of short films on BBC Arabic/BBC World. As a Regional Director with Promundo, Shereen is currently leading the International Men and Gender Equality Survey, Middle East and North Africa (IMAGES MENA), a ground-breaking study of men, masculinities and gender roles that has surveyed more than 15,000 men and women in seven countries across the Arab region.
Rachel Brown, is the Program Coordinator and Religious Studies Teaching Fellow at UVic’s Centre for Studies in Religion and Society. Her areas of research interest include contemporary Islam, food and identity, lived religion, and migration. Rachel teaches courses on Religion in the News, Everyday Islam, and Religion, Sex and Sexuality.
For more information: https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/csrs/events/index.php