Sun., March 10, 2013, 1:00 pm: Shereen El Feki on Sex in a Changing Arab World

A comedian and a researcher on changing Arab sexual behavior walk into a room. Cairo-based journalist Shereen El Feki explores the changing attitudes of sex and intimacy in the Arab world, in her new book, Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World. As radical changes in political regimes occur, shifts in personal behavior occur at the same time. Ms. El Feki looks at the traditional marriage models in Islam, and how they are changing at a rapid rate. She looks at sex as a lens through which she studies social change,and its relationship to the political upheaval in the past few years. Some Islamic nations have grown more fundamental– but in Egypt, for example, El Feki illuminates a corner of Islamic life that is not fully understood by the West. From sex education in youth to roles and sexuality in marriage, to issues of contraception, use of condoms, abortion, views of homosexuality, and the sex trade, the ground is shifting in Egypt and in other ares of the Arab world. Check out a clip here.  Tickets, $20.  For tickets and more information, click here.  We at Writers Bloc extend great thanks to the Levantine Cultural Center of Los Angeles for their immense help with this important and fun program.