The Mosaic Rooms is pleased to present an evening of discussing taboos and changing sexual mores in the Arab World with Shereen El Feki, Brian Whitaker, Daniel L. Newman and Malu Halasa.

Sex is entwined in politics and economics, religion and tradition, gender and generations, making it a powerful lens to examine the Arab region’s complex landscape. As political change sweeps the streets and squares, parliaments and presidential palaces is a sexual shake-up next in line? Join our panelists  to explore the rich history of Arabic erotica, today’s troubled sexual climate, and what the future holds at this pivotal time of transition.

Shereen El Feki is a writer, broadcaster and academic who started her professional life in medical science before going on to become and award-winning journalist in The Economist and a presenter with Al Jazeera English. Her book Sex and the Citadel has been nominated for The Guardian first book award 2013. Read more.

Brian Whitaker is a former Middle East editor of the Guardian. He is the author of Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East (Saqi, 2011) and What’s Really Wrong with the Middle East (Saqi, 2009).

Daniel L. Newman is a Professor of Arabic at Durham University. He is the translator of Sensual Delights of the Heart: A Tale of Mediaeval Arabic Erotica and The Sultan’s Sex Potions: Arab Aphrodisiacs in the Middle Ages.

Malu Halasa is an editor and journalist covering the culture and politics of the Middle East. She has co-edited Creating Spaces of Freedom; Culture in Defiance (2002), Kaveh Golestan: Recording the Truth in Iran (2007) and The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy (2008).

Buy ‘The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie’ here.

Buy ‘Sex and the Citadel’ here

FREE, rsvp@mosaicrooms.org

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