Shortlisted for theGuardianfirst 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 Citadeltakes 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.

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 withThe Economistand a presenter withAl JazeeraEnglish. She is former vice-chair of the UNs Global Commission on HIV and the Law, as well as a TED Global Fellow. Shereen writes for a number of publications, among them theHuffington Post. With roots in Egypt and Wales, Shereen grew up in Canada; she now divides her time between London and Cairo.

www.sexandthecitadel.com