The renowned expert Shereen El Feki analyses in Barcelona the political and sexuality bond in the Arab world

27 November 2018 | Press release

The author of Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World participates on Tuesday, December 4 (7pm) at the IEMed in the debate “Sexuality and social change in the Mediterranean”.

While religion and politics have come to be questioned in the Arab world, especially in the wake of the Arab Spring, sex remains a red line that is still very difficult to cross. But today, in the south and east of the Mediterranean, the demand for more rights and freedoms related to sexuality is growing. To discuss this, the IEMed organizes the debate “Sexuality and social change in the Mediterranean” next Tuesday, December 4 (7pm).

The conference will be delivered by Shereen El Feki, an internationally recognized British-Canadian-Egyptian scholar for the book Sex and the Citadel: Intimitate Life in a Changing Arab World (2013), where she explores the connections between political and sexual rights in the Arab and Islamic world. Her Ted-Talk on the occasion of the book has been seen by more than two million people. Health Correspondent for The Economist (1998-2005) and host of various programs on Al Jazeera (2006-2008), El Feki has coordinated the recent UN study on the crisis of masculinity in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine.

Along with El Feki, the following will also participate:

Eugeni Rodríguez, spokesman for the Gay Liberation Front of Catalonia (FAGC).

Genwa Samhat, former director of Helem (Lebanon), a pioneer association in the Arab world in the support and protection of LGBT people.

Pol Galofre, documentary filmmaker, trans activist and feminist.