Sex and the Citadel, By Shereen El Feki: Book review

El Feki, a half-Egyptian broadcaster and academic, conducted a five-year investigation into what goes on in the intimate lives of ordinary 21st-century Arabs. Her rationale behind this experiment was that sexual norms reflect the politics of a society.

There are entertaining moments – lascivious taxi-drivers and debates on the ills of imported artificial hymens in the Egyptian Parliament – but this does not detract from the seriousness of El Feki's purpose.

She talks to sexually frustrated wives, to homosexuals, unmarried Arab women and to husbands.