Summary: Shereen El Feki is a writer, broadcaster and academic. She began her professional life with a doctorate in molecular immunology before going on to become an award-winning journalist with The Economist and a presenter with Al Jazeera English. She is the former vice-chair of the United Nation’s Global Commission on HIV and the Law and is a TED Global Fellow. Raised in Canada, Shereen is the child of Welsh and Egyptian parents and would visit her Egyptian family yearly as a child. As an adult, working with The Economist she was drawn to the surprisingly low HIV infection rate that was being reported in the Arab region. But as she began to dig deeper, particularly in the country of her family, she found a gap between official figures and private reality. Shereen has spent the last 5 years travelling throughout the Arab region, with a particular focus on Egypt, looking into sex and sexuality in that world. Marriage, pre-marital sex, gay relationships, even basic education all come under in the microscope in her book Sex in the Citadel. Sky Kirkham was joined by Shereen El Feki to talk about the impact of religion, the nature of virginity and the convenience of 'pleasure marriages'. Originally broadcast on 21/03/2013. Sex and the Citadel is out now through Random House.
