Of sex in Cairo and peeping Toms

Updated On: 25 January, 2014 02:50 PM IST | | Kanika Sharma

A diversity of themes and an eclectic array of writers ruled the roost at the recently-concluded Jaipur Literature Festival. Kanika Sharma caught up with three authors, from across the writing spectrum. While one peeped into the bedrooms of Cairo to spot the seed of the Arab Spring Revolution, the other was saddened by the genre of non-fiction being bamboozled by voyeurism, and the third author found Venice’s Indian counterpoint

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Jaipur Literature Festival, Cairo, sex in the Arab world, authors, Shereen El Feki, Reza Aslan, Geoff Dyer, Life & Style

How the Arab world has sex
Shereen el Feki, author of Sex and the Citadel attended the Festival’s Behind the Veil discussion that canvassed women writers of the Islamic world. Half Egyptian and a Muslim, she was brought up in Canada, and has recently penned the book that delves on whether the Spring Revolution really sprung from Arab bedrooms. Excerpts from an interview:

Jaipur Literature Festival had a footfall of 2,20,000 visitors this year ensuring packed full sessions despite the chill

The book’s premises is highly unusual. How did it come to you?
The idea of looking at the Arab world through sexuality came from my personal and professional background. Personally, I am half Egyptian, and a Muslim but I grew up in Canada. And then 9/11 happened and I hadn’t really thought much about the Arab world until that day. Professionally, I am an immunologist and I worked for many years for The Economist magazine. Part of my job was writing about HIV Aids and then I became interested in HIV Aids in the Arab region, as it is on the rise there whereas it’s plateauing in the rest of the world.