[Ideas] Shereen El Feki: The Crisis of Arab Men

Adventurous Shereen El Feki has spent years quizzing Arab women and men on the most intimate aspects of their lives, resulting in the revolutionary, best-selling book Sex and the Citadel, Intimate Life in a changing Arab world. She has now embarked on a groundbreaking study of men, masculinities and gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa. Nowadays, as international headlines team with unflattering portrayals of Arab men – from the New Year’s Eve Cologne attacks to Islamic State – Shereen believes it is time to examine the apparent crisis of Arab men that not only demonises the region’s male population, but hinders attempts to reach true gender equality.

ABOUT

Shereen El Feki is a scientist, journalist, academic, best-selling author, and an expert on the interplay of gender, sexuality, politics and religion in the Arab region. With a scientific background in epidemiology, she went on to become an award-winning healthcare correspondent with The Economist and a presenter with Al Jazeera English. She is the former vice-chair of the UN’s Global Commission on HIV and the Law, as well as a TED global fellow. Shereen is currently a visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and associate fellow at the Centre on Global Health Security, Chatham House. She is also incoming professor of Global Practice at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. As a senior fellow with Promundo, under the aegis of UN Women, Shereen is also leading IMAGES-MENA, a pioneering study of men, masculinities and gender equality in four countries in the Arab region.

GOOD READS 

Sex and the Citadel, Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World (2013).

KEY LINKS

Shereen El Feki at Chatham House