Name: 【TED】Shereen El Feki: A little-told tale of sex and sensuality (A little-told tale of sex and sensuality | Shereen El Feki)
Uploaded: 2014-08-25T23:21:59.000Z
Duration: 16 min 11 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I met a young unmarried mother called Faiza.

and she told me the story of his conception, pregnancy, and delivery.

"I have two medical certificates to prove it."

where two millennia after the coming of Christ,

Faiza's story is just one of hundreds I've heard  over the years, traveling across the Arab region

Now, I know this might sound like a dream job,

but for me, it's something else altogether.

But I grew up in Canada, far from my Arab roots.

I've been drawn, over the years, to try to better understand my origins.

That I chose to look at sex comes from  my background in HIV/AIDS,

as a writer and a researcher and an activist.

Sex lies at the heart of an emerging epidemic in the Middle East and North Africa,

which is one of only two regions in the world where HIV/AIDS is still on the rise.

Now sexuality is an incredibly powerful lens

because what happens in our intimate lives

is reflected by forces on a bigger stage:

in politics and economics, in religion and tradition,  in gender and generations.

As I found, if you really want to know a people,

you start by looking inside their bedrooms.

Now to be sure, the Arab world is vast and varied.

But running across it are three red lines --

these are topics you are not supposed  to challenge in word or deed.

But the Arab Spring has changed all that,

in uprisings which have blossomed  across the region since 2011.

and pushing forward to what they hope will be a better life.

But now religion and politics are connected,

with the rise of such groups as the  Muslim Brotherhood.

And some people, at least, are starting  to ask questions

about the role of Islam in public and private life.

You know, as for that third red line,  that off-limits subject,

Shereen El Feki: Louder, I can't hear you.

SEF: Absolutely, that's right, it's sex. (Laughter)

Across the Arab region, the only accepted context for sex is marriage --

approved by your parents, sanctioned by religion

If you don't tie the knot, you can't  move out of your parents' place,

and you're not supposed to be having sex,

and you're definitely not supposed  to be having children.

It's a social citadel; it's an impregnable fortress

which resists any assault, any alternative.

And around the fortress is this vast field of taboo

Her virginity statement was  not a piece of wishful thinking.

Although the major religions of the region extoll premarital chastity,

and people more or less turn a blind eye.

who are expected to be virgins  on their wedding night --

that is, to turn up with your hymen intact.

This is not a question of individual concern,

this is a matter of family honor,  and in particular, men's honor.

will go to great lengths to preserve  this tiny piece of anatomy --

to virginity testing, to hymen repair surgery.

because there's so little  sexuality education in schools,

and so little communication in the family.

Faiza's mother helped her flee  her father and brothers.

This is because honor killings are a real threat

for untold numbers of women in the Arab region.

And so when Faiza eventually fetched up at  a hospital in Casablanca,

I have seen plenty of trouble  in and out of the citadel.