What is sex? For centuries, female sexuality has been demonized and controlled by men and women alike. But in our attempt to understand the reasons behind it, we are essentially responding to a rarely asked question: the nature and meaning of sex. Is it a quality? The essential characteristics and attributes that each person can be said to have? Or is it a performance, an experience, an artifice – an expression of who we are? Or is it nothing but hype and power – a fantasy and a dream that can be manipulated and sold as a commercial commodity? In ‘We Wrote in Symbols Love and Lust by Arab Women Writers’, edited by Selma Dabbagh, the nature and meaning of sex is described in all of its forms. For 3,000 years, Arab women have written erotic literature in different styles, contexts and creative expressions, yet cultural meanings and symbols of sexuality have never been widely known because of the difficulties of gaining access to data and the danger for the women to speak about these issues. The book celebrates the works of 75 of these pioneers from across the centuries,…
Breaking the Taboo: Arab Women Writing Erotic Literature in New Book Collection
May 2, 2021
