Shereen El Feki ( ar, شيرين الفقي; born 1967 or 1968) is a

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journalist and author, most notable for her book ''Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World''.

Biography

El Feki was born in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

to a

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mother and an

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father. She grew up in

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, visiting her grandmother in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

on a regular basis. She graduated from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see the ...

in 1991, then obtaining an MPhil and PhD in immunology from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

Career

El Feki joined

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

as healthcare correspondent in 1998. After the 2001 WTC terror attacks, she learned Arabic and started to research the Middle East, in particular, the issues of emancipation and women's sexuality, spending much of her time in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. In 2005, El Feki left the Economist, and from 2006 to 2008, she hosted weekly shows, '' People & Power'' and The Pulse, on Al Jazeera International. From 2010 to 2012, she was vice-chairwoman of the United Nations' Global Commission on H.I.V. and the Law. In 2013, El Feki published ''Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World'', which has been translated into

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, Bahasa Indonesia, French and

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, with

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and

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translations forthcoming. "Sex and the Citadel" has been nominated for the

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspap ...

and The Orwell Prize; El Feki's

TED talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

on sexuality in the Arab region has received almost 1 million views since 2014. The book surveys sexual attitudes of women and men in Egypt and the wider Arab world, and presents results of her five years of research. El Feki concludes that taboos around sexuality are starting to be challenged in the Arab societies, and that such debates in personal life are key to change in the politics, economics and the broader public sphere. However, she warns that such change comes "by evolution, not revolution" over a generation at least. Since 2022, El Feki has been a member of the Commission for Universal Health convened by

Chatham House Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute headquartered in London. Its stated mission is to provide commentary on world events and offer solutions to global challenges. It is ...

and co-chaired by

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

and

Jakaya Kikwete Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete (born 7 October 1950) is a Tanzanian politician who was the fourth president of Tanzania, in office from 2005 to 2015. Prior to his election as president, he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2005 under hi ...

.Commission for Universal Health

References

Sources

External links

Shereen El Feki
on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

*
Global Commission on HIV and the Law

Huffington Post interview
* *
Shereen El Feki: Pop culture in the Arab world (TEDGlobal 2009)
*
Shereen El Feki: A little-told tale of sex and sensuality (TEDGlobal 2013)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feki, Shereen British women journalists Egyptian journalists Egyptian non-fiction writers Egyptian women writers The Economist people Living people 1960s births Welsh people of Egyptian descent University of Toronto alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge