If you really want to know a people, start by looking inside their bedrooms.

As political change sweeps the streets and squares, the parliaments and presidential palaces of the Arab world, Shereen El Feki has been looking at an upheaval a little closer to home—in the sexual lives of men and women in Egypt and across the region. The result is an informative, insightful, and engaging account of a highly sensitive and still largely secret aspect of Arab society.

Sex is entwined in religion, tradition, politics, economics, and culture, so it is the perfect lens through which to examine the complex social landscape of the Arab world. From pregnant virgins to desperate housewives, from fearless activists to religious firebrands, from sex work to same-sex relations, Sex and the Citadel takes a fresh look at the sexual history of the region and brings new voices to the debate over its future.

This is no peep show or academic treatise but a highly personal and often humorous account of one woman’s journey to better understand Arab society at its most intimate and, in the process, to better understand her own origins. Rich with five years of groundbreaking research, Sex and the Citadel gives us a unique and timely understanding of everyday lives in a part of the world that is changing before our eyes.

I’m a writer, broadcaster, and academic who started her professional life in the lab, with a doctorate in molecular immunology from the University of Cambridge. My career took an unusual turn when I traded in my petri dish for a word processor and joined The Economist as Healthcare Correspondent, winning a few awards along the way.

After September 11th, I wanted to better understand my Arab heritage (I’m half- Egyptian, half-Welsh). That curiosity first took me to Al Jazeera, where I worked as a programme presenter. In 2007, I began Sex and the Citadel. Over the past few years, I’ve combined research with advocacy on HIV/AIDS, serving as vice-chair of the UN’s Global Commission on HIV and the Law.

Although studying sexuality in the Arab world is a full-time occupation, I have a couple of other interests. I’m an inaugural TED Global Fellow and a member of the Global Experts network of the UN’s Alliance of Civilizations. I sit on the advisory board of Meedan, a digital town square promoting dialogue between Arabic and non-Arabic speaking communities around the world, as well as the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality, an NGO promoting human rights across the region. I also serve on the editorial board of Dinar Standard, a leading publication on finance and business in the Islamic world.

I grew up near Toronto, but now divide my time between London and Cairo. Sex and the Citadel is my first book – the latest chapter in an unexpected career.