Offers an interesting view into some of the attitudes, traditions and difficulties in relations (not only sexual) between men and women in the Arab world (though concentrating on Egypt), and how these relate to the greater social changes being attempted in recent years. It does get a bit annoying sometimes how the author seems to attribute all social activity and political change directly to sex, but then again, we've also heard physicists saying everything boils down to physics, economists say everything boils down to money, etc, so you can shrug that off. Some individuals presented as marvellous beacons for change seemed to me more like outliers on the far extreme of the issue, but there were plenty of ordinary people in the middle ground to balance that out. Overall an interesting look into private life that touches on issues like marriage and divorce, reproductive difficulties, contraception, female circumcision, gender equality (or lack thereof), and the changes in social standards between generations--for example, how did customs of dress and social behaviour became so conservative in recent years compared to the younger days of modern Egyptian adults' grandparents? A decent and not-too-heavy read.