Shereen El Feki

Shereen El Feki – Life, Career, and Notable Insights

Explore the remarkable journey of Shereen El Feki — journalist, author, scientist, and commentator on sexuality, gender, and social change in the Arab world. Learn her biography, work, and memorable reflections.

Introduction

Shereen El Feki is a British (with Canadian and Egyptian ties) journalist, author, academic, and public intellectual who examines deeply personal as well as social issues — especially gender, sexuality, health, and human rights in the Arab world and beyond. Her most well-known work is the book Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World (2013), which draws on years of qualitative research and personal exploration to investigate how norms, laws, and private lives intersect in societies undergoing change.

In her work, she frequently argues that changes in intimate life — in how people talk about sex, love, desire, and gender roles — can serve as a bellwether for broader political and cultural change.

Early Life, Family & Education

• El Feki was born around 1968 (or 1968/1969) in Oxford, England, to an Egyptian Muslim father and a Welsh (Welsh-born) mother.

• Her mother converted to Islam, and her upbringing combined elements of both Western and Middle Eastern identities.

• She spent part of her childhood in Canada (Waterloo, Ontario) and visited family in Cairo, Egypt.

• For education, she initially trained in the sciences: she completed a BSc in Immunology at the University of Toronto (1991) , then went on to obtain an MPhil and PhD in molecular immunology at University of Cambridge (Trinity College)

These scientific credentials gave her a strong grounding in methodology, research, and evidence — tools she later brought with her into journalism and social inquiry.

Career & Professional Journey

From Science to Journalism

El Feki’s career took an unusual turn. After completing her scientific studies, she moved into journalism, focusing on health and social issues:

• In 1998, she joined The Economist as a healthcare correspondent.

• The events following 9/11 deepened her interest in the Middle East and she began learning Arabic and researching gender, sexual norms, identity, and social change in Arab societies.

• In 2005, she left The Economist and transitioned into television and media work. Between 2006 and 2008, she hosted and produced shows for Al Jazeera English — including People & Power and The Pulse.

Writing & Scholarship

• In 2013 her influential book Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World was published.

• The book is based on years of fieldwork, interviews, and analysis across several Arab countries, exploring how sexual practices, taboos, norms, and aspirations shift under legal, social, generational, and political pressures.

• She has also engaged in projects on gender, masculinities, and social surveys in the Middle East, such as IMAGES-MENA (International Men and Gender Equality Survey in the Middle East and North Africa) under the banner of Promundo / UN Women.

Public, Institutional & Advisory Roles

• Between 2010 and 2012, El Feki served as Vice-Chair of the United Nations’ Global Commission on HIV and the Law.

• She was Regional Director, Middle East & North Africa at UNAIDS, overseeing HIV response across multiple countries in the region.

• She is affiliated with Chatham House as an Associate Fellow in the Global Health Programme.

• She holds visiting and fellow roles at University of Sussex (Institute of Development Studies), and was (or is) Professor of Global Practice at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

• She is a member of the Commission for Universal Health convened by Chatham House.

Her roles reflect a hybrid identity: scientist, journalist, academic, policy-practitioner, and public commentator.

Themes, Impact & Intellectual Focus

Shereen El Feki’s major contributions lie at the intersection of intimacy and public life. Some recurring themes and insights in her work:

1. Taboo & Disclosure
   In societies where sexual life is deeply socially regulated and often stigmatized, El Feki investigates how people navigate the gap between public norms and private practice. Sex and the Citadel argues that what happens “behind closed doors” is not disconnected from public policies, social norms, gender relations, and legal frameworks.

2. Gradual Change over Revolution
   A key claim she advances is that intimate norms, desires, and behaviors shift slowly and often subtly — and that social change in these domains is evolutionary rather than sudden.

3. Gender, Power & Masculinity
   Her later work engages men and masculinities in the Middle East, exploring pressures, contradictions, and how norms about manhood, sexuality, and gender roles are changing.

4. Health, Rights & Stigma
   Given her procedural and advisory roles in HIV and global health, El Feki often frames sexuality and sexual health as matters of rights, access, dignity, law, and social justice — not just private morality.

5. Bridging Cultures & Discourses
   Because of her cross-cultural heritage and multiple identities (British, Canadian, Egyptian), she often positions herself as someone who straddles “two worlds” — interpreting Arab societies for Western audiences and vice versa.

Her work has been translated into multiple languages, and she is frequently invited to speak, appear in media, and engage in public intellectual forums.

Selected Quotes & Reflections

Here are a few notable lines and paraphrases that reflect her voice, convictions, and intellectual posture:

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

“Sex is entwined in religion and tradition, politics and economics, gender and generations.”

“Taboos around sexuality are starting to be challenged in the Arab societies … but such change comes by evolution, not revolution.”

“Our intimate lives — what we dream, desire, fear — often reveal more about society than public declarations do.” (Paraphrase of her central methodology)

“In societies where the private is policed, people become experts in concealment.” (Reflecting on how people hide or negotiate socially forbidden acts)

These lines capture the tension she explores: how personal lives are both shaped by, and in turn shape, the social fabric.

Lessons & Takeaways

From Shereen El Feki’s journey and body of work, we can draw several lessons:

1. Interdisciplinarity pays
   Her foundation in science equipped her with analytical rigor, which she combined with journalism and social science to approach sensitive, complex topics in a robust way.

2. Engage hidden life to understand social change
   Focusing on what is often concealed — desires, taboos, informal practices — can reveal more about social transformation than focusing only on institutions, laws or overt politics.

3. Change is slow but real
   Her fieldwork-based perspective teaches that substantive shifts in social norms often happen incrementally and via generational shifts, not overnight.

4. Bridge empathy and critique
   El Feki models a stance that is both sympathetic to lived realities and critical in analysis — able to critique power while understanding complexity and personal stakes.

5. Hybrid identity can be a resource
   Her multicultural background allows her to serve as a translator, mediator, and interlocutor across cultural and disciplinary divides — a role increasingly valuable in a globalized world.

Conclusion

Shereen El Feki stands as a rare figure who bridges molecular science, journalism, social science, and public engagement. Her inquiries into intimacy, gender, and change in the Arab world bring forward voices often suppressed or silenced, and situate deeply personal matters within political, legal, and cultural contexts.

Her book Sex and the Citadel remains a landmark in conversations about sexuality and modernity in the Middle East. As gender norms, public health, legal reform, and youth aspirations evolve across the Arab region and globally, her work continues to challenge assumptions and spark dialogue.