In early 2009, a controversial book appeared in bookstores in the United Arab Emirates. Immediately, it was considered an unusual publication in a largely Muslim society. It was a 221-page book entitled “The Secrets of Sexual Congress Between Married Couples” written by Wedad Lootah, a Dubai Family Court counselor.
The book has caused furor in the UAE. Lootah has received death threats and has been accused of blasphemous content, to the point of being considered an infidel. Lootah’s explanations in the book on how the Qur’an and Sharia can be applied to modern-day Muslim couples’ sexual lives have been deemed explicit and unacceptable by Muslim fundamentalists.
Sex education is Lootah’s difficult profession in the traditional Arab society where the existence of sexologists is confined to specialized television programs that are tailored according to the Islamic religion and alternative magazines such as the Lebanese Jasad which is distributed throughout the Middle East but only through discreet mail to avoid censorship in Muslim countries.
“The Secrets of Sexual Congress Between Married Couples” is the first book on sexuality written by and for Arabs. As expected, it was received with little enthusiasm by Muslim fundamentalists but became a source of relief to the rest of the population.
Through the Family Court of Dubai, Lootah has been more than accustomed to dealing with couples to help them solve their sexual intimacy problems. Part of a small team attached to the institution and tasked to settle matrimonial disputes between spouses, Lootah has been a social worker since 2001.
The institution’s purpose is to avoid unnecessary separations in a federation that holds the record for divorces (46%) in the Gulf Cooperation Council which includes UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman. In 2004 alone, the The Media Line agency reported that 13,000 couples ended their marriage in a population of just three million inhabitants. Since 2005, women have been allowed to file for divorce. The divorce rate has since soared.
According to Lootah, couples would not have ended their union if only they had sufficient sex education.
Via Arab News
