The Sex Talk بالعربي is a bold online initiative established in January 2018. It promotes sex-positivity by tackling sexual health issues among Arabic-speaking women. It creates scientific content regarding sexual health that prioritizes women’s needs and experiences. We talked to its founder Fatma Ibrahim to know all about it.
Tell Us about Yourself
I am a feminist researcher and activist. I work as an associate lecturer and currently, I’m completing a PhD in Feminist Political Economy and Development. It investigates the financial lives of women refugees in the UK. It aims to provide policy recommendations to improve their living conditions.
How did ‘The Sex Talk’ بالعربي come about?
As a member of several Arab women’s rights groups, I noticed an alarming degree of sexual health problems among women.
When women don’t have access to information about their bodies and society is as misogynistic as ever, women’s sexual lives are a nightmare in Egypt and the Arab World. No pleasure, no protection, no consent, and no support!
I checked if there is any online platform that teaches Arabic-speaking women about their rights to their bodies, their sexualities, and their sexual health. None of the existing initiatives were directed at women or prioritizing their needs.
So, I decided to create the content I was looking for.
We started with a Facebook group and it grew into a safe space for hundreds of Arabic-speaking women around the world. We had to restrict adding new members to avoid compromising the existing ones’ privacy. So, we created other social media platforms. Now, our Instagram and Facebook pages reach thousands of people.
What are the major issues you discuss?
So far, we’ve discussed STDs, birth control, the hymen myth and its connection to virginity. In addition to self-examinations, breast cancer, menstrual cycles, sexual identities, the myth of the ‘medicalization’ of FGM. As well as child sex education and consent among other issues.
Why the name ‘The Sex Talk بالعربي ? What’s the initiative’s mission? Why is it important that you present your information in Arabic?
“The sex talk” is a popular phrase that refers to the discussion parents have with their children where they inform them about their bodies. Like how it works, what privacy means, how to protect themselves from abuse, and, most importantly, what kind of relationships they can physically engage in safely and at what age they can do so.
In the Arab world, sex and everything remotely connected to it is taboo. So parents avoid speaking to their kids about anything related to their sexual health.
Therefore, our mission is to create this kind of conversation – to normalize the word sex and sex education and create a sex-positive atmosphere.
How did your experience as an Egyptian woman influence your decision to start this initiative?
I personally experienced the consequences of the lack of sexual health education. Including sexual harassment and a lack of safety in public spaces, body-shaming, FGM, and more. I also witnessed friends and family risking their lives and health just to meet society’s expectations of women.
Being Egyptian also affected my experience with The Sex Talk because the other volunteers (many of whom choose to remain anonymous) and I are often worried about how people will perceive our content.
Because we provide content from a feminist perspective, it isn’t compatible with society’s expectations of women.
This state of worry has somewhat hindered the development of the initiative as we tried to keep the initiative private for a long time just to avoid cyberattacks. At some point though, we realized that if we want to make real change, then we need to make the conversation bold and loud.
From your perspective, why does Egypt need sex education initiatives like ‘The Sex Talk’ بالعربي?
Egyptian society has a tendency to pretend that sex does not exist but people keep on recycling practices that are harmful to women and children, they even add fancy flavors like giving a medical justification for FGM. So, we need sexual health education in Egypt to knock some science into these practices and inform people about their harm. This absolute ignorance contributes to the high percentages of FGM, sexual harassment, and child sexual abuse.
We need people to understand the meaning of consent, what it means for a woman to own her body and to have the right to control it the way she sees fit.
People need to have the right to safety and self-expression without fear. We need to teach children about their bodies and we need parents to understand how to support and protect them. We need to have policies that enforce and support all this.
How does the public perceive the Sex Talk بالعربي? How do people react to the issues you discuss? Which groups is your initiative most popular with?
It is perceived quite positively among men and women in the 17 to 26 age group.
We daily receive messages from people saying how important the initiative is for them, how much they appreciate that the content is in Arabic, and how much it changed their lives.
This level of engagement is so rewarding. It shows us the kind of impact the initiative is making, it keeps us going.
However, we face criticism too, especially when we try debunk myths that are deeply rooted in our culture. For example, when we shared an article about the hymen myth and its connection to virginity, we received a lot of cyberattacks on our Facebook page. It was actually shut down for alleged ‘nudity and pornography’!
What are the challenges -personal and professional- you face running such an initiative in Egypt?
Personally, the biggest challenge is time management as I’m juggling between my job, the initiative, and full-time education! Thankfully, the wonderful volunteers who help in creating content, designing visuals, answering people’s questions, or providing support are a HUGE help. I’m forever thankful to them.
‘The Sex Talk’ بالعربي defines itself as a feminist initiative. From your perspective, how does sex education align with feminist goals/ how is sex education related to feminism?
The Sex Talk is a feminist initiative in that we discuss issues that affect women’s lives and aim to improve their human rights.
For women to be empowered, they need to be equipped with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions related to their bodies, sexual health, relationships and their lives more generally.
What do you hope to achieve in the coming years?
I hope that in the coming years I will be able to create more content in different formats (visuals and audio) to be inclusive of people with different needs. I hope to collaborate with other activists and experts in the field. To hold classes and reach more people who cannot access the content online.
My main aim though is to normalize the discussion around sexual health and sex education. We must question every old tradition and end these harmful practices which threaten women’s lives.
