
Sex and Lies
True Stories of Women's Intimate Lives in the Arab World
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $13.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sarah Agha
About this listen
"Jaw-dropping.... Inspiring.... A haunting and beautifully composed book.... It blew my mind." (Lisa Taddeo, number one New York Times best-selling author of Three Women)
A fearless exposé of the secrets and lies of women's intimate lives, by the best-selling author of The Perfect Nanny, Adèle, and In the Country of Others
"All those in positions of authority—politicians, parents, teachers—maintain the same line: 'Do what you like, but do it in private.'"
Leila Slimani was in her native Morocco promoting her novel Adèle, about a woman addicted to sex, when she began meeting women who confided the dark secrets of their sexual lives. In Morocco, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, prostitution, and sex outside of marriage are all punishable by law, and women have only two choices: They can be wives or virgins. Sex and Lies combines vivid, often harrowing testimonies with Slimani's passionate and intelligent commentary to make a galvanizing case for a sexual revolution in the Arab world.
©2020 Leila Slimani (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
In the Country of Others
- A Novel
- By: Leila Slimani, Sam Taylor
- Narrated by: Lara Sawalha
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After World War II, Mathilde leaves France for Morocco to be with her husband, whom she met while he was fighting for the French army. A spirited young woman, she now finds herself a farmer’s wife, her vitality sapped by the isolation, the harsh climate, and the mistrust she inspires as a foreigner. But she refuses to be subjugated or confined to her role as mother of a growing family.
-
-
No redeeming characters.
- By Free as a bird on 08-30-23
By: Leila Slimani, and others
-
Secrets of Divine Love
- A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam
- By: A. Helwa
- Narrated by: A. Helwa
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Secrets of Divine Love is the #1 international bestselling book on Islam that draws upon spiritual secrets of the Qur’an, ancient mystical poetry, and stories from the world’s greatest prophets and spiritual masters to help you reignite your faith, overcome your doubts, and deepen your connection with God. Through the use of scientific evidence, practical exercises, and guided meditations, you will develop the tools and awareness needed to discern and overcome your negative inner critic that prevents you from experiencing God’s all-encompassing love.
-
-
Best Audiobook I have ever heard!
- By LiveLaughLove on 05-06-21
By: A. Helwa
-
It's Not About the Burqa
- Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race
- By: Mariam Khan
- Narrated by: Mariam Khan, Amna Saleem, Afshan D'souza-Lodhi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Taking one of the most politicised and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. Here are voices you won’t see represented in the national news headlines: 18 Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country. Funny, warm, sometimes sad and often angry, each of these essays is a passionate declaration.
-
-
Stories well told
- By Fawziya on 06-16-19
By: Mariam Khan
-
Girl Decoded
- A Scientist's Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology
- By: Rana el Kaliouby, Carol Colman
- Narrated by: Rana el Kaliouby
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rana el Kaliouby is a rarity in both the tech world and her native Middle East: a Muslim woman in charge in a field that is still overwhelmingly white and male. Growing up in Egypt and Kuwait, el Kaliouby was raised by a strict father who valued tradition - yet also had high expectations for his daughters - and a mother who was one of the first female computer programmers in the Middle East. Even before el Kaliouby broke ground as a scientist, she broke the rules of what it meant to be an obedient daughter and, later, an obedient wife to pursue her own daring dream.
-
-
i'm torn
- By shelly brown on 06-28-20
By: Rana el Kaliouby, and others
-
The Sex Lives of African Women
- Self-Discovery, Freedom, and Healing
- By: Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
- Narrated by: Iesha Nyree, Adenrele Ojo, Deanna Anthony, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thanks to her blog, Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah has spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women around the world about sex. For this book, she spoke to more than 30 African women across the globe while chronicling her own journey toward sexual freedom.
-
-
Bad narrators
- By L on 07-01-22
-
Hijab Butch Blues
- A Memoir
- By: Lamya H
- Narrated by: Ashraf Shirazi
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher—her female teacher—she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can’t yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don’t matter, and it’s easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: When Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her.
-
-
Enlightening
- By Lauretta on 01-31-24
By: Lamya H
-
In the Country of Others
- A Novel
- By: Leila Slimani, Sam Taylor
- Narrated by: Lara Sawalha
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After World War II, Mathilde leaves France for Morocco to be with her husband, whom she met while he was fighting for the French army. A spirited young woman, she now finds herself a farmer’s wife, her vitality sapped by the isolation, the harsh climate, and the mistrust she inspires as a foreigner. But she refuses to be subjugated or confined to her role as mother of a growing family.
-
-
No redeeming characters.
- By Free as a bird on 08-30-23
By: Leila Slimani, and others
-
Secrets of Divine Love
- A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam
- By: A. Helwa
- Narrated by: A. Helwa
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Secrets of Divine Love is the #1 international bestselling book on Islam that draws upon spiritual secrets of the Qur’an, ancient mystical poetry, and stories from the world’s greatest prophets and spiritual masters to help you reignite your faith, overcome your doubts, and deepen your connection with God. Through the use of scientific evidence, practical exercises, and guided meditations, you will develop the tools and awareness needed to discern and overcome your negative inner critic that prevents you from experiencing God’s all-encompassing love.
-
-
Best Audiobook I have ever heard!
- By LiveLaughLove on 05-06-21
By: A. Helwa
-
It's Not About the Burqa
- Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race
- By: Mariam Khan
- Narrated by: Mariam Khan, Amna Saleem, Afshan D'souza-Lodhi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Taking one of the most politicised and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. Here are voices you won’t see represented in the national news headlines: 18 Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country. Funny, warm, sometimes sad and often angry, each of these essays is a passionate declaration.
-
-
Stories well told
- By Fawziya on 06-16-19
By: Mariam Khan
-
Girl Decoded
- A Scientist's Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology
- By: Rana el Kaliouby, Carol Colman
- Narrated by: Rana el Kaliouby
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rana el Kaliouby is a rarity in both the tech world and her native Middle East: a Muslim woman in charge in a field that is still overwhelmingly white and male. Growing up in Egypt and Kuwait, el Kaliouby was raised by a strict father who valued tradition - yet also had high expectations for his daughters - and a mother who was one of the first female computer programmers in the Middle East. Even before el Kaliouby broke ground as a scientist, she broke the rules of what it meant to be an obedient daughter and, later, an obedient wife to pursue her own daring dream.
-
-
i'm torn
- By shelly brown on 06-28-20
By: Rana el Kaliouby, and others
-
The Sex Lives of African Women
- Self-Discovery, Freedom, and Healing
- By: Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
- Narrated by: Iesha Nyree, Adenrele Ojo, Deanna Anthony, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thanks to her blog, Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah has spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women around the world about sex. For this book, she spoke to more than 30 African women across the globe while chronicling her own journey toward sexual freedom.
-
-
Bad narrators
- By L on 07-01-22
-
Hijab Butch Blues
- A Memoir
- By: Lamya H
- Narrated by: Ashraf Shirazi
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher—her female teacher—she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can’t yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don’t matter, and it’s easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: When Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her.
-
-
Enlightening
- By Lauretta on 01-31-24
By: Lamya H
-
The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls
- By: Mona Eltahawy
- Narrated by: Mona Eltahawy
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eltahawy knows the patriarchy is alive and well, and she is fed up: Sexually assaulted during hajj at 15. Groped on the dance floor of a night club in Montreal at 50. Countless other injustices in the years between. Illuminating her call to action are stories of activists and ordinary women around the world who are tapping into their inner fury, crossing the lines of race, class, faith, and gender that make it so hard for marginalized women to be heard. Rather than teach women and girls to survive the poisonous system they have found themselves in, Eltahawy arms them to dismantle it.
-
-
LET US CELEBRATE WOMEN AND GIRLS WHO SIN!
- By Anonymous User on 09-24-19
By: Mona Eltahawy
-
The Return
- Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between
- By: Hisham Matar
- Narrated by: Hisham Matar
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Hisham Matar was a 19-year-old university student in England, his father was kidnapped. One of the Qaddafi regime's most prominent opponents in exile, he was held in a secret prison in Libya. Hisham would never see him again. But he never gave up hope that his father might still be alive. "Hope," as he writes, "is cunning and persistent." Twenty-two years later, after the fall of Qaddafi, the prison cells were empty, and there was no sign of Jaballa Matar. Hisham returned with his mother and wife to the homeland he never thought he'd go back to again.
-
-
Touching memoir. Consider hard copy
- By Joschka Philipps on 02-22-18
By: Hisham Matar
-
Against White Feminism
- Notes on Disruption
- By: Rafia Zakaria
- Narrated by: Ulka Simone Mohanty
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Upper-middle-class White women have long been heralded as “experts” on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority.
-
-
What a rollercoaster. A must read
- By L on 05-28-22
By: Rafia Zakaria
-
Eloquent Rage
- A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
- By: Brittney Cooper
- Narrated by: Brittney Cooper
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So what if it's true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting. Far too often, Black women's anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that.
-
-
🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 Eloquent AF
- By Erica on 03-05-18
By: Brittney Cooper
-
Boys Will Be Boys
- By: Clementine Ford
- Narrated by: Clementine Ford
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How does a feminist raise a son in a world that conditions boys into entitlement, privilege and power at the expense not just of girls' humanity but also their own? All boys start innocent, but by the time they are adolescents many of them will subscribe to a view of masculinity that is openly contemptuous of women and girls. This explosive new work will look at toxic masculinity and the closed ranks of brotherhood that shape an entitled, disrespectful and potentially dangerous idea of manhood.
-
-
Visceral and necessary
- By Kindle Customer on 02-17-19
By: Clementine Ford
-
The End of Woman
- How Smashing the Patriarchy Has Destroyed Us
- By: Carrie Gress
- Narrated by: Monroe Jillian
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fellow at Ethic & Public Policy Center, scholar at The Institute for Human Ecology at CUA and the nationally best-selling author of the Theology of Home series, Carrie Gress argues that fifty years of radical feminism have had the opposite of the intended effect and have granted primacy of place to the traditionally male sphere of life, while simultaneously devaluing the typical attributes, virtues, and strengths of women.
-
-
A dark look into the religious right’s hatred of women
- By Shevaun Bastarache on 10-30-23
By: Carrie Gress
-
Trick Mirror
- Reflections on Self-Delusion
- By: Jia Tolentino
- Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
-
-
Couldn’t stop listening
- By Alice on 08-25-19
By: Jia Tolentino
-
The Years
- By: Annie Ernaux
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Years is a personal narrative of the period of 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present - even projections into the future - photos, books, songs, radio, television, and decades of advertising and headlines, contrasted with intimate conflicts and written notes from six decades of diaries. Local dialect, words of the time, slogans, brands, and names for ever-proliferating objects are given a voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges.
-
-
Mixed Feelings
- By Elin VanD on 05-10-20
By: Annie Ernaux
-
The Feminine Mystique
- By: Betty Friedan
- Narrated by: Parker Posey
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The book that changed the consciousness of a country - and the world. Landmark, groundbreaking, classic - these adjectives barely describe the earthshaking and long-lasting effects of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. This is the book that defined "the problem that has no name", that launched the Second Wave of the feminist movement, and has been awakening women and men with its insights into social relations, which still remain fresh, ever since.
-
-
A landmark book of its time and relevant now
- By Anthony on 01-23-15
By: Betty Friedan
-
Three Daughters of Eve
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to the present day, Three Daughters of Eve is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife and mother, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor.
-
-
Review 3 daughters of Eve
- By CA on 04-28-18
By: Elif Shafak
-
The Guilty Feminist
- You Don't Have to Be Perfect to Overthrow the Patriarchy
- By: Deborah Frances-White
- Narrated by: Deborah Frances-White, Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sometimes we feel a bit like "I'm a feminist, but...." As in, "I'm a feminist, but I skipped the Women's March to buy face cream." As in, "I'm a feminist, but I've never found time to read Sylvia Plath (but I have watched 15 seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians)." In The Guilty Feminist, Deborah Frances-White reassures us that we don't have to be perfect to be a force for meaningful change. Exploring big issues of identity, equality, intersectionality, and the current feminist agenda, she explodes the myth of the model activist and offers a realistic path....
-
-
A must-read
- By Clary on 04-11-20
-
Last Days at Hot Slit
- The Radical Feminism of Andrea Dworkin
- By: Andrea Dworkin, Johanna Fateman - editor and introduction, Amy Scholder - editor
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Radical feminist author Andrea Dworkin was a caricature of misandrist extremism in the popular imagination and a polarizing figure within the women's movement, infamous for her antipornography stance and her role in the feminist sex wars of the 1980s. Last Days at Hot Slit brings together selections from Dworkin's work, both fiction and nonfiction, with the aim of putting the contentious positions she's best known for in dialogue with her literary oeuvre. It includes “Goodbye to All This” (1983), a scathing chapter from an unpublished manuscript.
-
-
Almost perfect reading
- By Paul on 04-02-20
By: Andrea Dworkin, and others
Critic reviews
"As revealing as Lisa Taddeo’s bestseller Three Women, but it has a more urgent political mission. . . . Like Adèle did before it, this slim book of impassioned pleas, and of human impulses that resonate, is one step to more women breaking free.”—Evening Standard
“Slimani’s searing nonfiction debut unearths the deepest and most intimate secrets of a group of women in a culture where sexual autonomy is punished by law.”―Newsweek
“Impassioned . . . a call-to-arms.”―Elle
slay
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Necessary book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Insightful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.