Lebanese play breaks taboos on Arab women's sexuality

BEIRUT, Apr 25 (Reuters) The young, pretty actress appears before a capacity crowd at a Beirut theatre and says she was forced to shave her pubic hair to please her husband in bed after finding out he was cheating on her.

''My husband hates the hair. He thinks it is filthy and disgusting and forced me to remove it ... and when I stopped shaving he had an affair with another woman,'' she says.

''But you have to love the hair if you love 'CoCo','' she says, referring to the vagina and drawing applause and laughter from the audience.

''Women's Talk,'' inspired by American playwright Eve Ensler's hit ''The Vagina Monologues,'' is one of two plays recently shown in Beirut which openly and frankly tackle the issue of women's sexuality, a taboo in the largely conservative West Asia.

The play, starring four young actresses and comprising 12 monologues, three of them adapted from Ensler's work, also brings into the open such serious problems as rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment, which Arab women are discouraged from discussing in public.

''The audience needs to know about these issues. I don't know why it is shameful for a woman to talk openly about her period, for example,'' said Lina Khoury, who wrote and directed her monologues based on interviews with women of different ages.

''We have to question the very customs and traditions in our society that are besieging and oppressing us,'' she told Reuters.

Lebanon has long prided itself on being a bastion of freedom in the conservative West Asia and it is no surprise that such a play would open in its liberal capital. Yet even here, Khoury had to tone down some language to get the censor's approval and waited more than a year for permission to show the play.

Frank discussion of women's sexuality is still frowned on in many social circles in Lebanon and some women are reluctant to report experiences of sexual harassment, abuse or even violence, fearing their reputation may be tarnished.

In neighbouring Syria, a groundbreaking study on violence against women, released earlier in April, found that one in four married women are beaten -- usually by a husband or father.

Honour killings -- the murder of women by their relatives for engaging in pre- or extra-marital relations -- are still regularly reported in Egypt and Jordan. In the Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive.

Rasha al-Atrash, who is studying for a masters degree in cultural studies, said it was essential to break social taboos on women's sexuality.

''It's an important work in a society where women have yet to gain their full rights, where it is not uncommon for a woman to be a virgin at the age of 35 and where many women still get hymen-restoration surgery before marriage,'' she said.

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