Screening at the Coronet Cinema, Notting Hill Gate, February 27th 2014, Thursday 6:30pm, with main speaker Shereen El-Feki.

Egyptian director Mohamed Amin depicts the tale of two young single girls in Cairo who are set on getting married but are unable to find suitable grooms. It looks at the negative psychological impact of being without a husband in a society that prizes marriage as the only way for a girl to become a woman. It also shows the desperate measures they are willing to take in order to fight the stigma and how Egypt’s young males and female are in a difficult position where economic stresses and societal expectations are impossible to fulfil.

Shereen El Feki  (@shereenelfeki) is the author of Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World (Random House, 2013), shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Award. Shereen started her career in medical science, with a doctorate in immunology from the University of Cambridge, before going on to become an award-winning healthcare correspondent with The Economist and a presenter with Al Jazeera English. She is the former vice-chair of the UN’s Global Commission on HIV and the Law, as well as a TED Global Fellow.

Shereen sits on the board of a number of civil society groups working in the Arab region, among them Meedan and the Arab Forum for Freedoms and Equality. She also contributes to a number of publications, including The Huffington Post, International Affairs, The Independent, and has written and spoken widely on women, sexuality and HIV in the Arab region. With roots in Egypt and Wales, Shereen grew up in Canada; she now divides her time between London and Cairo. For more information, please visit sexandthecitadel.com.