Wedad Lootah

Who is Wedad Lootah?

Wedad Nasser Lootah is an Emirati marriage counselor working for Dubai's main courthouse, and the author of the Arabic sex guide Top Secret: Sexual Guidance for Married Couples, published in 2009. She caused a controversy in the Islamic world by discussing sensitive topics in her book, such as oral sex, the danger of anal sex, female orgasm, the necessity of sex education, and homosexuality in Islamic societies. Although Lootah's frankness earned praise from liberal Muslims, it also drew death threats from fundamentalists who consider the book blasphemorous and her "an infidel, and a sinner". However, Lootah claims that none of her advice in the book violates the teachings of the Qur'an and that the book was published after the Mufti of Dubai gave an approval, even though he warned her that "Arab readers might not be ready for such a book".

Lootah wrote in her book that many men have their first sexual experiences with other men in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries with strict gender segregation, which she claims negatively affects their sex life in marriage later. In her interview with The New York Times, Lootah commented that "many men who had anal sex with men before marriage want the same thing with their wives, because they don't know anything else. This is one reason we need sex education in our schools."