Soumaya Naamane Guessous is a Moroccan sociologist, champion of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

, and columnist. She is best known as author of the book ''Au-delà de toute pudeur'', first published in 1988, about the sexual life of Moroccan women. Based on Naamane Guessous' academic research in the 1980s among 500 women of different social backgrounds and ages, the book became soon a best-seller in Morocco, selling 40.000 copies in 5 years, and was dubbed "a little revolution" in the French presse, observing that "the first time a 'decent woman', a Muslim, calls a spade a spade". She graduated as a doctor in sociology at the Université Paris VIII and teaches at the Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines of Ben M'Sick, part of University Hassan II in Casablanca. She has done extensive research about

, family law, women's sexual life, and the social condition of single mothers. Naamane Guessous has launched a campaign for the transmission of Moroccan citizenship by the mother to her children, denouncing in the press the lack of that right. The Civil Code was finally amended in 2007. She has written frequently columns and essays for Moroccan women's magazines, such as ''

Femmes du Maroc ''Moroccan Ladies'' ( ''women'', ) is a monthly women's magazine published in Arabic, English, and French in Casablanca, Morocco. History and profile ''Moroccan Ladies'' was first published in November 1995. The magazine is published by the Mor ...

'', ''Ousra'', '' Citadine'', ''Famille Actuelle'' and more recently ''illi''. Her columns also appear in the Spanish magazine ''M'Sur''. She has been appointed Chevalier of the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 2005.Institut Français
/ref> She is married with the Moroccan physician and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

Chakib Guessous.

Works

*''Au-delà de toute pudeur; La Sexualité feminine au Maroc'' (1988) (Casablanca: Eddif, 10th edition., 1997, 280 p.) *''Printemps et Automne sexuel'' (2000) *''Grossesses de la honte'' (2011) avec Chakib Guessous *''Nous les femmes, vous les hommes !'' (2013)

External links

''L'oeil de Soumaya''
in the magazin
illi

''Femmes du Maroc''

''M'Sur''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guessous, Soumaya Naamane Year of birth missing (living people) Moroccan feminists Moroccan women writers Moroccan essayists Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis alumni Academic staff of the University of Hassan II Casablanca Moroccan sociologists Moroccan columnists Moroccan women columnists Living people Moroccan women essayists Moroccan women's rights activists Moroccan women sociologists 20th-century Moroccan women writers 21st-century Moroccan women writers 20th-century Moroccan writers 21st-century Moroccan writers