How Arab Women Used Erotic Poetry to Express Sexual Desire in Early Islamic Society

How Arab Women Used Erotic Poetry to Express Sexual Desire in Early Islamic Society

When a young woman named Al-Dahnā, living in the Arabian Peninsula during the Umayyad Islamic period, was asked why she was unhappy with her marriage, she did not hesitate or shy away from giving an honest answer: her husband was inexperienced in bed. Standing before the governor of al-Yamāma, a district east of Najd on the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Dahnā had to justify her request for divorce, not from just any man, but from a well-regarded poet wh…