Note: the excerpts appear according to their order in the magazine

> I'll Tell You About My Penis
Rami Al-Amin, Lebanon
It's not long. And it's not short, either. It's medium-length, doesn't amaze many girls, but it does the job. I used to worry about its size a lot: I would fetch a ruler, put it under my penis, and measure it at its hardest. Naturally, like most men, I used to ask any women who had the honour of an encounter with my cock what they thought of it. They would, of course, be flattering about it; but this wouldn't relieve my anxiety that it wasn't huge, towering like a mighty sky-scraper, and that it didn't surge, like a river flowing in...more

> "Break a Woman's Rib, and She'll Grow Twenty-Two More"
(a popular Levantine expression expressing the idea of a woman’s imperviousness to, or even her thriving on, violence - the gendered equivalent of the cat having nine lives)
Muna Fayad, Lebanon
Things have started to change in the wider world as well as in some Lebanese circles, with women becoming less submissive to, and more critical of, violence and abuse. The organizations which are involved in this issue have become more sensitive to the problem, and even to individuals and groups. Despite all this, however, there are still a great many women who are the victims of physical violence, and who continue to put up with it out of a sense of shame, of loneliness and of guilt. This has to do with their assuming responsibility for the failure...more

> My First Time
Rasha Al-Amir, Lebanon
'Your lips', he said - so I closed my eyes, hoping he'd steal them; he was five years older than me, and what he did showed me what he'd learnt in that extra time he'd dedicated to the exact science of two tongues and some spit. My eloquent lover convinced me that I was his flower, and that flowers shed tears of wine, when they are cut, which quench the thirst of the cosmos. With my wine, the wine from my pearl, I quenched the thirst of the cosmos and I got it drunk that evening, sobbing in silence. My boyfriend held me, rocked me, calmed my terror and dried my tears of anxiety and fear, assuring me that he was embracing a woman from paradise...more

> Pin-up artists, lust hunters
Yusuf Limoud, Egypt/Switzerland
A quick look at the world history of the nude, from prehistoric times to the present day, reveals an innate need to document not only the naked body in itself, but also to focus on its erotic dimension. Bygone civilisations treated the naked body as a symbol. But today, with a little knowledge of psychology, we can deduce that behind all the symbols and the signifiers there is nothing but libido, or the original sensual power that the world itself is renewed by...more

> Her Only Body, of Swedish author Elsie Johansson
Taleb Abdul-Amir, Iraq/Sweden
In her recent novel, this writer turns the prevailing concept of the elderly upside down and inside out. The older community is often seen as being mainly engaged in sitting drinking coffee and playing with their grandchildren, whilst waiting to pass away. But her heroine, who is in her seventies, is in a passionate sexual relationship, and says: 'Once, I let him come to me and penetrate me. I don't remember if there was a specific reason which drove me to do that. But I remember that he wept after the tremor of intercourse went through him, and he ejaculated, and then I wept too. We lay there holding each other tightly, and weeping'...more

> At the top of my thigh there is a little mole
Iman Ibrahim, Syria
Geography
He plays with the softness of my flesh,
I cling on to all the hardness he has.
*
A touch
Touch me like a generous stone
Or even
Be miserly
And just look...more

> Her Black Cat
Khalil Qandil, Jordan
A distant, sleeping virility awoke in the man's soul as he put his hand between her buttocks and lifted her a little way off the ground. He was appalled by the startling shudder her vulva emitted the moment it was touched. He was appalled by the flexibility of her body, hidden under her dress. He wished he had thrown her to the ground, onto the zinc sheeting. The woman was moving up and down, letting his hands feel their way around in the nooks and crannies of her body, delighted at the contact her movements allowed him, reaching out her hand towards...more

> My Body Taught Me
Antoine Mesarra, Lebanon
I began discovering, day after day, the elements that my being was made up of. What I mean by that is: the desire which dictates movement, and the brain which issues the orders, and the arm which moves. And then, if the desire fades away, the body stops complying with the orders. So, referring to the famous Descartes quote 'I think, therefore I am,' I found myself saying, 'my desire rules, therefore I am.' Every part of my body could feel the divine component my being was made up of. And I felt that I was having a philosophical experience - what could be more profound than the theories of the great philosophers! In reality, on an external level, I was living between the pages of Bergson’s  Matter and Memory, and it had continued to be...more

> The Unbearable Sweetness of the Kama Sutra
Mazin Ma'arouf, Lebanon
The foreplay that prepares for the act of penetration can take many varied forms. But it is imperative that the man does not overdo it, and fall victim to an arousal so strong as to make him ejaculate before the penis has entered the vagina. This means that the woman, for example, must reawaken the penis by rubbing it and around it, or sucking it, or playing with it, very gently; or she can put it between her thighs and move them alternately, as she is able to...more

> Phallus in Wonderland
Sakhr Al-Hajj Hasan, Syria
Estimates of the actual size of Holmes's penis varied. But they all maintained that it was a massive one. His first wife, Sharon Gebenini, had said that it was ten inches long. At the start of his cinematic career it was rumoured that, when fully erect, his penis was eight to ten inches long. Then there was the person who dissected his corpse, who said that his testicles were the size of a huge turkey's...more

> When the Price of Sexual Pleasure is Pain
Haneen Al-Ahmar, Lebanon
Latifa is a twenty-five-year-old woman, who left school at fourteen to pursue the vocation she had inherited from her mother. Her tools are wax, sugar, and spools of thread. She sees all that which is special and intimate in women's bodies; she depilates them, and gives them beauty tips, and advises them about their lives in general, as well as about their sex lives. A month after she began menstruating Latifa's mother accompanied her to the house of a female client, to start training her in the art of depilation. It was the first time she had ever seen anyone else's vagina. That day...more

At any time you can see the full contents page of the magazine, and the names of all the contributors, by clicking here.