By Alaa Shahine, BEIRUT (Reuters) – The young, pretty actress appears before a capacity crowd at a Beirut theater and says she was forced to shave her pubic hair to please her husband in bed after finding out he was cheating on her. "My husband hates the hair. He thinks it is filthy and disgusting and forced me to remove it … and when I stopped shaving he had an affair with another woman," she says.

"But you have to love the hair if you love ‘CoCo’," she says, referring to the vagina and drawing applause and laughter from the audience. "Women’s Talk," inspired by American playwright Eve Ensler’s hit "The Vagina Monologues," is one of two plays recently shown in Beirut which openly and frankly tackle the issue of women’s sexuality, a taboo in the largely conservative Middle East.

The play, starring four young actresses and comprising 12 monologues, three of them adapted from Ensler’s work, also brings into the open such serious problems as rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment, which Arab women are discouraged from discussing in public. The audience needs to know about these issues. I don’t know why it is shameful for a woman to talk openly about her period, for example," said Lina Khoury, who wrote and directed her monologues based on interviews with women of different ages.

"We have to question the very customs and traditions in our society that are besieging and oppressing us," she told Reuters. Lebanon has long prided itself on being a bastion of freedom in the conservative Middle East and it is no surprise that such a play would open in its liberal capital. Yet even here, Khoury had to tone down some language to get the censor’s approval and waited more than a year for permission to show the play

Frank discussion of women’s sexuality is still frowned on in many social circles in Lebanon and some women are reluctant to report experiences of sexual harassment, abuse or even violence, fearing their reputation may be tarnished.

In neighboring Syria, a groundbreaking study on violence against women, released earlier in April, found that one in four married women are beaten — usually by a husband or father.

Honor killings — the murder of women by their relatives for engaging in pre- or extra-marital relations — are still regularly reported in Egypt and Jordan. In the Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive.

Rasha al-Atrash, who is studying for a masters degree in cultural studies, said it was essential to break social taboos on women’s sexuality.

"It’s an important work in a society where women have yet to gain their full rights, where it is not uncommon for a woman to be a virgin at the age of 35 and where many women still get hymen-restoration surgery before marriage," she said.

SECRET LIFE OF WOMEN

A play called "The Secret Life of the Woman", shown in February, featured five actresses and focused mainly on women’s right to express their sexual needs and desires.

In one scene, the actresses distributed leaflets among the audience advocating the benefits of masturbation.

Arab films, especially in Egypt, have tackled sensitive issues such as social pressure on women to remain virgins until marriage or to put up with unfaithful or abusive husbands, and strongly criticized the region’s male-dominated society.

But the two Lebanese plays go a step further, using strong and direct language that Arab films usually shy away from.

In the first monologue of "Women’s Talk," actress Zeinab Assaf quotes a woman describing the sort of harassment she has faced just taking a taxi or walking in the street.

"He (the driver) asked me: ‘so are you a virgin? How does your boyfriend sleep with you? I don’t enjoy it unless I enter from the front’," she says, alluding to a practice among some unmarried women of engaging in anal or oral sex to satisfy their lovers while preserving their virginity for marriage.

"Sometimes I feel like I’ve left home without putting my jeans on," she adds.

But some felt the plays were so frank that they were unlikely to appeal to the people the message needs to reach.

"They both preach to the converted, to people who don’t have a problem listening to these issues being discussed openly and directly," said Abdel Rahman Zahzah, a 29-year-old engineer.

"They didn’t approach those to whom the message is new. They also didn’t offer any solutions."

Khoury, who has the equivalent of a PhD in theater direction from the University of Arkansas, said she wanted to get awkward topics into the public sphere and leave members of the audience to think about the possible solutions.

"I am not addressing a veiled woman who thinks pre-marital sex is forbidden," she said. "I am condemning those who believe what I say is right and refuse to act on it, and those who do act on it but refuse to admit it in the open."