21/03 Sex and the Souk

CULTURE

By NINA BURLEIGH

MARCH 21, 2011, 5:22 PM

Ambroise TézenasCHICK CRIT — Haddad in her Beirut office.

Her new book is a spirited call to arms.

Joumana Haddad, “the Oprah of Lebanon,” is flirting with a fatwa. In the Arab world, suddenly she’s everywhere, a dark-haired, golden-eyed looker sashaying onto talk shows in stiletto heels, provoking Hezbollah with her contempt for Shariah law, penning newspaper columns and books about Arab gender politics, publishing a racy magazine and flashing a winning smile as a judge on Lebanon’s “Celebrity Duets.”