 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 women's rights, family law, women's sexual life, and the social condition of single mothers.