'My ambition is to give back to the women of my blood the power of speech confiscated by their men.' Badra is a young Berber girl from aNorth African village who is married off to anold man, andbrutally raped on her wedding night. She thinks sexual pleasure exists only for men, until she escapes from her cruel husband to the city. Then she meets a handsome doctor who introduces her to a new world of sexual passion. L'Amande, written under a pseudonym by a North African woman living in France, reads like an erotic manifesto for modern women who want to break free from the repressive bonds of cultural tradition to unashamedly demand their right to pleasure.