A milestone of the Rana Salam’s career came in 2008 with the publication of her book, ‘The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie’. She co-edited the book with Malu Halasa, a Jordanian Filipina American writer and editor based in London, the book sold close to 5,000 copies in its first year.

Through intense on ground research under the Assad regime, interviews, photo-essays and contributions from artists and local photographers, it uncovered the reality revealed through a peek in to a nation’s lingerie designs industry. A salute to the fascinating creative design industry of Syrian lingerie. 

In conservative Syrian-Muslim circles, the purchase of such underwear is a popular tradition, especially at weddings. Grooms often collect for their brides over thirty different sets for their wedding night. The designs contain symbolic allusions: Colorful singing birds with decorative feather, for example, refer to the "bird's nest" as a metaphor for female pubic hair. The lingerie is sold openly in stores and at markets and is a popular gift brought by husbands or mothers for married couples.

“Sexuality in the Arab world today is still simultaneously repressed and required—silenced in public, demanded in marriage, and policed by tradition. Yet men and women have long found ways to express desire and fantasy through what they wear beneath the surface. The flamboyant, humorous, and theatrical lingerie made and sold in Syria and exported to the Arab world tells a complex story: one of quiet rebellion, performance, and the negotiation of pleasure within boundaries. These garments are not just sexy—they’re social documents, revealing how sex survives where it cannot be spoken”

-Rana Salam-