"You are finally meeting your sperm donor for the first time. You have brought friends with you. For safety….Because you know NOTHING about him…"

When is a choice not a choice? Meesh wants a baby, as a ‘solo mother by choice’, and has made plans to make this happen. ‘It’s only sex, right?’ Unravels the complexity of morality and coercion, when the stakes are so high and ‘No’ isn’t being taken for an answer. This fictional story belongs to so many women, please feel free to pause or stop this story if at any time you need to. 

Content warning: stories where you mirror the character as they move around their homes can have a powerful impact. This story contains content around the real time experience of sexual coercion. We encourage the audience to listen to their instinct on whether they are in the right time or place to listen or not. 

Play Inside Series 2: How to be a Real Man or The Availability of Air is a selection of embodied audio stories from writers from Palestine, Egypt and the UK, funded by the British Council International Collaboration Fund and directed by UK artists Michelle Roche and Rosie Poebright (Splash and Ripple) in collaboration with Dawar Arts, Egypt and The Freedom Theatre, Palestine

Welcome into our worlds. Into our homes, into our lives. 

Come, join us for a moment. 

Witness what we see, what we feel, what we hear. 

We get power from sharing our stories. Witnessing survivors' perspectives shifts the power back into their hands. These stories transport us from homes in Egypt to England and to Palestine. We know it’s not always easy to listen to, but it’s important to be heard, to be witness to the complexity of lives, and resilience of people, people fighting for air and remembering to breathe