What does it mean to be a bad girl in the Arab world? What are the repercussions when the Arab girl transgresses social norms in her art? Which museums and galleries sollicit her work on sexuality in the East as well as in the West? The story that internationally renowned Arab-American artist Ghada Amer tells us began simply in the kitchen and in a fairy tale. The four paintings in her series Cinq Femmes au travail (Five Women at Work, 1991) promised to tell the story of a “good Arab girl”: Once upon a time there were women who did their household chores with a smile: They cooked and ironed, (La femme qui repasse/The woman ironing, 1992). We could read their beauty tips embroidered on dishtowels (Conseils de Beauté Du Mois D’Août: Votre Corps, Vos Cheveux/Beauty Tips for the Month of August: Your Body, Your Hair, 1993). They also shared their very own recipes: La recette (The Recipe, 1992-1993), and La recette du gâteau de la forêt noire (The Recipe for Black Forest Cake, 1993). When these activities traditionally associated with the feminine and frequently relegated to the private sphere entered the public sphere and in the domain of art, they reversed the opposition of public and private space. It is then that the good girl from Cairo turned bad. And this is only the beginning of her artistic journey. The good girl from Cairo soon turned to the man’s world, the forbidden world of pornography and politics. In this paper I will trace her artistic journey and her exploration of sex and politics (women’s poverty, religion, perception of Arabs in the West) on the global art scene.