Sexuality in the Arab World

Edited by Samir Khalaf and John Gagnon

Arab cultural discourse has been slow to respond to changing sexual behaviour. The contributors to this collection pick up the slack, ranging across such disciplines as literature, history, sociology and psychology.

Is Damascus the ‘chastity capital’ of the Middle East, where perceptions of wealth and class fuel female rivalries? How do gay men cruise in Beirut? How do young women in Tunis cope with both social pressures to become thin and family pressures to gain weight? What do Lebanese creative-writing students write about sexual practices versus public behaviour?

The fresh, compelling research topics covered include masculinity and migration; colonialism and sexual health; fantasy and violence; and domestic workers and sexual tensions.

ABOUT THE EDITOR(S)

Samir Khalaf is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Behavioral Research (American University of Beirut). His other books include Cultural Resistance: Global and Local Encounters in the Middle East and Heart of Beirut: Reclaiming the Bourj (both published by Saqi Books).

John Gagnon is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a leading figure in the sexual research field. He is the author of An Interpretation of Desire: Essays in the Study of Sexuality.

REVIEWS

‘Other people’s sex lives have always been a source of fascination, and nowhere more so than in the Middle East … Ground-breaking.’ New Statesman

Language: English
ISBN: 9780863569487
2006, Hardcover, 312 pages, 6.0 x 9.0 inches

Subject: Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Sociology

Publisher: Al Saqi