Reinventing Love? ― Gender, Intimacy and Romance in the Arab World

Affective and sexual intimacy are sensitive issues in the Arab World. However moments of closeness between men and women have always been possible, perhaps even more so today, thanks to the spread of mixed-gender social spaces and new communication technologies. Further, while undeniably embedded in gendered relations of power, love is a highly ambivalent field of experience that involves a good deal of negotiation between partners and with family and can stand in tense relationship to patriarchal domination. Often, however, romantic love is contrasted with love after marriage. This book precisely explores the relationship between love and marriage in the contemporary Arab world. By sketching the paths of amorous encounters in the Arab world, it introduces the reader to the conflicting configurations that shape love practices, providing new insights into a still-emerging field of inquiry. It examines notions of gender, intimacy and love through ethnographic case studies that offer an insight into current dynamics in Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

Corinne Fortier is Anthropologist. She is researcher at the French National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) and member of Social Anthropology Lab (LAS) (CNRS-EHESSCollege de France-Universites PSL, Paris). She has conducted research in Mauritania, in Egypt and on Islamic scriptural sources related to gender, body, seduction, bioethics, and family law.

Aymon Kreil is Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University. He has conducted most of his research in Egypt, on the issues of love, sexuality, consumption and psychological counselling.

Irene Maffi is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Lausanne. She has conducted research in Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia and Switzerland and her scientific interests include reproductive health, sexuality, medical technologies, abortion, contraception, doctor-patient relationships, gender and class inequalities.