Deconstructing Sexuality in the Middle East

Exploring the contemporary dynamics of sexuality in the Middle East, this volume offers an in-depth and unique insight into this much contested and debated issue. It focuses on the role of sexuality in political and social struggles and the politicization of sexuality and gender in the region. Contributors illustrate the complexity of discourses, debates and issues, focusing in particular on the situation in Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine and Turkey, and explain how they cannot be reduced to a single underlying factor such as religion, or a simple binary opposition between the religious right and feminists. Contributors include renowned academicians, researchers, psychologists, historians, human rights and women's rights advocates and political scientists, from different countries and backgrounds, offering a balanced and contemporary perspective on this important issue, as well as highlighting the implication of these debates in larger socio-political contexts. Contents: Introduction: sexuality as a contested political domain in the Middle East, Pinar Ilkkaracan; Criminal Law, women and sexuality in the Middle East, Sherifa Zuhur; How adultery almost derailed Turkey's aspirations to join the European Union, Pinar Ilkkaracan; Fighting honor crimes: evidence of civil society in Jordan, Stephanie Eileen Nanes; Sex education in Lebanon: between secular and religious discourses, Azzah Shararah Baydoun; Contesting discourses of sexuality in post-revolutionary Iran, Hammed Shahidian; Who said that love is forbidden?: gender and sexuality in Iraqi public discourse of the 1970s and the 1980s, Achim Rohde; Militarization, nation and gender: women's bodies as arenas of violent conflict, Rubina Saigol; Towards a cultural definition of rape: dilemmas in dealing with rape victims in Palestinian society, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian; The 'Natasha' experience: migrant sex workers from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in Turkey, Leyla Gülçür and Pinar Ilkkaracan; Index.