Islamic Masculinities

by Lahoucine Ouzgane (Editor)

This innovative book outlines the great complexity, variety and difference of male identities in Islamic societies. From the Taliban orphanages of Afghanistan to the cafés of Morocco, from the experience of couples at infertility clinics in Egypt to that of Iraqi conscripts, it shows how the masculine gender is constructed and negotiated in the Islamic Ummah. It goes far beyond the traditional notion that Islamic masculinities are inseparable from the control of women, and shows how the relationship between spirituality and masculinity is experienced quite differently from the prevailing Western norms. Drawing on sources ranging from modern Arabic literature to discussions of Muhammad's virility and Abraham's paternity, it portrays ways of being in the world that intertwine with non-Western conceptions of duty to the family, the state and the divine.

Genres: Nonfiction, Islam

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[MusTii Fa · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating comes not from the content itself but because of the academic nature of the book. I can't actually recall much because of the fancy terminologies of this field. Nevertheless, I related to most of the chapters, while reading, as I lived and grew up in this culture. The book is a collection of academic papers on the topic of gender and especially Masculinities in Islam. My favorites were ‘My Wife is from the Jinn’: Palestinian men, diaspora and love,' 'Masculinity and gender violence in Yemen',‘The worms are weak’: male infertility and patriarchal paradoxes in Egypt' and 'Opportunities for masculinity and love: cultural production in Ba’thist Iraq during the 1980s'.