Deconstructing Sexuality in the Middle East

Edited by Pinar Ilkkaracan

• 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.

• About the Editor: Pinar Ilkkaracan is an Adjunct Professor at Bosphorus University, Turkey.

• Reviews: 'Showing how sexual and bodily rights continue to be a site of political contestation across the Middle East, this scholarly and lucid volume decenters religion and recenters discourses of sexuality and gender in struggles to define the nation. By uncovering wide variations in personal status laws, cultural practices, regulatory policies and movements of resistance, it challenges external stereotypes of Muslim societies while maintaining a critical perspective from within. Courageous and groundbreaking.'
  Rosalind P. Petchesky, City University of New York, USA
  
  'This book brings together an exciting collection of reflections on the contested politics of sexuality and gender in the Middle East. Its impressive breadth and range of contributions convey the contradictions and complexities of sexual politics in this region. It will be of enormous interest to academics and activists alike.'
  Andrea Cornwall, University of Sussex, UK

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Pinar Ilkkaracan

Executive Director
Women for Women's Human Rights - New Ways
İnn Caddesi, 37/6 Saadet Apt.
Gmssuyu
Istanbul, 34437 Turkey
Phone: 90-212-251-00-29
Fax: 90-212-251-00-65
Email: pinar-ilk@superonline.com
Web:www.wwhr.org

Nationality: Turkey
Profession: Activist, Consultant, Scholar/Writer
Area(s) of Expertise: Gender Violence, Health & Population, Women's Human Rights
Country/Region of Expertise: Turkey, Middle East, South Asia


Pinar Ilkkaracan, a researcher, activist, trainer, and psychotherapist, is the founder of Women for Womens Human Rights (WWHR)-New Ways, a Turkish NGO that engages in advocacy and lobbying for womens human rights at the national, regional and international levels, conducts womens human rights training programs, and coordinates an international program to promote sexual and bodily rights as human rights in Muslim societies. WWHR-New Ways is currently leading the campaign to amend Turkeys Penal codes that adversely affect women and, in 1999, was awarded the AWID Leading Solutions Award by the Association for Women's Rights in Development in recognition of its contributions to advancing gender equality and social justice.

Ms. Ilkkaracan has authored numerous articles on violence against women, women in Muslim societies, women in Turkey, and women and sexuality. She edited the book, Women and Sexuality in Muslim Societies and co-authored a human rights manual, Human Rights and Legal Literacy Training Manual, which is used in community centers throughout Turkey to raise awareness of womens reproductive rights. She is also a member of the Global Fund for Women's Advisory Council, the International Advisory Committee of BRIDGE at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics. Info