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.

PART ONE: Masculinities and Religion 1. Gender and Islamic Spirituality: A Psychological View of 'Low' Fundamentalism - Durre S. Ahmed 2. The Smile of Death and the Solemncholy of Masculinity - Banu Helvacioglu 3. Alternate Images of the Prophet Muhammad's Virility - Ruth Roded 4. The Trial of Heritage and the Legacy of Abraham - Najat Rahman PART TWO: Masculinities and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict 5. My wife is from the jinn: Palestinian men, diaspora, and love - Celia Rothenberg 6. Chasing Horses, Eating Arabs - Rob K. Baum 7. Stranger Masculinities: Gender and Politics in a Palestinian-Israeli 'Third-Space' - Daniel Monterescu PART THREE: Masculinities and Social Practice 8. Gender, Power and Social Change in Morocco - Don Conway-Long 9. Masculinity and gender violence in Yemen - Mohammed Baobaid 10. Opportunities for Masculinity and Love: Cultural Production in Ba'thist Iraq during the 1980s - Achim Rohde 11. On being homosexual and Muslim: Conflicts and Challenges - Asifa Siraj 12. "The worms are weak": Male Infertility and Patriarchal Paradoxes in Egypt - Marcia C. Inhorn Index