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 MESA 2006 Panel Summaries
Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Sexuality
and Kinship
Submitted by Frances S. Hasso
Panel Participants:
Panel Organizer: Frances S. Hasso, Oberlin College
Chair/Discussant: Rhoda Kanaaneh, American University
Presenters: Mary Ann Fay, American University, “Old is Gold: Gender and Changing Patterns of Marriage and the Family in the United Arab Emirates;” Angel M. Foster, Harvard Medical School/Ibis Reproductive Health,“Marriage, Sexuality and Reproductive Health: A Survey of University Students in Tunisia and Jordan;” Frances S. Hasso, Oberlin College, “Transnationalism, Globalization, and Emerging Kin and Sexual Relations Among Egyptians and Emiratis;” Afra Al-Mussawir, University of Texas at Austin, “Kinship, Women’s Sexuality, and Violence in Transnational Iraqi Narratives;” and Alisa Perkins, University of Texas at Austin, “Is There a ‘Crisis in Marriage’ in Morocco? Pre-Marital Sexuality, Marriage Delay and the 2004 Family Law Reform”
This panel included scholars crossed-trained in the fields of anthropology, sociology, history, gender studies and Middle East/North Africa/Arab studies. The panelists used empirical research to conduct narrative and other analyses that explored issues of gender, marriage, sexuality, and the body transnationally: within countries, across countries in the region known as the Arab world, and across other national boundaries. The transnational feminist approach of the panel (1) fractured “nations” by looking at differences and inequalities within them; (2) addressed the significance of state-bound and local historical, cultural, economic, legal, and political realities; and (3)
paid attention to transnational flows, processes, and conflicts. The discussion after the presentation of the papers focused on the “marriage crisis” caused by a variety of factors including the delay in marriage, the concomitant rise in pre-marital sexuality according to young people surveyed; the rising concern over sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies and abortions; the paucity of information on sexuality available to young, unmarried men and women and the response by governments in North Africa and Jordan.
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