"A beautifully written ethnography that does a great job of treating the subject of love and the ambivalence of romantic relationships."—Rachel Newcomb, author of Everyday Life in Global Morocco
"A highly important topic as new literature is growing on alternative readings of gendered and sexual subjectivities in the Middle East."—Pardis Mahdavi, author of Crossing the Gulf: Love and Family in Migrant Lives
"Menin invites us on a masterful journey of intimate life stories and encounters with young women in a small town in central Morocco....Love, in this book, is a quest and a learning ground in which people coming of age in the time of a major generational gap can experience the possibilities and limits of life, and sometimes also imagine alternatives."—Samuli Schielke, author of The Perils of Joy
"Riveting and pathbreaking, Quest for Love narrates how young women in a small central Moroccan town precariously balance the quest for love, freedom, trust, and intimacy with 'true Islam,' ethics, and reputation in the modern world."—Dale F. Eickelman, author of Knowledge and Power in Morocco: The Education of Twentieth Century Notable
Description
Following the 2011 wave of revolutions and protests in North Africa and the Middle East, new discussions of individual freedoms emerged in the Moroccan public sphere and human rights discourse. A segment of the public rallied aroundthe removal of an article in the penal code that punished sexual relationships outside of marriage. As debates about personal and sexual freedom gain momentum, love and intimacy remain complex issues. Moving between public, clandestine, and online interactions, Quest for Love in Central Morocco explores the creative ways young women navigate desire and morality.
Menin’s ethnography focuses on young women living in the low-income and lower-middle-class neighborhoods of a midsized town in Central Morocco, far from the overt influence of city life. At the heart of the book, Menin draws upon ideas of “love” as an ethnographic object and source of theoretical examination. She demonstrates that love, as a complex cultural and historical phenomenon shaped through intersecting socioeconomic and political developments, is crucial in thinking through generational changes and debates in Morocco and the Middle East more broadly. What is at stake in the quest for love, she argues, is not only the making of gendered selves and intimate relationships, but also the imagination of social and political life.
About the Author
Laura Menin is a research associate in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex. She has published numerous articles in the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, Contemporary Levant, and the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Related Interest
April 2024