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"Stanford University Press is pleased to announce the publication of For Better, For Worse: The Marriage Crisis That Made Modern Egypt by Hanan Kholoussy. Kholoussy is Assistant Professor of History and Middle East Studies at The American University in Cairo.
For many Egyptians in the early twentieth century, the biggest national problem was not British domination or the Great Depression but a "marriage crisis" heralded in the press as a devastating rise in the number of middle-class men refraining from marriage. Voicing anxieties over a presumed increase in bachelorhood, Egyptians also used the failings of Egyptian marriage to criticize British rule, unemployment, the disintegration of female seclusion, the influx of women into schools, middle-class materialism, and Islamic laws they deemed incompatible with modernity.
For Better, For Worse explores how marriage became the lens through which Egyptians critiqued larger socioeconomic and political concerns. Delving into the vastly different portrayals and practices of marriage in both the press and the Islamic court records, this innovative look at how Egyptians understood marital and civil rights and duties during the early twentieth century offers fresh insights into ongoing debates about nationalism, colonialism, gender, and the family."
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She also wrote From husbands and housewifes to Suckers and Whores. It's another analysing book about the marriage crisis in Egypt. There are numerous factors that are causing a marriage crisis, but as far as I know, there never has been a marriage crisis in a Western country. Financial circumstances can cause a marriage crisis, because people seek financial stability in life. So, when a futurious partner or A FUTURE isn't able to offer economical stability, and another culture IS ABLE TO OFFER so, more people are prudent in choosing a partner from another culture. However, in a Western country, where marriage is just an option, since the sexual revolution in the 60's, these laws do not count anymore. A growing proportion of men and women live together without being married. Often, they have children. The majority of children born out of wedlock are recognised by their fathers, it is no longer stigmatised. Similarly, divorce, however painful it may be, is socially acceptable. At least a third of married people separate at some stage in their lives. They are able to do so because the church isn't part of the legal system, and thát made the social norms change. Financial stability plays a role, but not a that big role as it is in the marriage crisis in non Western countries. IMO as long as religion is a part of the law system, society isn't able to change, and the marriage crisis will stay as it is. It is only a matter of time untill the women will seek for foreign partners too, as already happens in many other non western countries. They marry outise of their culture out of a need to seek stability, but what they get is a totally different culture with other norms. So, also they will become divorced women, or unmarried women with children...
Sashyra8 Member # 14488
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This looks as very interesting reading material on modern Egypt.
Another for our book pile,Young at Heart Thanks!!!
Clear and QSY Member # 15597
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I got this book from Amazon a few months ago.
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