Medicine and Morality in Egypt: Gender and Sexuality in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

In Middle Eastern and Islamic societies, the politics of sexual knowledge is a delicate and often controversial subject. Sherry Sayed Gadelrab focuses on nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Egypt, claiming that during this period there was a perceptible shift in the medical discourse surrounding conceptualizations of sex differences and the construction of sexuality. Medical authorities began to promote theories that suggested men's innate 'active' sexuality as opposed to women's more 'passive' characteristics, interpreting the differences in female and male bodies to correspond to this hierarchy. Through examining the interconnection of medical, legal, religious, and moral discourses on sexual behavior, Gadelrab highlights the association between sex, sexuality, and the creation and recreation of the concept of gender at this crucial moment in the development of Egyptian society. By analyzing the debates at the time surrounding science, medicine, morality, modernity, and sexuality, she paints a nuanced picture of the Egyptian understanding and manipulation of the concepts of sex and gender.