Thierry BOISSIERE, Gaëlle GILLOT, Yoann MORVAN (ed.), Gender issues in the Middle East. An approach through urban spacespublished by Le Cavalier Bleu, 28 August 2025, 256p.

Presentation:

Far from the fixed and naturalised representations of a Middle East perceived as immobile and conservative, this book explores the contemporary dynamics of gender relations and identifications based on fieldwork carried out in Istanbul, Tehran, Beirut, Abu Dhabi, London and Yiwu (China). This research sheds light on the ordinary practices, discreet struggles and reconfigurations of identity at work in spaces as diverse as parks, markets, shopping centres, refugee camps and second-hand clothes shops. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the book examines the transformations underway in these bustling metropolises and offers a fresh look at a region in flux and crisis. It invites us to understand - through the prism of gender and as close to everyday life as possible - the tensions, dynamics and hopes that run through Middle Eastern urban societies.

Thierry Boissière is an anthropologist at the Université Lumière Lyon 2, in the Environnement Ville Société laboratory (UMR 5600). Gaëlle Gillot is a geographer at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, in the Development and Societies laboratory (UMR 201). Yoann Morvan is an anthropologist at the CNRS, in the Mesopolhis laboratory (CNRS, amU, Sciences Po Aix, UMR 7064).

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