From Viagra to in vitro fertilization, new technologies are rapidly changing the global face of reproductive health. They are far from neutral: religious, cultural, social, and legal contexts condition their global transfer. The way a society interprets and adopts (or rejects) a new technology reveals a great deal about the relationship between bodies and the body politic. Reproductive health technologies are often particularly controversial because of their potential to reconfigure kinship relationships, sexual mores, gender roles, and the way life is conceptualized. This collection of original ethnographic research spans the region from Morocco and Tunisia to Israel and Iran and covers a wide range of technologies, including emergency contraception, medication abortion, gamete donation, hymenoplasty, erectile dysfunction, and gender transformation.
Introduction | Setting the Context: Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Medical Technologies in the Middle East and North Africa | Angel M. Foster and L. L. Wynn
Part I: Preventing and Terminating Pregnancy
1. Is There an Islamic IUD? Exploring the Acceptability of a Hormone-Releasing Intrauterine Device in Egypt | Ahmed Ragaa A. Ragab
2. Introducing Emergency Contraception in Morocco: A Slow Start after a Long Journey | Elena Chopyak
3. Mifepristone in Tunisia: A Model for Expanding Access to Medication Abortion | Angel M. Foster
4. Navigating Barriers to Abortion Access: Misoprostol in the West Bank | Francoise Daoud and Angel M. Foster
Part II: Achieving Pregnancy and Parenthood
5. “Worse comes to worst, I have a safety net”: Fertility Preservation among Young, Single, Jewish Breast Cancer Patients in Israel | Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli, Efrat Dagan, and Suzi Modiano Gattegno
6. The “ART” of Making Babies Using In Vitro Fertilization: Assisted Reproduction Technologies in the United Arab Emirates | Shirin Karsan
7. Wanted Babies, Excess Fetuses: The Middle East’s In Vitro Fertilization, High-Order Multiple Pregnancy, Fetal Reduction Nexus | Marcia C. Inhorn
8. Birthing Bodies, Pregnant Selves: Gestational Surrogates, Intended Mothers, and Distributed Maternity in Israel | Elly Teman
9. C-Sections as a Nefarious Plot: The Politics of Pronatalism in Turkey | Katrina MacFarlane
Part III: Engaging Sex and Sexuality
10. HPV Vaccine Uptake in Lebanon: A Vicious Cycle of Misinformation, Stigma, and Prohibitive Costs | Faysal El-Kak
11. Hymenoplasty in Contemporary Iran: Liminality and the Embodiment of Contested Discourses | Azal Ahmadi
12. “Viagra Soup”: Consumer Fantasies and Masculinity in Portrayals of Erectile Dysfunction Drugs in Cairo, Egypt | L. L. Wynn
13. Sex Toys and the Politics of Pleasure in Morocco | Jessica Marie Newman
14. Narratives of Gender Transformation Practices for Transgender Women in Diyarbakir, Turkey | M. A. Sanders
Conclusion | Individual, Community, Religion, State: Technology at the Intersection | Donna Lee Bowen
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Glossary of Foreign Terms
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
