Arab youths

Leisure, culture and politics from Morocco to Yemen

Laurent Bonnefoy, Myriam Catusse, Laurent Bonnefoy, Myriam Catusse

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781526127471
  9781526127457
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526127488
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Young Arabs are too often reduced to the figures of the potential terrorist, the migrant or the exotic icon of the revolution. But the reality is much richer.

Coming from both sides of the Mediterranean, the researchers in this book travel off the beaten track by exploring how young Arabs spend their free time. The case studies take in a wide range of countries, including Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and all manner of activities, from football to rap music, café culture to sex work. Drawn with sensitivity and humour, Arab youths presents an exceptional portrait of a generation that is much talked about but rarely listened to.

This book gives a voice to young men and women who, as heirs of plural traditions, animated by new ideas and influenced by various cultural movements, are inventing the future of their societies in the midst of radical change.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Foreword: Arab youth inside out
• Note on translation
• General introduction: Deconstructing stereotypes: interwoven trajectories of young Arabs
• Part I: Living in the present
• Introduction: Living in the present
• 1 ‘Go ahead, burn your tyres!’: The lust for life of Saudi joyriders
• 2 ‘Just watching the time go by’: The ‘hittists’ of Algeria
• 3 Coffee shops and youth sociability in Abu Dhabi
• 4 From TV soaps to web dramas: A new platform for young Arabs
• 5 The buyat: Subverting gender norms in Saudi Arabia
• 6 From jihad to Sufi ecstasy: Politico-religious trajectories in pre-revolutionary Syria
• 7 The Faculty of Education of Lab‛us: Salafism as a student subculture in Yemen
• 8 ‘A man, a real man!’: Halima, a woman rebel in Gafsa (Tunisia)
• 9 Long-distance supporters: Barca and Real fans in Palestine
• 10 Commentary in Arabic … or in Tigrinya?: Football fans and the search for free television broadcasting
• Part II: Rooting the future
• Introduction: Rooting the future
• 11 Drinking in Hamra: Youthful nostalgia in Beirut?
• 12 The end of a world?: Shifting seasons in Lejnan (Algeria)
• 13 Finding Baghdad: Young people in search of ‘normality’
• 14 Two brothers: Family and hospitality in Al-Karak (Jordan)
• 15 In Massada Street’s coffee shops: The ambiguous social mix of the Palestinians of Israel in Haifa
• 16 In the shade of the khayma: Cultural and political resistance of the young Sahrawis at Dakhla
• 17 Recreation, re-creation, resistance: What roles for dabke in Palestine?
• 18 Taranim and videos: The Egyptian Church stripped bare by its children?
• 19 ‘My identity is becoming clear like the sun’: Theatre in the Shiite schools of Lebanon
• Part III: Constructing oneself
• Introduction: Constructing oneself
• 20 ‘A room of one’s own’: Young people in search of privacy
• 21 A different way of being a young woman?: Self-defence in Cairo
• 22 Chewing alone?: The transformations of qat consumption in Yemen
• 23 Gulf holiday-goers in Europe: Five-star family favourites
• 24 In SOS Bab-el-Oued: Rappers and rockers between integration and transgression
• 25 Leaving the camp: The wanderings of young Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
• 26 ‘Rainbow Street’: The diversity, compartmentalisation and assertion of youth in Amman (Jordan)
• 27 Brahim: Autopsy of a suicide in Kabylia
• 28 ‘Bnat lycée dayrin sexy’: From fun to sex work in Tangier (Morocco)
• Part IV: Speaking out
• Introduction: Speaking out
• 29 ‘A bad day for Ammar’: When Tunisian bloggers took on Internet censorship
• 30 A new social world?: Young Syrian activists and online social networks
• 31 Stand up: Saudi youth take the floor … on YouTube!
• 32 The café in Jadu: A place for ‘revolutionary’ emancipation in Libya
• 33 From consumerism to political engagement: Young Sunnis in Bahrain react in ‘defence of their country’ (2011–2012)
• 34 When walls speak: Revolutionary street art in Yemen
• 35 Art under occupation: The Young Artist of the Year (Palestine)
• 36 ‘The instinct of rap’: Palestinian rap, political contents and artistic explorations
• 37 Rocking in Morocco: The new urban scene in Casablanca
• 38 Alexandrians in fusion: Trajectories of Egyptian musicians from alternative milieux to the revolution
• Index