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Muhajababes: Meet the New Middle East - Cool, Sexy and Devout

Two-thirds of the population in the Middle East are under 25 years old and, though many now have university degrees, thre aren't enough jobs to go round. They're having a collective quarter-life crisis. In the months before turning 25 herself, Allegra Stratton set out to meet them.

She visits Beirut, Amman, Cairo, Dubai, Kuwait City, and Damascus — moving with the Middle Eastern ripple of change: Iraq's first post-Saddam elections, Lebanon's Cedar Revolution, Mubarak's decision to hold multi-candidate elections and Kuwait giving women the vote. She looks for youth culture as we know it — hip-hop artists, pop musicians and film-makers — but soon discovers these are a minority pursuit. Instead, a massive video industry of airbrushed, heavily produced, scantily clad singers hold the affections of young Arabs. And there's a contradiction. Many of the fans of these semi-naked popstrels are also very devout. 'Muhajabah' means one who veils. These veiled but sexily dressed young women, then, are the Muhajababes.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 281
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781845294274
  • Genres
  • islam, religion, sociology
  • Release date
  • 2006