Abortion Pills, Test Tube Babies, and Sex Toys: Emerging Sexual and Reproductive Technologies in the Middle East and North Africa

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.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 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 PregnancyIs There an Islamic IUD?

Exploring the Acceptability of a Hormone-Releasing Intrauterine Device in Egypt Ahmed Ragaa A.

RagabIntroducing Emergency Contraception in Morocco: A Slow Start after a Long Journey Elena ChopyakMifepristone in Tunisia: A Model for Expanding Access to Medication Abortion Angel M.

FosterNavigating Barriers to Abortion Access: Misoprostol in the West Bank Francoise Daoud and Angel M.

Foster Part II | Achieving Pregnancy and ParenthoodWorse 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 GattegnoThe ART of Making Babies Using In Vitro Fertilization: Assisted Reproduction Technologies in the United Arab Emirates Shirin KarsanWanted Babies, Excess Fetuses: The Middle Easts In Vitro Fertilization, High-Order Multiple Pregnancy, Fetal Reduction Nexus Marcia C.

InhornBirthing Bodies, Pregnant Selves: Gestational Surrogates, Intended Mothers, and Distributed Maternity in Israel Elly TemanC-Sections as a Nefarious Plot: The Politics of Pronatalism in Turkey Katrina MacFarlane Part III | Engaging Sex and SexualityHPV Vaccine Uptake in Lebanon: A Vicious Cycle of Misinformation, Stigma, and Prohibitive Costs Faysal El-KakHymenoplasty in Contemporary Iran: Liminality and the Embodiment of Contested Discourses Azal AhmadiViagra Soup: Consumer Fantasies and Masculinity in Portrayals of Erectile Dysfunction Drugs in Cairo, Egypt L.

L. WynnSex Toys and the Politics of Pleasure in Morocco Jessica Marie NewmanNarratives of Gender Transformation Practices for Transgender Women in Diyarbakir, Turkey M.

A. Sanders Conclusion | Individual, Community, Religion, State: Technology at the Intersection Donna Lee BowenAcronyms and AbbreviationsGlossary of Foreign TermsBibliographyContributorsIndex