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“We are Arabs:” The Embodiment of Virginity Through Arab and Arab American Women’s Lived Experiences

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Abstract

Virginity is part of our existence in the world as embodied sexual subjects. While many meanings are associated with virginity, in most of the Arab world virginity relates to the presence of a hymen and extends to encompass the honor of the Arab community, and virginity loss commonly relate to first vaginal intercourse. This study explored the meanings of virginity from the perspectives of Arab and Arab American women. A qualitative phenomenological approach, informed by the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, was used to conduct in-depth interviews with ten women. We identified one over-arching theme Virginity as Identity, and two major themes Embodiment of Virginity and “We are Arabs.” To reach an embodied virginity, participants went through a disembodied virginity process, reflecting society’s perceptions and values of virginity related to anatomical presence of a hymen and society’s honor. “We are Arabs” describes the ways women identified with the Arab ethnic identity as a shared overall identification, but differed from one lived experience to another, and influenced how participants embodied virginity. Our participants provided a better understanding of the diverse meanings of virginity that move beyond the binary of virginity and virginity loss, and into a spectrum of embodied meanings. Findings suggest the need for future research around sexuality in Arab Americans with attention to socio-political contexts in order to understand the nature and context of sexual initiation and its impact on sexual behaviors and well-being.

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Notes

  1. Orientalism, a concept attributed to Edward Said (1978) more than 30 years ago, describes the Western representation of Arab cultures. It is shaped by European imperialist attitudes that define the “Orient” in terms of cultural or religious perspectives. It is a political ideology that promotes binary differences between the East (Arabs) and the West (Europeans, North Americans).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the ten participants who shared personal and sensitive stories. We also want to thank Dr. Sarah Kagan and Dr. Shannon Lundeen, who served on the dissertation committee of the primary author, for their constructive feedback and support throughout the dissertation process. We want to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Office of Nursing Research, and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pennsylvania as well as Sigma Theta Tau, Xi Chapter.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

The study have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Centers for Global Women’s Health and Health Equity Research, 418 Curie Blvd, Claire M. Fagin Hall, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6096, USA

    Sarah Abboud, Loretta Sweet Jemmott & Marilyn S. Sommers

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  1. Sarah Abboud
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  2. Loretta Sweet Jemmott
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  3. Marilyn S. Sommers
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Correspondence to Sarah Abboud.

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Abboud, S., Jemmott, L.S. & Sommers, M.S. “We are Arabs:” The Embodiment of Virginity Through Arab and Arab American Women’s Lived Experiences. Sexuality & Culture 19, 715–736 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-015-9286-1

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