Paper short abstract:

This paper explores confinement, respect, love, violence, resistance and morality in a state-run shelter. How can the confinement of underage girls unravel a moralised construction of gender and sexuality?

Paper long abstract:

Young Egyptian women accused of inciting immorality, sexual perversion, and prostitution may be confined in government-run shelters. The paper argues that their incarcerated bodies reveal the depth of the state’s construction of a certain moral and social code that must be understood in historical context going back to the 1800s. This history is connected to the stories of women who endure incarceration today, positioning themselves vis-a-vis state and society. Despite continuous surveillance and discipline, women find spaces to battle social constructions of society, religion, and the state. Paying close attention to their narratives of love and hope, intermixed with the violent enforcement of a moral code, the research aims to show how young women re-establish their own sense of worth and envision alternative future lives. The research contributes to anthropological debates on women’s agency in Islamic and Arab societies.