Paper short abstract:

In Cairo, counselling centres specialised in matters of love and sex flourish. However, like most of young Egyptians, a great part of the staff working at these centres has to wait very long before marriage. How do they deal with the paradox of counselling people on a subject they did not experience and their own dreams and fears regarding love and sex?

Paper long abstract:

In Cairo, commercial events like Valentine's Day, films and advertisements presenting love and sex as a mean of self-fulfilment are all around. At the same time, counselling centres specialised on these subjects also flourish in the city, promoting a moralised version of the former discourse. However, like most of young Egyptians, a great part of the staff working at these centres has to wait very long before marriage. How do they cope with the paradox of counselling people on a subject they did not experience? How do they deal with their own dreams and fears regarding love and sex? For women involved in these programs, for instance, possible spinsterhood is a major cause of anguish. On one hand, presenting their methods as scientific truths can be a way out of this paradox, as it permits to disconnect them from personal experience. On the other hand, religion is considered as an unquestionable source for moral principles. Ethnographic data should permit to explore further the intricacies of science, religion, life incentives found in the social environment and the way these unmarried counsellors account of their own personal needs.