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Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper explores the lives of middle-class singles in the contemporary Maghreb and the meanings they and their social surrounding attach to their state of being unmarried.

Paper long abstract:

Fīrān - tīrān - ğīrān (Moroccan Arabic: "mice - bulls - neighbours") is a Moroccan proverb describing a human's life cycle. After childhood and before becoming a "neighbour", somebody one can cultivate social contacts through mutual visiting networks, one is in the liminal position of a "bull". The saying suggests that singlehood is socially constructed as problematic and potentially destructive for social cohesion.

Various anthropological studies on the Middle East have highlighted the phenomenon of "marriage problems" among young men who cannot afford costly wedding expenses and, forcibly, stay unmarried until their 30s. This understanding of singlehood as the result of economic hardship is reflected by the Moroccan term for "single" (zūfrī), which is derived from French les ouvriers, the "factory workers". However, more and more members of the middle class remain single for long; a few might not even take marriage as the only future option for granted.

Based on my ethnographic fieldwork in Tunis (2009) and Marrakech (2010), this paper seeks to explore the phenomenon of increasing age at first marriage among members of the middle class. It will highlight the co-implications of their understandings of singlehood, partnership and conceptions of "love" or emotional intimacy. In particular, I will argue that it is these changing notions that leave young men and women feel overwhelmed by difficulties to find suitable partners.