resssiduuuue atlas

Unemployment, poverty, corruption and economic inequality have long been identified as contributing factors to the uprisings in Arab countries. But you have to give it to Slackman of the NYTimes, who can write a feature article on the frustration of Egyptian youth…and then reduce it a matter of sexual frustration

“Here in Egypt and across the Middle East, many young people are being forced to put off marriage, the gateway to independence, sexual activity and societal respect. Stymied by the government’s failure to provide adequate schooling and thwarted by an economy without jobs to match their abilities or aspirations, they are stuck in limbo between youth and adulthood. ”     

Sexual frustration has been used to explain the many ‘ills’ facing Arab and Muslim societies, such as terrorism, sexual violence and crime by various commentators in  publications: Der Speigel, National Review Online and the Guardian. Pseudopsychologists with no regional knowledge have dabbled with the theory. Foreign Policy took the liberty of writing on the “Geopolitics of Sexual Frustration”. 

And in the wake of what’s come to be known as the “Arab Spring”, the uprisings were also attributed to…yes, you got it: sexual frustration.

Quite fittingly, the first person to make such a claim was none other than Bernard Lewis, during an interview with the Jerusalem Post.

“Another thing is the sexual aspect of it. One has to remember that in the Muslim world, casual sex, Western-style, doesn’t exist. If a young man wants sex, there are only two possibilities – marriage and the brothel. You have these vast numbers of young men growing up without the money, either for the brothel or the brideprice, with raging sexual desire. On the one hand, it can lead to the suicide bomber, who is attracted by the virgins of paradise – the only ones available to him. On the other hand, sheer frustration.”

There you have it: the Arab is either “raging with sexual desire or…with a flaccid political spirit”

bahahahahaha

wait

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