The Body in Islamic Culture

Fuad Khuri explores the concept of the body in two phases - different meaning and images related to the body in Islam, and the ways the body communicates messages, attitudes and feelings through unspoken language.

The concept of the body is of special importance in Islamic and Arab societies as much of daily interaction between peoples in these societies is related to the strict Islamic division of the universe into different spaces - the 'femine' and 'masculine', the 'pure' and the 'polluted', the 'private' and 'public'. This classification affects social, cultural and sexual behaviour. Consequently the body becomes a tool used to communicate attitudes, desires, doubts and intimacy, but also to define social discourse and mores.