Being a Coptic man. Masculinity, gender relations and boundary maintenance among Egyptian Copts.

What does it mean to be a man in todays Egypt? And what does it mean to be a man, and part of a minority community? These are questions facing male Copts in contemporary Egypt. Based on fieldwork among Coptic men in Cairo and Alexandria, in 2014 and 2015, this study has looked at what kind of challenges they face, and what ideals they relate to as fathers, as husbands, as sons, as members of a Coptic community, and of a wider, national, Egyptian community. The concept of emergent masculinities has been applied to capture generational changes in masculine ideals and practices. Throughout my research I have found young Coptic men who place sensitivity to the needs of their wives and children at the center of their masculine aspirations in ways that challenge patriarchal traditions within their own society. The concept of masculine others has been developed to account for how a group of men may ascribe other of men with a set of negative characteristics that they can define themselves in opposition to. This is helpful in analyzing how young Coptic men embrace forms of manhood that challenge patriarchal traditions, and at the same time define themselves in opposition to Muslim men of lower socio-economic status. Furthermore, my research show how the construction of masculine others serve to entrench class-based, religious and ethnic divides in Egyptian society at large, and to justify a more intensified social monitoring of woman within the Coptic community. In comparative studies among Muslim men of middle-class background, I've found similar ideals of masculinity, as well as conceptions of masculine others - referring to Muslim men of lower socio-economic status. Christians and Muslim middle class men are often unaware of their commonalities in this respect, partly due to mutual distrust and limited personal interaction between these groups of men.

While numerous studies have explored women's lives in the Middle East, few studies have focused on Middle Eastern men as 'gendered' beings. This project responds to this gap by focusing on changing ideals of masculinity and manhood within the Coptic commu nity in Egypt. In communities that constitute ethnic or religious minorities, perceptions of marginalization and vulnerability encourage maintenance of social boundaries in relation to other groups. Such dynamics inform internal conceptions of manhood, of male responsibilities, and male practices in relation to women within one's community. With a focus on such processes, this project asks the following overall questions: What ideals of masculinity can be found among Coptic men, and how are these ideals r eflected in male-female relationships among Egyptian Copts? In what ways are Coptic conceptions of manhood and masculine responsibilities informed by sectarian relations? Building on earlier research among Christian men in the West Bank, and leaning on R. W. Connells theory of multiple masculinities, this project will focus on male Copts in Egypt, and explore the ideals and practices of masculinity that can be found among male Copts of different generations. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this study will explore what kind of challenges they face, what ideals they relate to, and what kind of responsibilities they ascribe to themselves, as husbands and family men, as members of a Coptic community with strong clerical structures, and as Coptic men within a predominantly Muslim society. Through the study of male Copts, this project will address emergent gender relations, the position of women and sectarian tensions in post-revolutionary Egypt.