In the Middle East and Central Asia, as in most of the world, music and dance reveal and instantiate gender-related behavior The essays in this section offer a few examples, historical and contemporary, mostly from the Arab world. Other essays, later in the volume, will provide more detail about music and gender elsewhere in the region.
Especially for outsiders, the women of the Middle East tend to attract the most immediate attention in this regard. Common discourse, particularly in North America,...