Testosterone time bomb in the Middle East

Unemployment and political disenfranchisement have created a generation of frustrated, angry young men in the Middle East. Now there’s another reason why young men from Morocco to Iran are becoming even more frustrated and fed up. They can’t get married. With youth unemployment at an average of over 30 percent in the region, young men can’t ...

603604_070305_wedding_05.jpg
603604_070305_wedding_05.jpg

Unemployment and political disenfranchisement have created a generation of frustrated, angry young men in the Middle East. Now there's another reason why young men from Morocco to Iran are becoming even more frustrated and fed up.

Unemployment and political disenfranchisement have created a generation of frustrated, angry young men in the Middle East. Now there’s another reason why young men from Morocco to Iran are becoming even more frustrated and fed up.

They can’t get married.

With youth unemployment at an average of over 30 percent in the region, young men can’t afford to pay for a wedding, move out of their parents’ house, support a family, and care for their aging parents. Just over a decade ago, 63 percent of Middle Eastern men had tied the knot by the end of their 20s. Today, just over 50 percent have. Iran leads the way in extended bachelorhood—only 38 percent of men have a wife by the time they hit 30.

Considering that in this area of the world a whopping 60 percent of the population is under 25, we have a serious crisis on our hands. For men in the Middle East, marriage is the gateway to true manhood, higher social standing, and legitimate sexual relations. Thus, elusive matrimony and sexual frustration, combined with unemployment and political disenfranchisement, equals anger, volatility, and radicalism.

Remembering that there’ll also be millions of young, frustrated single men in China due to the shortage of females there, the world had better brace itself for the explosion of this testosterone time bomb.

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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