Great Expectations, Uncertain Futures. Urban and Online Encounters with Youth, Love and Marriage in Egypt

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For young Egyptians, the economic and social instability of recent years has led to a prolonged period of youth with marriage, a key life event, now occurring later in life. Although social media and greater access to higher education have created more opportunities for unmarried men and women to meet, and have at least in principle paved the way for young people to marry for love, in practice, issues such as a lack of financial means and the pressure for women to marry soon after graduation mean that such marriages remain the exception rather than the norm.