ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the possibility of leisure overriding the various social divisions and certain other impediments to cultural development in the Arab/Iranian Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It focuses on the probability of this happening within the framework of Arab Spring and Arab Summer. One critical background condition inspiring the Arab Spring is the high rate of unemployment in the MENA, with its ominous spike for the age category of youth. As happens with leisure lifestyle, a leisure identity arises in conjunction with a leisure-based central life interest. Leisure is clearly one of the flash points in gender relations in the MENA. Such activity there is contextualized, in significant part, by what tradition prescribes and proscribes in gender relations. The absence of governmental democracy, though an impediment, will be insufficient to stifle the vast interest in leisure evident throughout the region.
