The text is about examining the compexities and paradoxes urban, Eyptian women face when deemed infertile, particularly in light of the Egyptian patriarchy during the 1980s-1990s. The author seeks to dismantle binaries of infertile versus fertile and mother versus non-mother, engaging in a feminist analysis of identity, community, family, and the political forces involved with the introduction of Western biomedicine and psychology. She engages with Egyptian women at the micro-level via interviews, and at the macro level with the history of gender relations and politics in the Middle East and in Muslim countries. She also utilizes photos of Egyptian women as ethnographic material for understanding gender politics, ultimately striving to comprehend what happens when certain notions of "motherhood" are not fulfilled or break down in a patriarchal society.
