Negotiating the rules of chaste behaviour: re-interpretations of the symbolic complex of virginity by young women of Moroccan descent in The Netherlands

This article investigates what narrations on the symbolic complex of virginity in the life-stories of second-generation women of Moroccan descent in The Netherlands can tell us about the ways these women construct, maintain and combine their various social identifications. It is demonstrated that these biographical narratives contain numerous episodes in which the women improvise upon and shift the meanings of Moroccan core-values like virginity and obedience to one's parents. It is argued that they do so in ways that allow their identifying with values that are cherished within Moroccan circles to be combined with upholding cultural notions that are highly valued by Dutch peers with whom they also identify. It is also pointed out, however, that their drawing upon multicultural capital to create new strategies of living is not without constraints.