Women in The Muslim World: Middle East North Africa Region

Women in The Muslim World: Middle East North Africa Region

This course examines the position of women in the Middle East and North African countries. The readings have been selected to provide students with a variety of experiences of women's lives in the Middle East and North Africa. Although the course focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, references during the lecture will include South and Southeast Asia. The course will start from a historical review of Islamic religion and its relation to women followed by a history of colonialism and the rise of the feminist movement in the region. Next, forces behind the rise of political Islam (fundamentalism) will be examined including the impact of Islamisation on women. The next section will cover women's reaction to the Islamisation process by concentrating on women's political resistance in Iran as a case. The instructor will add her first hand experience of the Islamicist movement prior to the Islamic revolution in 1979 and her involvement in gender politics following the revolution. Although, the course chooses Iran as the case study, student will be encouraged to choose other cases. The instructor will particularly encourage students to look the case of Afghanistan for which additional materials will be provided at request. It is important for our women study program at the Institute to provide a comprehensive understanding of women's issues and Islamisation as war in the region threatens the lives of many.

Course Format: The course will follow a mixed lecture-seminar format. Marks will be based on one mid-term test, a research paper and/or a take-home examination, in addition to class participation (through formal group presentations) in the seminar section of the course. 

Instructor: Dr. Roksana Bahramitash. Dr. Bahramitash was educated at Teheran University, the National University of Iran and McGill University from which she holds her doctorate in sociology. An expert in female labour markets in developing countries, in recent years her research interests have come to include the impact of Islamicisation on the economic position of women, with particular reference to Indonesia and Iran .

Grading:

Course Evaluation:

Class participation: 15%

*Weekly Journal :   15%

Mid-term exam :     30%

Final take home:     40%

*Keep a journal of notebook on your reflections on the discussion and readings: Submit one journal entry each week based on the readings. 

 

There will be a course package for the course.

 

Course Outline:

1-Islamic Tradition in History

This section consists of a broad survey of the position of women from the point of view of history. It discusses the way in which Islamic tradition adopted misogenous practices such as veiling (which originated from places other than the Arabian heartland and came three centuries after the emergence of Islam.) Then, with the colonial period, starting from the 15^th Century and continuing until after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, patriarchy was reinforced through influences other than the Islamic tradition.

Ahmed Lila.1992.”Women and the Rise of Islam” and “The Transitional Age” in  Women and Gender in Islam.

Margaret and Judith Tucker. 1999.“Introduction” in Margaret Meriwether and Judith Tucker (eds.), Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East.

Keddie Nikki.1991.Introduction:Deciphering Middle Eastern Women’s History” in Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron, ed. Women in Middle Easter History.

Kandiyoti Denis.1991. Islam and Patriarchy: A Comparative Perspective in Women in Middle Eastern History by Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron (eds)Yale University Press

2- The rise of nationalist movement and feminism

Colonialism in turn led to a backlash, extant today in many countries. The result has been a contradiction – on the one hand, Islam rejects Western models including those for the role of women, but on the other, it relied heavily on female political support during de-colonalization and nationalist revival.

Kumar Jaywardena.1986. Introduction. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World.

Thomas Philipp.1978. Feminism and Nationalism in L. Beck and N. Keddie Eds. Women in the Muslim World, Harvard University Press

Abu-Lughod Lila. 1998.Feminist Longings and Postcolonial Conditions in Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East. Princton Univeristy Press

3-Current state: Rise of political Islam and feminism

This section examines the governance and legal structure in contemporary Muslim societies. It looks at how international constraints (political, military and economic) have shaped and continue to shape the state structure, and the impact such constraints have had on women’s economic and political power. It will also look at instances of war and revolution to see how Muslim countries under stress have attempted to mobilize, suppress or co-opt organized female political power. It concludes with an examination of the relationship between nationalism and feminism in Islamic societies, with particular reference to Iran, Indonesia, Algeria, Egypt, Turkey and Palestine. The overall message is that the contemporary Muslim world is a highly heteogeneous one, and that Western popular views expressed in the mass media, fiction and even academic discourse are often, at best gross over simplifications, at worst simply wrong.

Chatterjee Partha.1990.”The Nationalist Resolution of the Women’s Question in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (eds.), Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History.

Hatem Mervat.1999. Modernization, The State and The Family in Middle East Women’s Studies” in Margaret Meriwether and Judith Tucker eds., Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East.

Kandiyoti Denis.1992.Women, Islam and the State: A Comparative Approach in Comparing Muslim Socieities: Knowledge and the State in a World Civilization in Juan R.Cole (ed.) Univeristy of Michigan Press

5- Women's Work and the Islamic Tradition

This section looks at the fact the not only is there great diversity in the construction of the polity of the Muslim world, but there are also great socio-economic diversities.  Modes of production in the Muslim world vary from those of the nomad to the pastoralist to agrarian, and from resource-based to industrial and modern post-industrial. This section examines the degree to which women’s economic position can be imputed to the influence of the Islamic tradition as opposed to socio-economic factors common to the South.

Hijab Nadia.1996.”Women and Work in the Arab World” in Arab Women ed. Suha Sabbagh.

Amawi Abla.1996.”Women and Property Rights in Islamic World” in Arab Women ed. Suha Sabbagh.

 Keddi Nikki and Bois Beck.1978. “Introduction” in Women in the Muslim World, ed. Nikki Keddi and Lois Beck.

6- Islamic traditions and feminism: current issues

The course concludes by looking at the feminist movement in its contemporary context. It compares the trends in female political organization in Muslim and Western countries, suggesting that, to some degree in some countries, it can be seen as more vibrant in the former than the latter. Therefore the course examines trends towards the creation of an indigenous feminist movement manifesting itself in the growth and increasing articulation of women’s organizations both in countries such as Iran and Indonesia where the state has become Islamic and in places like Turkey where the state has suppressed the Islamic political party. 

Hegland Mary Elaine ”Gender and Religion in the Middle East and South Asia” in ed. Margaret Meriwether and Judith Tucker, Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East.

Mernissi Fatima.1996. Muslim Women and Fundamentalism. in ed. Margaret Meriwether and Judith Tucker, Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East.

Lazreg Marina.1994.”Between God and Man” in The Eloquence of Silence.

Badran Margot.1995.”Arab Feminist” in Feminists, Islam and Nation.

7- Case study: Iran

This section examines the above questions in greater detail with reference to certain case studies, several of which will be chosen for comparative analysis. These will vary from year to year depending on the mix of students and the certain questions thrown up by the mass media – currently the situation of women in Afghanistan is important. In any case chosen, the following issues will be highlighted:

a) Early 20^th Century feminism and the rise of political Islam and nationalist movement

 b) Rise of modern state and feminism

c) Education, employment, legal changes before and after Islamic revolution

d) Current political and social issues facing women

The readings will reflect the actual choice of cases.

Examples:

Paydar Parvin. 1995.Ch. 2 and 3, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth Century Iran. Cambridge Middle East Studies.

Pazira Nelofer.2001. Curtailed Rights, Lost Dignities: A Century of Afghan Women's Struggle for Equality.

Badran Margot.1991. Competing Agenda:Feminists, Islam and the State in 19^th and 20^th Century in Women, Islam and the State (ed )Deniz Kandiyoti.

Kandiyoti Denis.1991. End of the Empire: Islam, Nationalism and Women in Turkey in Women, Islam and the State (ed )Deniz Kandiyoti.

Moyneux Maxine.1991.The Law, the State and the Socialist Politics with Regard to Women: The Case of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen 1967-1990, in Women, Islam and the State (ed )Deniz Kandiyoti.

Ahmed, Leila,  Women and Gender in Islam (Yale 1992)

Badran, Margot Feminists, Islam and Nation (Princeton 1995)

Sabbagh, Suha, (ed.) Arab Women: Between Defiance and Restraint. (Olive Branch 1996)

Zuhur Sherifa. Revealing Reveiling: Islamist Gender Ideology in Contemporary Egypt.

Bodman, Herbert and Nayereh Tohidi.(eds.)Women in Muslim Societies.(London:Boulder:1998).

Meriwether Margaret and Judith Tucker (eds.) Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East, (Westview, 1999).

Mernissi, Fatima.Beyond the Veil. Indiana University (1987).

Afshar Haleh  Islam and Feminisms: An Iranian Case-Study. (St. Martin's Press:1998)

Abu-Lughod Lila. (ed)Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East.(Princton University Press:1998)