WOMEN IN ISLAM AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Instructor: Prof. A. E. SOUAIAIA

 

 

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ABOUT THE COURSE:

Women in Islam and the Middle East is a course about women within and without the Islamic community including those in non-Muslim Middle Eastern cultures. It focuses on women from the early time periods of the rise of Islam until modern times. We will consider the textual references to women in the primary religious texts (Qur’ān and the Sunnah) and references and stories of prominent women as told in the Islamic history books. In order to provide a comprehensive exploration of the status of women and gender issues, the course will also rely on interviews, guest lectures, images, documentaries, and films produced from a variety of perspectives and through the lenses of a number of disciplines.

During the second half of the semester, the course shall focus on the lives of contemporary Muslim women, the factors informing constructions of gender in the Islam and the Middle East, and the role played by questions of women's status. In this section we will focus on contemporary Muslim women in a number of different cultural contexts in order to highlight a variety of issues significant for contemporary Muslim women: veiling and seclusion, kinship structures, violence, health, feminist activism, literary expression, body and mind, and other themes.

These are some of the topics that will be discussed in the course:

  • The rise of patriarchy in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt and a comparison of its quality and intensity in both areas over time, based on translated historical texts and modern historians' interpretations of them, plus other archeological data.
  • Consolidation of religion-based patriarchal ideologies in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
  • Consideration of Muslim women's constraints, rights, and opportunities in Medieval times—From Early Caliphate successions until the Ottoman Empire.
  • The parameters and implications of theories of the "origins" of patriarchy, of "Orientalism", and ethnocentrism.
  • The traumatic impact of European imperialism and colonialism upon Islamic and Middle Eastern states, especially upon gender relations using historical research and literary works by Middle Eastern writers.
  • Middle Eastern women's issues and concerns in the post-colonial period and women's contemporary struggle for economic, political, and civil viability and equality within the family and the society.

OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE:

The course is developed as an interdisciplinary one in order to satisfy requirements of various departments. Moreover, as the important topic that it is, it is essential that various methodologies and disciplinary approaches are adopted. Historical, sociological, anthropological, literary, legal, philosophical, and political themes will be addressed in order to balance the treatment of such a rich topic.

COURSE READINGS:

In addition to selected chapters contained in the textbooks, there will be additional reading materials to be made available to students on ICON and on reserve.  Students are expected to make use of the World Wide Web and to read current events relevant to the course's theme as they become available in-print or on the Internet.

Books (final list of required texts will be made available in the courses’ syllabus and/or on ICON):

 * Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, (Yale University Press, 1993).
* Denise Carmody, Women and World Religions, (NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989).
* Nikki R. R. Keddie and Beth Baron, Women in Middle Eastern History, (Yale University Press, 1993).
* Barbara Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions and Interpretation (Oxford, 1994).
* Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil, (Indiana University Press, 1990).
* Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire, (Knopf Publishing Group, 1995).
* Mohja Kahf, Western Representation of the Muslim Woman, (University of Texas Press, 1999).
* Margot Badran (Editor) and Miriam Cooke (Editor), Opening the Gates, (1990).
* Gisela Webb (Editor), Windows of Faith, (Syracuse University Press, 1999).
 Articles:

  • Sally Engle Merry, Constructing a Global Law-Violence against Women and the Human Rights System, American Bar Foundation (2003).
  • Lisa Hajjar, Religion, State Power, and Domestic Violencein Muslim Societies: A Framework for Comparative Analysis, American Bar Foundation (2002).
  • Valentine M. Moghadam, Islamic Feminism and Its Discontents: Toward a Resolution of the Debate, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2002, vol.27, no.4.
  • Janet Afary, The Human Rights of Middle Eastern & Muslim Women: A Project for the 21st Century, Human Rights Quarterly 26 (2004).
  • Bruce B. Lawrence, Woman as Subject/Woman as Symbol, Journal of Religious Ethics (2001).
  • Saimah Ashraf, Shattering Illusions: Western Conceptions of Muslim Women, Studies in Islam and the Middle East journal, (2004).

Multimedia:

(to be purchased and placed on Reserve at Library)

  •  The Arabs: Family Ties
  •  Islam Today
  • A Veiled Revolution
  •  Women under Siege
  • Wild Flowers: Women of South Lebanon
  • Through the Veil of Exile
  •  Going Home
  • Four women of Egypt
  •  Days of Democracy: Egyptian Women and 1995 Parliamentary Election
  
 

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