History 62/Asian 63/WAGS 62
Women in the Middle East
AmherstCollege
Spring 2010
Professor RingerT, Th 2:00-3:20
office hours: by appt. T 4-6pm; W 10-noon.
Description:
The course examines the major developments, themes and issues in women’s history in the Middle East. The first segment of the course concerns the early Islamic period and discusses the impact of the Quran on the status of women, the development of Islamic religious traditions and Islamic law. Questions concerning the historiography of this ‘formative’ period of Islamic history, as well as hermeneutics of the Quran will be the focus of this segment. The second segment of the course concerns the 19th and 20th century Middle East. We will investigate the emergence and development of the “woman question,” the role of gender in the construction of Middle Eastern nationalisms, women’s political participation, and the debates concerning the connections between women, gender, and religious and cultural Traditions. The third segment of the course concerns the contemporary Middle East, and investigates new developments and emerging trends of women’s political, social and religious activism in different countries. The course will provide a familiarity with the major primary texts concerning women and the study of women in the Middle East, as well as with the debates concerning the interpretation of texts, law, religion, and history in the shaping of women’s status and concerns in the Middle East today.
Required reading – books.
Available for purchase at AmherstBooks and on reserve in Frost.
Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (Yale, 1992).
ISBN: 0-300-05583-8.
Ulfat Idilbi, Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet (Interlink 2003).
ISBN: 978-1-56656-254-6
Sasson Somekh, Baghdad, Yesterday: The Making of an Arab Jew (Ibis 2007)
ISBN: 965-90125-8-6.
Mahmood Saba, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 2005) ISBN: 0691086958.
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning, II: More girl blog from Iraq (CUNY 2006). ISBN: 978-1558615298.
All other readings are in the course packet available in the History Department, 11 Chapin Hall.
Available to students enrolled in the course only.
Recommended for background reading:
Andrew Rippin, Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Any edition.
William Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East. Any edition.
Expectations:
- Attendance. Material in class is not duplicatable. Penalty for absence: more than one absence (without request by the Dean) = one “F” paper grade factored into the final grade.
- Initiative. You will have to do your own research, both for your final research project, as well as for in-class discussions.
- Participation. This is a discussion class and run as a seminar. Class participation will be graded, and will be a full %10 of your grade.
Assignments:
- Discussion Papers. The topic to be addressed is noted in the course meeting schedule, as is the required length. These are designed to encourage analytical reading and substantive discussion. They are due in class on the assigned date unless noted otherwise. The grade will be reduced by half if the paper is turned in without class attendance. Total of 75% of final grade.
- One Mini Research Paper (6-8 pages single-spaced) on a contemporary topic of your choice. Each person will present their research to the rest of the class.15% of grade.
- Class Participation 10%
EARLY ISLAM:CONTEXT AND CONTROVERSY
Jan 26 (T): Introduction to course; themes, methodology, assignments and expectations
Background to early Islamic period
Jan 28 (Th): Women in Islam – Interpreting the Effect of the Quran
Issues: What is the origin of gender inequality in “Islam”? What role did the Quran play in women’s rights? How can we understand the shaping of women’s rights over the course of the development of Islam as a tradition, and as a legal tradition?
Reading:
1- Muhamad Asad, The Message of the Quran - selections.
2- Maulana Muhammad Ali, A Manual of Hadith.
3- Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, ch1.
4- Nikki Keddie, “Introduction: Deciphering Middle Eastern Women’s History,” in (eds Keddie and Baron, Women in Middle Eastern History (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1991).
Feb 2 (T): The Prophet’s Wives – Who Really Was Aisha?
Issues: Aisha was a central political figure in the early Islamic community. Yet later theologians used her as an example of women’s weakness and the danger of women playing political roles. In what ways has the figure of Aisha served as a window onto changing attitudes towards women? How is this transformation reinforced by the development of Islamic law?
Reading:
1- Nabia Abott, “Women and the state,” pt. 1 and pt. 2.
2- Ahmed, Women and Gender, chs. 2, 3.
3- Deniz Spellberg, “Political Action and Public Example: Aisha and the Battle of the Camel,” in (eds Keddie and Baron)Women in Middle Eastern History.
4- Al-Tabari, “Women the Prophet married.”
Feb 4 (Th): Islamic Law – Rahman vs. Ghazzali
Issues: Who has the authority to determine “orthodoxy” and the rights of women in Islamic law? How do we judge between different interpretations? What does this say about the ability to determine women’s “status in Islam” – is this always contextual? Or is it fixed in tradition? What is the relationship of Tradition to historical context?
Reading:
1- Wael B. Hallaq, An Introduction to Islamic Law, ch. 1 “Who’s who in the Shari’a,” pp. 7-13; ch. 2 “The Law: how is it found?” pp. 14-30; ch. 10 “Shari’a then and now,” pp. 163-170.
2- Rahman, ‘The Status of Women in the Quran.”
3- Al-Ghazzali, “Good and Bad Points of Women.”
Discussion paper #1: What is Rahman’s contention regarding “context”? Do you agree? Does this mean that all interpretations of the Quran are equally valid? Does this mean that Islamic law can be modified? Or is there an essential “Islamic view” of women that cannot be modified? What grounds are you basing your argument on? 2pp. Due Monday, Feb. 8. 5pm.
IMAGINING THE MODERN:
GENDER, COLONIALISM AND NATIONALIST IDENTITIES
Feb 9 (T): Women, Orientalism and the Colonial Project
Issues: what is Orientalism and what are the dichotomies of West and Rest that it creates? How does it maintain the inviolable borders between these categories.? What are the costs of this dichotomy?What are the political implications of the Orientalist view?
Reading:
1- Hall “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power”
2- Travel literature selections: a) Busbeq, b) Porter, c) Montague, d) Flaubert
In class discussion of texts and Orientalist art.
Feb 11 (Th): The Haram: Fantasy and the Construction of Royal Power
Issues: In what way do women participate in political and social power in the Ottoman period? How are royal women key players in Ottoman family and empire politics?
Ppt presentation on “The Harem and the Politics of Reproduction.”
Feb 16 (T) – no class
Feb 18 (Th): Modernization and the Question of Gender
Issues: What is modernization in the Middle East? How was it characterized over different stages of development? What were the goals of modernizers and how was gender a fundamental part of the modern project?
In-class discussion of history and parameters of modernization, particularly as it relates to gender issues.
Feb 23 (T):“The Woman Question”
Issues: What was the “woman question” in the 19th century? What were the changes in women’s status that modernizers proposed? How does “the woman question” figure prominently into larger questions of political and social change?
Reading:
1- Ahmed, Women and Gender, remainder of book.
2- Qasim Amin, “The Status of Women,” and “Women and the Nation” in The Liberation of Women: A document in the history of Egyptian Feminism (trans.) Peterson (Cairo: American University of Cairo Press, 1992).
Discussion paper #2: What is Amin’s program for women? Why are women central to the larger modernizing reform program? Be specific. 2 pp. Due Wed, Feb 24, 5pm.
Feb 25 (Th): Hygiene and Clothing: The Making of the “Modern Woman”
Issues: How was modernization in the post WWI period different from that of the pre-WWI period? Why did modernization entail so much cultural westernization? Why was modernization viewed by Ataturk and Reza Shah as necessitating programs of cultural engineering? What are the costs of authoritarian engineering projects? How are Morality and authenticity involved in legitimizing and delegitimizing these changes?
Reading:
1- Houchang Chehabi, “Staging the Emperor’s New Clothes.”
2- Carole Woodall, “The Turkish ‘Modern Woman’: two press articles 1924, 1926” in Fortna (ed) The Modern Middle East: A Sourcebook for History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
March 2 (T):Colonialism, Feminism, Nationalism
Issues: What were the contours of Liberation movements, nationalism and feminism in the French and British mandates? Why and how did Liberation movements succeed, often both with participation from, yet ultimately through abandonment of women? How are citizenship and sovereignty key elements in this story?
Reading:
1- Sabriya: Damascus Bittersweet.
Recommended:Cleveland.
Recommended: Elizabeth Thompson, Colonial Citizens. (on reserve).
Discussion paper #3: What are the connections, and disjunctures, between the women’s movement (personified by Sabriya) and the Liberation Movement? To answer this question, you will have to understand who the supporters of the women’s movement are and why. Why they overlap in some goals yet not all; why women were abandoned by these supporters; who in society is effected by women’s rights and how; who in society is effected by liberation and how; how changing women’s status is different than political liberation from the French and why; how modern education effects ideas of liberation, socioeconomic status and women’s rights. 3pp. Due Wed March 3, 5pm.
March 4 (Th): Crossing Borders: Constructing Religious Identity
Issues: What are the ways in which being Jewish defined women’s identities in ways different from being Moslem? How does identity shift with changing conceptions of nationalism and individual groups’ associations with different states?
Reading:
1- Sasson Somekh, Baghdad, Yesterday: The Making of an Arab Jew.
ISLAMISM:
MOVING BEYOND THE HEADSCARF DEBATE
March 9 (T): Islam as an Antidote to “Westoxication” – the Iranian Revolution of 1979
Issues: Why did the revolution occur and was it inevitably “Islamic?” In what way did intellectuals in the pre-revolutionary period criticize Iranian “modernization” and how was this tied to calls for social justice being articulated in Islam? How were social and economic and cultural class involved in the Iran and in the revolution? What was the impact of the revolution on women and women’s rights in particular?
Reading:
1- Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran, chs 5, 6.
2- Simin Daneshvar, “The Accident.”
3- PersepolisI (movie or book)
4- Iran: A Revolution Betrayed(movie to see before class.)
March 11 (Th): Revolution Reconsidered: Filming Iranian Women Today
Issues: What is the status of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran? How can we explain some of the paradoxes of improvements and worsening of conditions and rights for women?
Reading:
1- “Divorce Iranian Style”
2- “Ten,”
3- “offside.”
4- Iranian elections movie (from Leyla Rouhi)
(Films to be viewed before our class meeting for class discussion.)
Discussion paper #4: in your opinion, what is/are the greatest challenges for women in Iran as portrayed in these films? Do these women recognize these challenges or not?What does it mean that they do or don’t? 1 pp. due in class.
SPRING RECESS
March 25 (Th): A Veiled Revolution
Issues: What is the “revolution” discussed in the film? Are there different interpretations of the veil, or just positions along a continuum? In what ways do the women defend their actions? In what ways does veiling define piety and what are the ramifications of this definition?
Movie, “A Veiled Revolution” – to be viewed in class together.
March 30 (T):Women’s Political Activism – Is there an Islamic Feminism?
Issues: How can/should we define Feminism? What are the tensions between “secular” and “Islamic” feminisms? Can we understand the piety movement as feminism?
Reading:
1- Mahmood Saba, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 2005)
Discussion paper #5: Would you characterize the “politics of piety” as a feminist movement? How would you situate it in the contemporary Middle East – will it or won’t it lead to “democracy” and “women’s rights”? 2 pp. Due Wed. March 31.
April 1 (Th): The Headscarf Debate in Europe – What Really Is at Stake?
Issues: What are the contours of the debate over wearing the Headscarf in European countries? What, in your opinion, is the central question here that Europe is grappling with? Do you see wearing the headscarf as a question of “freedom of religion”? How does this concur or differ with your views of the piety movement in Egypt?
Reading:
Find 3 articles from news sources, ISIM or women’s websites in Europe.
April 6 (T): False Consciousness or Human Rights – The Veiling Debate in Turkey.
Issues: What are the principal contours of the debate over veiling in Turkey? How does it compare with the debate in Europe?
Reading:
Find 3 articles of your choice.
Discussion paper #6: Discuss the veiling debate in Turkey and Europe in comparative perspective? Are their fault lines the same or different? What does the debate indicate about Muslim women’s choices? 2pp. due in class.
QUESTIONING TRADITION
AND REMAKING THE RULES
In this section I have not determined the “issues” to focus on in your readings. You are now equipped to do the readings and formulate for yourselves what you believe to be the central issues of relevance to our ongoing themes throughout the semester.
April 8 (Th): Law and Women’s Rights in Iraq
Reading:
1- Full Cover Girl (movie)
2-Riverbend, Baghdad Burning, vol. II.
3- Constitution of Iraq (you will be emailed the site on line.)
April 13 (T): Virtual communities – the weblogistan in Iran
Issues: How does the ‘Green Movement’ represent itself in the internet? What IS the Green Movement and how does it use revolutionary symbolism against the regime?
Reading:
1- Review blogs from Iran - what are people talking about?
Look at ‘Green Art” together in class
April 15 (Th): Authority and the Internet
Choose one issue regarding women in the Middle East and see how it is variously presented/represented on the internet.
1 pp paper on your findings due in class. Consider: visual representation, symbols, language, “who is Aisha” issue, authority, etc.
April 20 (T): Homosexuality and Gender in the Middle East
Issues: how is homosexuality understood in the Middle East? How has this changed in the “modern” period?
Reading:
1- Khaled El-Rouayheb, Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, intro, pp. 1-12, chapter 1, pp. 13-51 and conclusion, pp. 153-161.
2- “Inside Out” (movie 39min to be seen before class)
April 22 (Th): Women’s Activism: “Women Living Under Muslim Laws” and The Million Signatures Campaign
Explore one of these groups from their website. Discuss their objectives and strategies for change. How do they view social change – what is their philosophy?
Prof. Hasnaoui to discuss women’s movement in Morocco.
1 pp paper on your findings. And 2 questions formulated for further discussion.
INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH TOPICS
Everyone selects a contemporary topic of their choice. This is an opportunity to investigate some issue that the class as a whole has not covered, or has not fully covered. It is a mini-research paper, not a seminar-length research paper. Everyone will give a brief oral presentation to the class.
April 27(T): Mini research topic presentations
April 29 (Th): Mini research topic presentations
May 4 (T): Mini research topic presentations
May 6: Mini research topic presentations
Final draft of research topic due.
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