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History 444WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EASTWeekly Seminar Rudi Matthee
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For printable syllabus in Word Format.
This course examines the major developments, themes and problems in women's history in the Middle East from the advent of Islam to the present. By tracing women's legal status, sexual morality, family and social life, and female economic and political participation, it seeks to shed light on the process of women's roles in society and to challenge the notion that gender divisions and roles have been static over time. The introductory week is designed to become familiar with theoretical perspectives and debates on women and, in particular, women in the Middle East and Islam. The next segment of the course, which is devoted to the early history of Islam, explores the important and much-debated question of the origins of gender inequality in Islamic societies. The third part examines the medieval period and investigates women's actual place in society, as opposed to the idealist version. The fourth part probes the Ottoman and Safavid period (16th-18th c.), discussing the question of the harem and the influence of women in political life. The fifth part addresses the question of the challenges posed by the impact of the West, the effects on women and female reactions to this challenge, with a focus on Egypt and Iran . The final section addresses questions relating to the “return” of Islam and its repercussions for women in dress, employment, and morality. Aside from scholarly studies, documentaries and literature will be used to see how, in the modern period, women have defined themselves amid tremendous political, social and economic change.
Required Readings : (available at the bookstore)
Monira Charrad. States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia,
Algeria, and Morocco. Berkeley : University of California Press, 2001.
Jane Mary Howard. Inside Iran : Women's Lives. Washington , D.C. : Mage,
2002.
Jan Goodwin. Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the
Islamic World. New York : Penguin, rev. edn., 2003,
Selected articles, on reserve. Access Code 4366
Exams and Papers :
Two take-home essays, due on March 10 and March 17, will take the place of the midterm exam. There will be a two-hour in-class final exam on the exam day scheduled for this class. A 15-page paper, based on a historical topic of your choice, approved by Professor Rudi Matthee, is due on May 12. You should have a one-page summary of the proposed topic, with bibliography, ready by April 14 to present for approval.
All work must be done on time; no incompletes are given except in emergency cases.
Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's work as your own. It is a form of dishonesty--a form of cheating, in fact—as such one of the new deadly sins (the old ones have either been forgotten or are so flagrantly violated that no one seems to care anymore) and will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Plagiarism is not limited to using someone else's exact words; using someone else's ideas without attribution is also a form of plagiarism. The good news is that plagiarism is easily avoided by clearly citing your sources. If you do, you can safely avoid even the hint of improper usage of someone else's work.
Grades in the course will be based on the following:
1. Midterm examination 20%
2. Final examination 30%
3. Term paper 40%
4. Class attendance and participation 10%
Week One: (Feb. 10)
Topic: Introduction to Islamic History.
Reading: Osborne, “The Women Warriors.”
Allen, “The Scholars and the Goddess.”
Week Two: (Feb. 17)
Topic: Early Islam: Origins of Gender Inequality
Reading: Rahman, “Status of Women in the Qur'an
Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, chs. 2-3, 40-63.
Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments, 118-67.
Week Three: (Feb. 24)
Topic: Themes and Debates in Middle Eastern Women's History
Reading: Keddie and L. Beck, “Introduction.”
Keddie, “Introduction.”
Kandiyoti, “Islam and Patriarchy.”
Afshari, “Egalitarian Islam.”
Week Four: (March 3)
Topic: The Premodern Period: Mamluks, Ottomans and Safavids
Reading: Lutfi, “Manners and Customs of Fourteenth-Century Cairene Women,”
Golsorkhi, “A Masterful Princess.”
Peirce, “Beyond Harem Walls.”
Peirce, “Seniority, Sexuality, and Social Order.”
Matthee, “Prostitutes, Courtesans.”
Week Five: (March 10)
Topic: The 19 th Century: Women and Society in Transition
Reading: Billie. Women's Orients, 59-98.
Fahmy, “Women, Medicine, and Power.”
Nashat, “Marriage in the Qajar Period”
Clancy-Smith, “A Woman without her Distaff.”
Week Six: (March 17)
Topic: Early Twentieth-Century Women's Movements
Reading: Baron, “The Politics of Female Notables.”
Badran, Feminists, Islam and Nation.
Rostam-Kolayi, “Foreign Education, the Women's Press.”
Paidar, Women in the Political Process in Iran, 78-117.
Week Seven: (March 24)
Topic: Legal Changes and Continuity
Reading: Chehabi, “Staging the Emperor's New Clothes.”
Rahman, “A Survey of Modernization of Muslim Family Law.”
Charrad, States and Women's Rights, 1-113.
Week Eight: (April 7)
Topic: Art, Literature, and Music
Documentary: “I Salute the Sun: Farrokh Farrokhzad.”
Reading: Milani, Veils and Words, 127-52.
Guppy, The Blindfold Horse.
Week Nine: (April 14)
Topic: Legal Changes and Continuity, cont'd
Reading: Charrad, States and Women's Rights, 114-41.
Arat, “Kemalism and Turkish Women.”
Week Ten: (April 21)
Topic: Art: Literature and Music, cont'd
Documentary: Umm Kulthum
Reading: Van Nieuwkerk, “Changing Images and Shifting Identities.”
Danielson, “Artists and Entrepreneurs.”
Goodwin, Price of Honor, 1-98.
Week Eleven: (April 28)
Topic: The "Return" of Islam: Feminism v. Islamism
Documentary: “Boys, Girls and the Veil”
Reading: Macleod, Accommodating Protest, 125-41.
Hegland, “Gender and Religion in the Middle East.”
Deeb, “An Enchanted Modern,” 201-16.
Hassan, “Challenging the Stereotypes of Fundamentalism.”
Kramer, “Taking the Veil.”
Goodwin, Price of Honor, 99-197.
Week Twelve: (May 5)
Topic: The "Return" of Islam: Iran
Documentary: Mir-Hosseini: Divorce: Iranian Style
Reading: Najmabadi, “Feminism in the Islamic Republic.”
Mir-Hosseini, “Women and Politics in Post-Khomeini Iran.”
Sciolino, “The Chanel under the Chador.”
Goodwin, Price of Honor, 198-344.
Week Thirteen: (May 12)
Topic: Work, Morality, and Reproductive Rights
Documentary: “The Ladies, Zananeh”
Reading: Zuhur, “The Mixed Impact of Feminist Struggles in Egypt.”
Herrera, “Downveiling: Gender and the Contest over Culture in Cairo.”
Hoodfar, “Devices and Desires: Population Policy in the Islamic Republic.”
Reserve Material :
Osborne, Lawrence. “The Women Warriors,” Lingua Franca (Dec.-Jan.1998): 50-57.
Allen, Charlotte. “The Scholars and the Goddess,” Atlantic Monthly (Jan. 2001): 18-22.
Kandiyoti, Denize. “Contemporary Female Scholarship,” in D. Kandiyoti, ed., Gendering the Middle East (Syracuse University Press, 1996), 1-27.
Keddie, Nikki and Lois Beck. “Introduction,” in idem, eds., Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1978), 1-34.
Afshari, Reza. “Egalitarian Islam and Mysogenist Islamic Tradition,” Critique 4 (Spring 1994): 13-33.
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam (Yale UP, 1992), 41-101.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments: Women in a Bedouin Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 118-167.
Madelung, Wilferd. “Shi`i Attitudes toward Women as Reflected in Fiqh,” in Afaf Lutfi-al-Sayyid Marsot, ed., Society and the Sexes in Medieval Islam (Malibu: Undena, 1979), 69-79,
Matthee, Rudi. “Prostitutes, Courtesans and Dancing Girls: Women Entertainers in Safavid Iran,” in Rudi Matthee and Beth Baron, eds., Iran and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie (Costa Mesa: Mazda, 2000), 121-150.
Peirce, Leslie. “Beyond Harem Walls: Ottoman Royal Women and the Exercise of Power,” in D.O. Helly and S. M. Reverby, eds., Gendered Domains: Rethinking Public and Private in Women's History (Ithaca: Ithaca UP, 1992), 40-55.
____. “Seniority, Sexuality, and Social Order: The Vocabulary of Gender in Early Modern Ottoman Society,” in Madeline C. Zilfi, ed., Women in the Ottoman Empire (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 169-196.
Melman, Billie. Women's Orients (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1995), 59-98.
Fahmy, Khaled. “Women, Medicine, and Power in Nineteenth-Century Egypt,” in Lila Abu-Lughod, ed., Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton UP, 1998), 35-72.
Nashat, Guity. “Marriage in the Qajar Period,” in Lois Beck and Guity Nashat, eds., Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2004), 37-62.
Baron, Beth. “The Politics of Female Notables,” in Billie Melman, ed., Borderlines, Gender and Identities (London: Rutledge, 1998), 329-350.
Badran, Margot. Feminists, Islam and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt . (Princeton UP, 1996).
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. “Crafting and Educated Housewife in Iran.” In Lila Abu-Lughod, ed., Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton UP, 1998), 91-125.
Rostam-Kolayi, Jasamin. “Foreign Education, the Women's Press, and the Discourse of Scientific Domesticity in Early-Twentieth-Century Iran,” in Nikki R. Keddie and Rudi Matthee, eds., Iran and the Surrounding World: Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 2002), 182-204.
Chehabi, Houchang. “Staging the Emperor's New Clothes: Dress Codes and Nation-Building under Reza Shah,” Iranian Studies 26 (1993): 209-233.
Arat, Zehra F. “Kemalism and Turkish Women,” Women Politics 14 (1994): 57-80.
Paidar, Parvin. Women in the Political Process in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995), 78-117.
Milani, Farzaneh. Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1992), 127-152.
Van Nieuwkerk, Karin. “Changing Images and Shifting Identities: Female Performers in Egypt,” in Sherifa Zuhur, ed., Images of Enchantment: Visual and Performing Arts of the Middle East (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Pres, 1998), 21-35.
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. “Feminism in the Islamic Republic: Years of Hardship, Years of Growth,” in Yvonne Haddad and John E. Esposito, eds., Islam, Gender and Social Change (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998), 59-84.
Moghadam, Valentine. “Islamist Movements and Women's Responses,” Gender and History 3 (1991): 268-284.
Hassan, Riffat, “Challenging the Stereotypes of Fundamentalism: An Islamic Feminist Perspective,” The Muslim World 91 (2001): 55-69.
Kramer, Jane. “Taking the Veil: How France's Public Schools Became a Battleground in a Culture War.” The New Yorker , Nov. 22, 2004, pp. 59-71.
Deeb, Lara. “An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety Among Islamist Shi`i Muslims in Beirut” (Ph.D. dissertation, Emory University, 2003).
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. “Women and Politics in Post-Khomeini Iran: Divorce,” in H. Afshar, ed., Women and Politics in the Third World (London: Routledge, 1996), 142-170.
Macleod, Arlene. Accommodating Protest: the New Veiling, and Change in Cairo (New York: Columbia UP, 1991).
Sciolino, Elaine, “The Chanel under the Chador,” New York Times Magazine (May 4, 1997).
Zuhur, Sherifa. “The Mixed Impact of Feminist Struggles in Egypt,” MERIA 5:1 (2001).
Herrera, Linda. “Downveiling: Gender and the Contest over Culture in Cairo,” MERIP Report 219 (Summer 2001): 16-19.
Hoodfar, H. “Devices and Desires: Population Policy and Gender Roles in the Islamic Republic.” MERIP Report (1996).