COURSE OBJECTIVES
The aim of this course is to explore the lives of Middle Eastern women. The emphasis will be on the
political, economic, social, cultural and sexual aspects of women's lives and the impact of all these on
each other.
COURSE REOUIREMENTS
Quizzes, A midterm, and a final paper (both take home assignments). Class participation will carry a
letter grade. You will be expected to have read thoroughly and thought deeply through assigned materials.
Essay assignments will emphasize; (a) reflection on and analysis of the concepts and issues that will be
addressed in the class; (b) thoughtful presentation and cogent organization of your ideas; (c) use of
clear and detailed examples from your readings to substantiate the abstract concepts you address.
GRADE DISTRIBUTION
Quizzes, and Class participation 30%, Midterm 35%, Final: 35%
COURSE READER
Course Packet: Copycat Print Shop, 37 E. Pleasant st. Amherst.
Jan. 28. History and Geography of the Middle East
Introduction to the Course
A Visit to the Library
Tues. Jan. 30
"Introduction to the Middle East," Encyclopedia of World Cultures," Vol. IX, Africa and the Middle East.
First Published, 1995.
Encyclopedia Americana,
Video: Orientalism
Vol.19, 1996, pp.
71-80
Feb. 4. Orientalism
Feb. 6. Orientalism
Basim Musallam, "Power and Knowledge," Middle East Research & Information Project (Merip), vol. 9, no.6 (July-August 1979): 19-26.
Feb. 11 Orientalism
Basim Musallam, "Power and Knowledge," Middle East Research & Information Project
Video: Women in Islam
Feb. 18, No Class
Feb. 20. Veil and Harem
Anne Norton, "Gender, Sexuality and the Iraq of Our Middle East Report(November-December 1991): 26-28.
Imagination,"
Ella Shohat, "Gender in Hollywood's Orient," (January-February 1990): 40-45.
Middle East Report
Feb. 25. Veil and Harem
Juan Cole, "Gender,
Tradition,
and
History,"
In
Reconstructing Gender...,pp. 23-29.
Leila Ahmed, "Western Ethnocentrism and Perceptions of the Harem,"
Feminist Studies,vol. 8, no.3 (Fall 1982): 521-534.
Feb. 27. Veil and Harem
Arlene Elowe Macleod, "Hegemonic Relations and Gender Resistance: The New Veiling as Accommodating
Protest in Cairo," Signs, (Spring 1992): 533-557.
March 4. Women in Muslim Societies
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Jane I. Smith, "Women in Islam: The mother 0f All Battles," In Arab Women.
Between Defiance and Restraint, ed, Suha Sabbagh, 1996, pp. 137-150.
Ramala Khalidi and Judith Tucker, "Women's Rights in the in Arab World," Arab Women, Between Defiance
and Restraint, pp. 9-18.
March 6. "De-Essentializing Islam and Muslim Women"
Defining Essentialism
Nayereh Tohidi, "The Issue at Hand," In Women in Muslim Societies, Diversity Within Unity, eds.
Herbert L. Bodman and Nayereh Tohidi. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 1998, pp. 277-294.
March 11 "De-Essentializing Islam and Muslim Women"
Camillia Fawzi El-Soth and Judy Mabro, "Introduction," In Muslim Women's Choices, Providence:
Berg, 1994, pp.1-32.
March 13, "De-Essentializing Islam and Muslim Women"
Sondra Hale, "Muslim Women's Choices: Religious Belief and Social Reality," In Muslim Women's Choices,
pp. 1-3.
Eleanor Doumato, "Am I 'Part of the Problem?'" The Middle East Women's Studies Review, vol. 11,
no.2 (June 1996): 11-13.
Midterm Paper
Spring Break
March 25. Rise of the State and the Status of Women
Judith Tucker, "Women and State in 19th Century Egypt, Insurrectionary Women," Middle East Report
(January-February 1986): 9-13.
March 27. "Women. Islam and the State."
Denize Kandioti, "Women, Islam and the State," Middle East Report (November-December 1991): 9-14.
April 1. "Women. Islam and the State."
Deniz Kandiyoti, "Women, Islam, and the State: A Comparative Approach," In Comparing Muslim Societies:
Knowledge and the State in a World Civilization. Ed. Juan Cole, pp. 237-260.
April 3, Capitalist Development and Subsistence:
Susan Tiano, "Gender, Work, and World Capitalism: Third World Women's Role in Development," In Analvzinq
Gender, A Handbook of Social
Science Research. Eds. Beth B. Hess and Myra Marx Ferree, pp. 216-243.
Akram Fouad Khater, "'House' to 'Goddess' of the House: Gender, Class, and Silk in 19th-Century Mount
Lebanon," International Journal of the Middle East Studies 28 (1996): 325-348
April 10, Gender and Sexuality
Leila Ahmed, "Arab Culture and Writing Women's Bodies,"
Feminist Issues,
vol. 9, no.1 (Spring 1989): 41-55.
April 15 Gender and Sexuality
Power and Sexuality in the Middle East, pp. 8-25.
April 17. Gender and Sexuality
Power and Sexuality in the Middle East, pp. 26-48.
April 22, Women in Lebanon
Joe Stork, "Gender and Civil Society: An Interview with Suad Joseph,"
in Arab Women, pp. 203-210
Suad Joseph, "Women Between Nation and State in Lebanon," In Between Women and Nation, Nationalisms,
Transnational Feminisms and the State. Ed. Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcon, and Minoo Moallem, 1999, pp.
162- 181.
April 24. Women in Lebanon
Suad Joseph, "Elite Strategies for State Building: Women, Family, Religion and the State in Iraq and
Lebanon," In Women. Islam and the State, ed.
April 29. Women in Palestine and Israel
Mary N. Layoun, "A Guest at the Wedding: Honor, Memory, and (National) Desire in Michel Khleife's Wedding
in Galilee," in Between Women and Nation..., pp. 92-107.
May 1. Women in Sudan, Maghrib, Iraq and Lebanon
Mounira Charrad, "State and Gender in the Maghrib," Middle East Report (March-April 1990): 19-24.
Ellen Gruenbaum, "The Islamist State and Sudanese Women," Middle East Report (November-December
1992): 29-32.
May 6. Women in Turkey
Denize Kandiyoti, "Women and the Turkish State: Political Actors Symbolic Pawns?" in Woman, Nation.
State. 1989, pp. 126-149.
May 3. Women in Iran
Parvin Paidar, "Feminism and Islam in Iran," In Gendering the Middle East, Emerging Perspectives,
ed. Denize Kandiyoti, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996.
May 8. Women in Algeria
Susan Slyomovics, "Hassiba Ben Bouali, If you Could See Our Algeria": Women and Public Space in Algeria,"
in Arab Women, pp. 211-220.
May 13, Final Paper
Rise of the State and the Status of Women
Rise of the State and the Status of Women
Production, Integration of Women into the World Market