Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East

by Gocek, Fatma Muge; Balaghi, Shiva

• ISBN13: 9780231101233
• ISBN10: 0231101236
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-10-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Employing a broad, interdisciplinary perspective on gender relations, Reconstructing Gender in the Middle Eastquestions long-standing stereotypes about the traditional subordination of women in the region. With essays on gender construction in Iran, Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Occupied Territories, this collection offers a wide-ranging exploration of tradition, identity, and power in different parts of the Middle East.Seeking to overcome monolithic Western notions of women's life in "the traditional society," the essays in Part I reexamine the assumption that such societies leave little room for female participation.Part II focuses on the reconstruction of identities by women in Iran, Turkey, Israel, and the Occupied Territories. The authors examine the complex variables that contribute to the development of identities -- including gender, class, and ethnicity -- in various Middle Eastern societies, questioning whether certain identities are more important to women than others. These essays also look at the issue of group identity formation versus the autonomy of the individual.Part III looks at the relationship between gender and power in everyday life in Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, and Morocco, showing how power relations are constantly contested and renegotiated among family members and members of a community, between nations and between men and women.WIth its collection of enlightened and diverse contemporary perspectives on women in the Middle East, Reconstructing Gender in the Middle Eastis an important work that will have significant impact on the way we look at gender in traditional societies.

Table of Contents

About the Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East Through Voice and Experience	p. 1
Gender, Tradition, and History	p. 23
Neotraditionalism in the Poetry of Simin Behbahani	p. 30
Wearing the Hijab in Contemporary Morocco: Choice and Identity	p. 40
Turkish Women and the Republican Reconstruction of Tradition	p. 57
Gender, Identity, and Anthropology	p. 81
Notes from the Village: On the Ethnographic Construction of Women in Iran	p. 85
Women's Movement of the 1980s in Turkey: Radical Outcome of Liberal Kemalism?	p. 100
Growing up in Israel: A Personal Perspective	p. 113
Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine: Engendering the Intifada	p. 123
"Metaphors Can Kill": Gender, Power, and the Field of the Literary	p. 139
Arab Women Arab Wars	p. 144
Arab Male, Hebrew Female: The Lure of Metaphors	p. 167
Where Has All the Power Gone? Women and Politics in Popular Quarters of Cairo	p. 174
Keeping It in the Family: Gender and Conflict in Moroccan Arabic Proverbs	p. 201
Bibliography	p. 219
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