Women in the Middle East

by Keddie, Nikki R.

• ISBN13: 9780691128634
• ISBN10: 0691128634
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-06
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Written by a pioneer in the field of Middle Eastern women's history,Women in the Middle Eastis a concise, comprehensive, and authoritative history of the lives of the region's women since the rise of Islam. Nikki Keddie shows why hostile or apologetic responses are completely inadequate to the diversity and richness of the lives of Middle Eastern women, and she provides a unique overview of their past and rapidly changing present. The book also includes a brief autobiography that recounts Keddie's political activism as one of the first women in Middle East Studies. Positioning women within their individual economic situations, identities, families, and geographies,Women in the Middle Eastexamines the experiences of women in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, in Iran, and in all the Arab countries. Keddie discusses the interaction of a changing Islam with political, cultural, and socioeconomic developments. In doing so, she shows that, like other major religions, Islam incorporated ideas and practices of male superiority but also provoked challenges to them. Keddie breaks with notions of Middle Eastern women as faceless victims, and assesses their involvement in the rise of modern nationalist, socialist, and Islamist movements. While acknowledging that conservative trends are strong, she notes that there have been significant improvements in Middle Eastern women's suffrage, education, marital choice, and health.

Author Biography

Nikki R. Keddie is Professor Emerita of Middle Eastern and Iranian History at the University, of California, Los Angeles

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Preface	xiii
Introduction	1	(6)
BOOK ONE Women in the Middle East: A History	7	(194)
Introduction: Issues in Studying Middle Eastern Women's History	9	(4)
I. Regional Background and the Beginnings of Islam	13	(13)
Historical Middle Eastern Societies and Gender Relations	13	(5)
Pre-Islamic Arabia and the Rise of Islam	18	(8)
II. From the Pious Caliphs through the Dynastic Caliphates	26	(22)
The Age of Pious Caliphs and Major Conquests	26	(3)
Women in Medieval Muslim Society	29	(2)
Islamic Law (Shari'a) and Traditions (Hadiths)	31	(4)
Marriage, Divorce, Child Custody	35	(3)
Women's Lives and Codes of Honor over the Centuries	38	(3)
Class and Slavery	41	(3)
The Lives of Medieval Women as Recorded in the Cairo Geniza	44	(4)
III. From the Turkish and Mongol Invasions to 1798	48	(12)
Turks, Mongols, and Mamluks: New Rulers and Gender Attitudes	48	(5)
Ottomans and Safavids	53	(4)
Western Views of Middle Eastern Muslim Women	57	(3)
IV. Change in the Long Nineteenth Century 1798-1914	60	(15)
An Overview of Change	60	(7)
Modernizing Reforms and Colonial Rule	67	(1)
Debating Middle Eastern Women's Status and Roles	68	(7)
V. 1914-45: Nationalism and Women's Movements	75	(27)
An Overview of Changes	75	(6)
Turkey	81	(3)
Iran	84	(5)
Afghanistan	89	(1)
Egypt	89	(6)
Syria and Lebanon	95	(4)
Palestine	99	(3)
VI. 1945—Today: New States and Trends, Women's Activism, and the Rise of Islamism	102	(64)
General Features	102	(6)
Non-Arab States	108	(13)
Iran	108	(9)
Afghanistan	117	(2)
Turkey	119	(2)
Arab States	121	(39)
Overview	121	(1)
Egypt	122	(5)
Iraq	127	(3)
Palestine	130	(4)
Jordan	134	(3)
Syria	137	(2)
Lebanon	139	(1)
North Africa	140	(9)
Tunisia	141	(1)
Algeria	142	(2)
Morocco	144	(4)
Libya	148	(1)
Saudi Arabia	149	(2)
Yemen	151	(4)
Oman	155	(1)
The Small Gulf States	156	(4)
Kuwait	156	(2)
United Arab Emirates (UAE)	158	(1)
Qatar	159	(1)
Bahrain	159	(1)
Islamist and Non-Islamist Trends in the Middle East	160	(6)
Conclusion	166	(5)
Notes to Book One	171	(22)
Bibliography of Books	193	(8)
BOOK TWO Approaches to the Study of Middle Eastern Women	201	(124)
Part 1. Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender	203	(22)
Part 2. Scholarship, Relativism, and Universalism	225	(26)
Part 3. Women in the Limelight: Recent Books on Middle Eastern Women's History since 1800	251	(28)
Part 4. Problems in the Study of Middle Eastern Women	279	(18)
Part 5. Sexuality and Shi'i Social Protest in Iran (coauthored with Parvin Paidar [Nahid Yeganeh])	297	(28)
BOOK THREE Autobiographical Recollections	325	(32)
Part 1. Autobiographical Interview	327	(20)
Part 2. Supplement to the Interview	347	(8)
Bibliography of Works by Nikki R. Keddie since 1995	355	(2)
Index	357