Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Agents of Change

by SADIQI; FATIMA

• ISBN13: 9780415573207
• ISBN10: 0415573203
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-20
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines the position of women in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Although it is culturally diverse, this region shares many commonalities with relation to women that are strong, deep, and pervasive: a space-based patriarchy, a culturally strong sense of religion, a smooth co-existence of tradition and modernity, a transitional stage in development, and multilingualism/multiculturalism.Experts from within the region and from outside provide both theoretical angles and case studies, drawing on fieldwork from Egypt, Oman, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Iran, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Spain. Addressing the historical, socio-cultural, political, economic, and legal issues in the region, the chapters cover five major aspects of women's agency:political agency;civil society activism;legal reform;cultural and social agencies;religious and symbolic agencies.Bringing to light often marginalized topics and issues, the book underlines the importance of respecting specificities when judging societies and hints at possible ways of promoting the MENA region. As such, it is a valuable addition to existing literature in the field of political science, sociology, and women's studies.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	p. ix
Series editors' preface	p. xii
Introduction: contextualizing women's agency in the MENA region	p. 1
Reconsidering the Foundations of Women, Islam, and Political Agency	p. 13
The veil: religious and historical foundations of the modern political discourse	p. 15
Women, Islam, and political agency in Morocco	p. 36
Assia Djebar and Malika Mokeddem: neocolonial agents or postcolonial subjects?	p. 48
Women and political reform in Israel	p. 62
Women's Leadership in Civil Society	p. 77
Women's NGOs and social change in Morocco	p. 79
Palestinian women's movements and activism	p. 89
Women and Legal Reform	p. 103
Tunisia at the forefront of the Arab world: two waves of gender legislation	p. 105
Feminism and family law in Iran: the struggle for women's economic citizenship in the Islamic Republic	p. 114
The legal status of women in Egypt: reform and social inertia	p. 129
Women: Social, Cultural, Religious, and Symbolic Change	p. 147
Algerian women as agents of change and social cohesion	p. 149
Women in Turkey: caught between tradition and modernity	p. 173
Women and language in Tunisia	p. 188
Women, education, and the redefinition of empowerment and change in a traditional society: the case of Oman	p. 215
Perpetuating authority: Ishelhin women's rituals and the transmission of Islamic knowledge in southwestern Morocco	p. 232
Moroccan women contrabandists: interferences in public space	p. 248
The Orient within: women ôin-betweenö under Francoism	p. 259
Bibliography	p. 271
Index	p. 289
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.