Feminism In the Arab World

As Royster and Kirsch explain, because so much of our field is grounded in Western tradition, even though the recovery work of feminist scholars locates women’s rhetorical voices outside these frameworks, they continue to unwittingly serve as the measure. Globalizing the point of view is an approach that Royster and Kirsch describe as a tectonic shift asking us to rethink the assumptions embedded in our field: “how do we create linkages between local and global points of view, knowledge, experience, achievement?” My contribution further explores these questions with a focus on current research on transnational feminist rhetorics and complicates their approach by questioning what exactly do we mean when we define “local” and “global”? I posit that the challenge of researching women rhetors outside of our “local” context is not only measuring and valuing knowledge, but it is being open to questioning our beliefs about “others” as we struggle to find a place to value these voices in our field. As a scholar of Middle Eastern rhetoric, I am constantly reminded of the “lack of agency” of these women and that the work I do is “on the fringe” of our field, but I believe it is central to challenging the persistence of our borders. One suggestion in Royster and Kirsch’s approach is to use our classrooms as innovative experimental sites: “We look toward the world, but simultaneously we have the opportunity to look at the world in us—within our nation, in our communities, in our classrooms” (127). My pedagogical approach to teaching Middle Eastern feminisms is one that calls into question our own beliefs and values, one that is a necessary step towards practicing an ethics of care and towards a more comprehensive understanding of the limits and potentials of our field.

Author: Alanoud Alsharekh. ISBN 9781872843933, published by Saffron London, 2006. Commissioning editor and Editor, Saffron Asian Art and Society Series [ISSN 1740-3103]. General editors: Shirley Rizvi and Sajid Rizvi. The book deals with the concept of feminism as a cross-cultural literary  device that uncovers the social development of women's emancipatory progress  through the work of both English and Arab female novelists. The main premise of this study relies on many of the theories presented by the 1970s
feminist critical movement, especially that of Elaine Showalter's tripartite structure. It also suggests a new tripartite structure for the evolution of  feminist consciousness in works of fiction involving the an inversion of scales in "softness" and "anger" explored through the work of such authors as Charlotte Brontë, Sarah Grand, Virginia Woolf, Layla al Othman, Nawal al Saadawi and Hanan al Shaykh. Follow links for further information.

Las revoluciones árabes de 2011, y que aún continúan, han configurado nuevas prácticas políticas feministas en Egipto y Túnez. Estas nuevas prácticas y discursos feministas se diferencian del feminismo de las generaciones anteriores en tres aspectos: dejan de preocuparse por los problemas del “feminismo occidental”, se alejan del feminismo de Estado, y formulan un feminismo que va más allá de las dicotomías coloniales binarias (García 2013; Blaise 2016; Muhanna 2015). Nuestro objetivo en este artículo es demostrar cómo las políticas feministas y de género que surgen en Egipto y Túnez tras los levantamientos de 2011 responden por un lado, a una larga trayectoria del movimiento feminista árabe en estos dos contextos nacionales, y por otro, a las oleadas de politización transnacional que han generado repertorios de acción colectiva autónomos, horizontales y descentralizados y que han descolonizado, en última instancia, las políticas feministas en su relación con el espacio público y en su forma de performar el género y habitar espacios en disputa (Butler 1990; Soto Villagrán 2003).

Description Islam and feminism are often considered to be contradictory in their essences and objectives. Nevertheless, we now find more than a century of writing by Muslim women who draw their inspiration from their religion, and who seek to reconcile Islam's scriptures and traditions with modern ideals of gender equality and justice. This course explores the idea of Islamic feminism, and surveys its history and key writings. Students will be introduced to some of the practices, doctrines, and texts of Islam that have been considered most problematic from a women/gender perspective, and will read and discuss the writings of several critical figures from the 20th and 21st centuries. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to reflect on the idea of, and varying definitions of, "Islamic feminism," as well as to develop their own definitions of the term. Required readings will be in English.

The text addresses the struggle of the women's movement in Tunisia after the 2011 popular revolution and the removal of the dictatorship. The Islamists' access to political life in the country has generated a lot of tensions and social conflicts that have crystallized around fundamental rights and freedoms, including those of women. The women's movement has bravely faced every attempt by Islamists to change the laws of the Tunisian Personal Status Code and the way of life of Tunisian society. Women are the bulwark against fundamentalism in Tunisia.

Nawal El Saadawi's name is known to many in the Middle-East for having been stained by social taboo, controversy and continuous debate over the past decade. She is one of Egypt's most outspoken feminist writers and a Psychiatrist by training. Her profile has never been higher since the revolution in 2011 and its aftermath. In her time, she has stood for Presidency and advocated for women rights, anti-oppression movements, gender identity, freedom, and has campaigned against FGM and against wearing the veil for the most parts of her career. She defines herself wherever she goes as a proud Arab woman, an activist, a writer and a free-spirited Egyptian who demands nothing but full respect from men and from a society which still holds onto values and beliefs of a stagnant culture and religion. El Saadawi once claimed that her role is to link politics and society, to bring both together in a fight for justice and to ask why. Why does she write? El Saadawi has contributed much to the psychological, feminist, and anti-oppression movements and literature because she is not satisfied with an oppressive culture, the rise of an oppressive regime after regime, and is fervently opposed to oppressive relationships with menthe "Other" she is not. Her fight is to change things in Egypt; and continues to be her motivation behind her very sharp tongue and her pen.

Often regarded as the father of Tunisian feminist thought, Tahar Haddad was a Muslim reformer during the French protectorate in Tunisia. His most famous work, Imraʾatu-nā fī-l-sharīʿa wa-l-mujtamaʿ, published in 1930, encompasses most of his thoughts on gender roles and greatly impacted his society, to the point that it is rumored to have been one of the sources of inspiration for the drafting of the Tunisian Law of Personal Status (1956). The book was the first of its kind to express the need for inheritance rights to be the same regardless of the receiver’s gender, as well as one of the first ones to push for the abolition of polygyny and repudiation. It was also notable for stating the importance of national education, including physical education, and rallying to make it extensible to female students. As such, Haddad received much criticism, particularly from conservatives who thought he had deviated from the Islamic law, despite the book making continuous references to the Qurʾan and Sunna. As much as it was a revolutionary work, some of the author’s points of view still perpetuate certain gender stereotypes and norms regarding women. This paper aims to revisit the book, pointing out its key elements in the fight for gender equality as well as its strengths and weaknesses.

Ṭāhar al-Ḥaddād (1899-1935), un conocido feminista y sindicalista tunecino, fue una figura clave para la modernización de su país y contribuyó, aunque de forma póstuma, a la creación del que, por aquel entonces, era el código de familia más rompedor del Mundo Árabe: el de Estatuto Personal de Túnez. Mucho se ha comentado sobre su pensamiento feminista, poniendo de relieve su lucha por la abolición del repudio y la poligamia. No obstante, al-Ḥaddād estudió en al-Zaytūna, la principal mezquita-universidad de su país, y la mayor parte de su formación la realizó en el ámbito religioso. Es por ello que el Corán es la fuente de la mayoría de sus teorías, incluso de aquellas más rupturistas. En esta comunicación analizaremos las relecturas que el autor propone del mismo y cómo el texto sagrado es utilizado para contextualizarlas y respaldarlas.

his paper aims to offer a critical reflection on one of the most known names in Egyptian Feminism and Psychology. Nawal El Saadawi’s name is known to many in the Middle-East for having been stained by social taboo, controversy and continuous debate over the past decade. She is one of Egypt’s most outspoken feminist writers and a Psychiatrist by training. Her profile has never been higher since the revolution in 2011 and its aftermath. In her time, she has stood for Presidency and advocated for women rights, anti-oppression movements, gender identity, freedom, and has campaigned against FGM and against wearing the veil for the most parts of her career. She defines herself wherever she goes as a proud Arab woman, an activist, a writer and a free- spirited Egyptian who demands nothing but full respect from men and from a society which still holds onto values and beliefs of a stagnant culture and religion. El Saadawi once claimed that her role is to link politics and society, to bring b...

Review essay of: Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917–1948, by Noah Haiduc-Dale; The Storyteller of Jerusalem: The Life and Times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, 1904–1948, by Wasif Jawhariyyeh, edited and introduced by Salim Tamari and Issam Nassar, translated by Nada Elzeer; Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist: The Life and Activism of Anbara Salam Khalidi, by Anbara Salam Khalidi, translated by Tarif Khalidi; and “This Is Jerusalem Calling”: State Radio in Mandate Palestine, by Andrea L. Stanton

This paper aims to analyze the global situation of the ‘female issue’ in Colonial Tunisia by presenting an overview of the contribution that both individual thinkers, such as Ṭāhar al-Ḥaddād, and women’s associations, such as l’Union Musulmane des Femmes de Tunisie (UMFT), made to female emancipation during the first half of the French protectorate. In doing so, we will show that Islam, nationalism and communism were
some of the core elements of the issue, sometimes becoming entwined and others, clashing against each other.

Colonization in history dates back to the early 18th century when European settlers migrated to Asian, African, and American regions and established their political order for their own survival. Those who came to seek a better life on the newfound lands began to exploit the natives by encroaching upon their culture, economy, and education system. Colonialism was at its peak during the period 1798-1922. It began with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, followed by a gradual occupation of most of the Arab countries by Britain and France. In 1920, after the First World War, the League of Nations approved the mandate that awarded these European countries the right to rule the newly-created Arab states. Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, Oman, and Yemen were under the British rule. Algeria, Morocco, and Syria came under the French and Libya under the Italian colonizers. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey were independent of European control.Before the colonial era, the Muslim world was poli...

This paper proposes to look at the intersection of race and gender in Emna Rmili's novel: Water and Embers in the context of a contemporary Tunisian society. It particularly tries to highlight both the continuity of a domineering patriarchal society and its lasting influence and authority even beyond a local context. In fact, the Tunisian community living abroad especially in Europe, namely, France, Italy and Germany, provides a fitting sample for the study of the complexity of a discourse that fosters hegemony and conservatism. Tunisian families settled in France, in particular, replicate the practices already fostered and perpetuated in Tunisia. These practices sometimes display a subjugating mix of misogyny, racism, and sexism. Structured upon the techniques of storytelling and flashback to narrate the tragedy of a young woman who challenged her conservative, authoritative family, Emna Rmili's novel set in France and peopled with both male and female characters epitomizing complex portraits, relates the plight of Arab women who are killed twice. Like the novel's main protagonist who was the victim of honor killing, Arab women often find themselves symbolically 'killed' during their lives, because of persecution and injustice, and sometimes also literally killed, that is, murdered to somehow erase 'shame'. Relying on gender findings and critical race theory, this paper offers a feminist reading of Rmili's novel Water and Embers. It comprises two major parts. The first part sheds light on the patriarchal discourse in North Africa and Tunisia and the reality of honor killing in that region. The second one focuses on the novel, Water and Embers trying to highlight the intersection of gender and race in a discourse that makes Arab women in general and Tunisian women in particular victims of prejudice, dogma, sexism and staunch conservatism.

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As a theory, intersectionality emerged in the North but when it travels South and is appropriated by feminist groups in a context of non-Whiteness, actors are faced with an adaptation challenge since race is no longer the focal point. Considering privilege as contextual and relational, this chapter studies a Moroccan feminist group which defines itself as intersectional and examines how activists reinterpret intersectionality. Drawing upon original qualitative data and analysis, I argue that their intersectional praxis: 1) interprets privilege as Western hegemony instead of race relations; 2) confronts male privilege inside social justice movement in terms of narratives and frames; 3) addresses elitism within second-generation feminist groups; and 4) fosters an activist repertoire which is based on creativity and self-transformation.


Key words; Feminism, Intersectionality, Gender, Arab Spring, Activism, Artivism, Arts, Social Movements, Morocco, Women.

This paper has been presented during the ECPR Joint Sessions, in the panel "Addressing Intersectionality: Social Movements and the Politics of Inclusivity", organized by Elizabeth Evans and Eléonore Lépinard, in Nicosia, Cyprus, April 2018.

Whenever a critical discussion of the many challenges Arab women face is initiated, it is quickly made apparent that such discussions become hindered by supposedly religious, cultural even political restrictions. Constantly we hear the obstructive narrative that the situation of women in the Arab world is 'different' and 'tricky' as it merges with religious, political and cultural complexities; therefore, we must approach the feminist dialogue 'carefully' and 'considerably'. This paper proposes that by silencing the movement of feminism in the Arab world, due to cultural or even religious sensitivities, the battle towards equality becomes even more challenging and the victims of gender inequality continue to increase.

While Arab feminism (or 'Nasawiya' as most Arab feminist prefer to call it) is on the rise, the discussion of what makes an Arab female identity becomes even more complex, and often the word 'choice' becomes surprisingly problematic when  associated with an Arab woman. As Arab feminists begin to finally address such complexities, a mixture of unsupportive civil laws and ideologies of religious extremism constantly silence them. Furthermore, they have been recently pointing out that, in few instances, they are unfortunately silenced by what they identified as 'Western liberal feminism' as it found in critiquing gender issues in the Arab world an attack on Arab culture and heritage. Therefore, this paper aims to convey the varying views and voices of Arab feminists (who embody multiple identities and defy the single prototype of an oppressed woman) in contemplating the question how to best reconcile feminism with Arab society, eventually concluding that what is 'offensive' is not dialogue but the lack of it.