Women and Power in the Middle East Edited by Suad Joseph and Susan Slyomovics "An excellent summary of the best recent innovative scholarship on gender in the Middle East."--NWSA Journal "Challenges many current theories about women's political participation in the Middle East and North Africa, and how the countries of the MENA region have dealt with women striving to make their voices heard."--Middle East Journal The seventeen essays in Women and Power in the Middle East analyze the social, political, economic, and cultural forces that shape gender systems in the Middle East and North Africa. Published at different times in Middle East Report, the journal of the Middle East Research and Information Project, the essays document empirically the similarities and differences in the gendering of relations of power in twelve countries--Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. Together they seek to build a framework for understanding broad patterns of gender in the Arab-Islamic world. Challenging questions are addressed throughout. What roles have women played in politics in this region? When and why are women politically mobilized, and which women? Does the nature and impact of their mobilization differ if it is initiated by the state, nationalist movements, revolutionary parties, or spontaneous revolt? And what happens to women when those agents of mobilization win or lose? In investigating these and other issues, the essays take a look at the impact of rapid social change in the Arab-Islamic world. They also analyze Arab disillusionment with the radical nationalisms of the 1950s and 1960s and with leftist ideologies, as well as the rise of political Islamist movements. Indeed the essays present rich new approaches to assessing what political participation has meant for women in this region and how emerging national states there have dealt with organized efforts by women to influence the institutions that govern their lives. Designed for courses in Middle East, women's, and cultural studies, Women and Power in the Middle East offers to both students and scholars an excellent introduction to the study of gender in the Arab-Islamic world. Suad Joseph is Professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of Intimate Selving in Arab Families: Gender, Self and Identity and Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, general editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures and editor of Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East. Susan Slyomovics is Genevieve McMillan-Reba Stewart Professor of the Study of Women in the Developing World and Professor of Anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village (also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press), winner of the 1999 Albert Hourani Book Award given by the Middle East Studies Association, and the 1999 Chicago Folklore Prize. 2000 - 256 pages - 6 x 9 - 22 illus. ISBN 978-0-8122-1749-0 - Paper - $27.50s - 18.00 World Rights - Anthropology, Women's/Gender Studies

Highlighting Iraqi women's voices, this is an examination of women, gender and feminisms in Iraq in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion.

In the United Arab Emirates, the extensive change to Emirati women's traditional rights and roles has been one of the most visible transformations taking place throughout the country's 40 years of modern history. This book offers an interpretation of why and how these modifications came about. The book discovers that there is no direct or easy link between the State's 'offer of rights' towards women and society's acceptance of them. Given these circumstances, the mechanisms that induce women to actually take advantage of what is offered have not been given sufficient attention. The concept of 'genderframing' aims precisely at defining the 'connecting mechanism' and explaining the successes and failures of these policies, both mobilization-wise and implementation-wise. The term 'genderframing' refers to a dynamic and interactive process between the State and its population, which entails the symbolic rework of meanings associated with women-related policies. It is argued that such re-interpretation has been purposefully conducted by the Emirati State in order to portray the changing roles of women as necessary and desirable, for reasons associated with nation-building purposes, religious conformity, promotion of family values, and efforts at indigenous cultural preservation. The book highlights the profound intertwining of gender, nation-building, and domestic socio-political dynamics in a country that, while seeking to establish its modernizing credentials, is still struggling for self-definition and empowerment.

Women and War in the Middle East provides a critical examination of the relationship between gender and transnationalism in the context of war, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction in the Middle East. Critically examining the ways in which the actions of various local and transnational groups - including women's movements, diaspora communities, national governments, non-governmental actors and multilateral bodies - interact to both intentionally and inadvertantly shape the experiences of women in conflict situations, and determine the possibilities for women's participation in peace-building and (post)-conflict reconstruction, as well as the longer-term prospects for peace and security. The volume pays particular attention to the ways in which gender roles, relations and identities are constructed, negotiated and employed within transnational social and political fields in the conflict and post-conflict situations, and their particular consequences for women. Contributions focus on the two countries with the longest experiences of war and conflict in the Middle East, and which have been subject to the most prominent international interventions of recent years - that is, Iraq and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Issues addressed by contributors include the impact of gender mainstreaming measures by international agencies and NGOs upon the ability of women to participate in peace-building and post-conflict resolution; the consequences for gender relations and identities of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq; and how transnational feminist movements can most effectively support peace building and women's rights in the region. Based entirely on original empirical research. Women and War in the Middle East brings together some of the foremost scholars in the areas of feminist international relations, feminist international political economy, anthropology, sociology, history and Middle East studies.

"The decisive consequences of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 had ramifications over the entire Ottoman Empire - and the Ottoman territory of Palestine was no exception. "Late Ottoman Palestine" examines the impact of Young Turk policies and reforms on local societies and administration, using Palestine as a prism through which to explore the impact of the Revolution in the provincial arena far from the administrative and political centre of the capital. It thus sheds light upon the last decade of Ottoman rule in Palestine, crucially dealing with the roots of Jewish-Arab conflict in the area and the early crystallization of Arab, Palestinian and Zionist identities, along with that of an Ottoman imperial identity. It will be a vital resource for students and researchers interested in the modern history of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire and Palestine."--Bloomsbury publishing.

Freedom HouseOs innovative publication WomenOs Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance analyzes the status of women in the region, with a special focus on the gains and setbacks for womenOs rights since the first edition was released in 2005. The study presents a comparative evaluation of conditions for women in 17 countries and one territory: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine (Palestinian Authority and Israeli-Occupied Territories), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The publication identifies the causes and consequences of gender inequality in the Middle East, and provides concrete recommendations for national and international policymakers and implementers. Freedom House is an independent nongovernmental organization that supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights. The project has been embraced as a resource not only by international players like the United Nations and the World Bank, but also by regional womenOs rights organizations, individual activists, scholars, and governments worldwide. WomenOs rights in each country are assessed in five key areas: (1) Nondiscrimination and Access to Justice; (2) Autonomy, Security, and Freedom of the Person; (3) Economic Rights and Equal Opportunity; (4) Political Rights and Civic Voice; and (5) Social and Cultural Rights. The methodology is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the study results are presented through a set of numerical scores and analytical narrative reports.

Employing a broad, interdisciplinary perspective on gender relations, Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East questions 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 East is an important work that will have significant impact on the way we look at gender in traditional societies.