Women in the Middle East: Past and Present

424 Pages·2006·6.968 MB·English

by  Nikki R. Keddie

Women in the Middle East
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Women in the Middle East
PAST AND PRESENT
Nikki R. Keddie
P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS
P R I N C E T O N AND O X F O R D
Copyright © 2007 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire 0X20 1SY
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keddie, Nikki R.
Women in the Middle East: past and present / Nikki R. Keddie.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-691-11610-5 (clothbound : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-691-11610-5 (clothbound : alk. paper)
ISBN-13 978-0-691-12863-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10 0-691-12863-4 (pbk.)
1. Women—Middle East—History. 2. Feminism—Middle East—History. I. Title.
HQ1726.5.K43 2007
305.40956—dc22------2006008911
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon
Printed on acid-free paper.
pup.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FOR PARVIN PAIDAR 1 949-2005
who illuminated our minds and our lives all too briefly
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Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
Book One
Women in the Middle East: A History 7
Introduction: Issues in Studying Middle Eastern Women’s History 9
I. Regional Background and the Beginnings of Islam 13
II. From the Pious Caliphs through the Dynastic Caliphates 26
III. From the Turkish and Mongol Invasions to 1798 48
IV. Change in the Long Nineteenth Century 1798-1914 60
V. 1914-45: Nationalism and Women’s Movements 75
VI. 1945-Today: New States and Trends, Women’s Activism,
and the Rise of Islamism 102
Conclusion 166
Notes to Book One 171
Bibliography of Books 193
Book Two
Approaches to the Study of Middle Eastern Women 201
Part 1. Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender 203
Part 2. Scholarship, Relativism, and Universalism 225
Part 3. Women in the Limelight: Recent Books on
Middle Eastern Women’s History since 1800 251
Part 4. Problems in the Study of Middle Eastern Women 279
Part 5. Sexuality and Shi'i Social Protest in Iran (coauthored
with Parvin Paidar [Nahid Yeganeh]) 297
viii * Contents
Book Three
Autobiographical Recollections 325
Part 1. Autobiographical Interview 327
Part 2. Supplement to the Interview 347
Bibliography of Works by Nikki R. Keddie since 1995 355
Index 357
Contents of Book One
W om en in the M iddle East: A H istory
Introduction: Issues in Studying Middle Eastern Women’s History 9
I. Regional Background and the Beginnings of Islam 13
Historical Middle Eastern Societies and Gender Relations 13
Pre-Islamic Arabia and the Rise of Islam 18
II. From the Pious Caliphs through the Dynastic Caliphates 26
The Age of Pious Caliphs and Major Conquests 26
Women in Medieval Muslim Society 29
Islamic Law (Sbari'a) and Traditions (Hadiths) 31
Marriage, Divorce, Child Custody 35
Women’s Lives and Codes of Honor over the Centuries 38
Class and Slavery 41
The Lives of Medieval Women as Recorded in the 44
Cairo Geniza
III. From the Turkish and Mongol Invasions to 1798 48
Turks, Mongols, and Mamluks: New Rulers and Gender 48
Attitudes
Ottomans and Safavids 53
Western Views of Middle Eastern Muslim Women 57
IV. Change in the Long Nineteenth Century 1798-1914 60
An Overview of Change 60
Modernizing Reforms and Colonial Rule 67
Debating Middle Eastern Women’s Status and Roles 68
V. 1914-45: Nationalism and Women’s Movements 75
An Overview of Changes 75
Turkey 81
Iran 84
Afghanistan 89
Egypt 89
Syria and Lebanon 95
Palestine 99