Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East looks at women's history and the history of women and men's gendered social and political experiences from the 19th through the early 21st centuries. From both theoretical and topical points of view, the book considers the events that have shaped women's experiences in Egypt, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Turkey. At the same time, Lisa Pollard and Mona Russell discuss the ways in which phenomena specific to the modern era (colonialism and independence movements, the rise of the nation-state, nationalism, the Cold War, the rise of various forms of political Islam) have produced or altered gendered institutions, gender roles and discourses about gender in the region as well as the circumstances under which institutions and ideologies have been gendered both masculine and feminine over the course of the modern era.
The book includes discussions of masculinity, sexuality, male and female experiences with marriage and the family, and the increased visibility of lesbian and gay communities and examines how women's roles, as well as gendered systems and institutions, have changed over time.
Combining a chronolgical and thematic approach, and including illustrations and coming right up to date with the Arab Spring, this is the perfect text for all students Middle Eastern History.
Synopsis
This introductory text explores the gendered history of the modern Middle East, from the eighteenth century to the present, studying the various ways in which gender has defined the region and shaped relations in the modern era.
The book captures three aspects of change simultaneously: the events that mark the "modern" Middle east, women's encounters with the transition to modernity and gendered responses to modernity. It contains both new field work and a synthesis of secondary scholarship that highlight the role of gender in the modernization of Egypt, Turkey, Iran, the Levant and the Persian Gulf states. Chapters are organized chronologically to chart the rapid developments of the modern era, but each chapter also stands on its own, with coverage of masculinity and femininity, sexuality, marriage and the family, labor and women's contributions to Arab Spring uprisings. Through this comprehensive account, the book pushes back on stereotypes that the Middle East is an ahistorical region and that women have not been vital actors in the process of change.
Richly illustrated and accessible for a variety of readers, History, Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in gender studies and Middle Eastern history.