Women In the Middle East (ebook)

Argumento de Women In the Middle East (ebook)

Written by a pioneer in the field of Middle Eastern women's history, Women in the Middle East is a concise, comprehensive, and authoritative history of the lives of the region's women since the rise of Islam. Nikki Keddie shows why hostile or apologetic responses are completely inadequate to the diversity and richness of the lives of Middle Eastern women, and she provides a unique overview of their past and rapidly changing present. The book also includes a brief autobiography that recounts Keddie's political activism as one of the first women in Middle East Studies.

Positioning women within their individual economic situations, identities, families, and geographies, Women in the Middle East examines the experiences of women in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, in Iran, and in all the Arab countries. Keddie discusses the interaction of a changing Islam with political, cultural, and socioeconomic developments. In doing so, she shows that, like other major religions, Islam incorporated ideas and practices of male superiority but also provoked challenges to them. Keddie breaks with notions of Middle Eastern women as faceless victims, and assesses their involvement in the rise of modern nationalist, socialist, and Islamist movements. While acknowledging that conservative trends are strong, she notes that there have been significant improvements in Middle Eastern women's suffrage, education, marital choice, and health.

"All readers will enjoy the superb photographs, most of which were taken by the author during the 1970s...Graduate students will benefit from reading Keddie's nuanced understanding of the field's development from her perspective in 1978 and nearly a quarter of a century later."--M.L. Russell, Choice

"Women in the Middle East is a broad, accessible book that deals superbly well with the historical literature. It is also an intriguing experiment in combining genres from a pioneer of Middle Eastern women's history."--Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University

"This intriguing book brings together the scholarship of one of the great pioneers and advocates of Middle Eastern women's history and offers a fresh synthesis that integrates the literature of the past three decades into a single narrative. As such, it has no competitors."--Beth Baron, Graduate Center of the City University of New York

"This remarkable book enriches the field of Middle Eastern studies. . . . To read these interviews from almost two decades ago is to be struck by how much the world and Middle Eastern studies have changed since. For the new prominence of scholarship about women, no little credit is due Nikki Keddie."--Haleh Esfandiari, Wilson Quarterly

"This collection of papers is a useful reminder both of the evolving scholarship dealing with women in the Middle East, and of the significant contributions that Keddie has made to that scholarship. It is an important addition to the library of anyone interested in this subject."--John O. Voll, Journal of Social History0List 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

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