File Intro File Intro Ross-Nazzal and Aglaia Viviani have provided an historical provides a bridge to the last section of this issue, dealing vantage point from which to understand the way American with mixed marriages and the thorny topic of patrilineal cul- and British women viewed Palestine and Egypt in the mid tural and citizenship rights. 19th century. Sharon Nagy has aptly juxtaposed the historical and current Some of the weaknesses of this issue’s first section are experience of Western and South East Asian women who made up for through the inclusion of powerfully individual have married into upper, middle and lower-middle class testimonials by both indigenous minority women and families in the Arabian peninsula during the last several Western women with a wealth of personal experience in decades. Rima Habib and Lina Abou-Habib provide an the Arab world. Diane King reflects on her work research- activist’s insight into the struggle to find local support for ing the ethnic and gendered oppression of the women of the human rights of Arab women who have married non- Iraqi Kurdistan during the dark days at the end of the nationals and thus seemingly forfeited their children’s cul- Non-Arab Women regime of Saddam Hussein. In her view, Kurdish women are tural identity. far from being the “helpless victims” they are often por- trayed as by well meaning Western NGOs. A good friend The articles in this issue have opened the debate on who from my native Austria, Ingrid Jaradat Gassner describes the decides the nature of ethnic and gender identity in the process of becoming Palestinian over a period of almost region. Ultimately, consensual agreement on definitions is in the Arab World two decades. Arda Ekmekji compares herself to the layers less important than the recognition of the synergetic over- of identity one finds in Beirut’s old city. Her life as an lap of both the individual and collective right to self-defini- Armenian academic in a number of Arab countries raises tion. more questions than it answers about the true identity of the Middle East. Looking back over decades of feminist End Notes activism in her “native” Egypt, Margot Badran describes 1. Significantly, the double meaning of the Arabic word how the women’s movement allowed her to join the Arab “Abed,” i.e. African and slave, finds its historical parallel in world via her dedication to female emancipation. Speaking the European term “Slav/e,” signifying both a social class Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous from the perspective of a young Portuguese-German stu- and membership in the ranks of the Slavic forced labourers dent of Palestinian origin living in Lebanon, Mona Katawi in the early Medieval Byzantine sugar industry. Delineating gender and cultural identities is closely related background articles on the position of two of the other key to power. Rarely, if ever, are individuals permitted to freely ethnic groups in the region, the Maghreb Jews and Middle choose how they wish to live their lives as women or men, Eastern Kurdish populations. as members or outsiders vis-à-vis the societal mainstream. Along with the region’s indigenous ethnic groups, the This issue of Al-Raida deals with the many forms of “not- immigrant minorities in the Arab world deserve particular belonging” and the struggle for recognition within the attention. Focusing on the overlapping of issues of colour, member states of the Arab League. It is divided into five sec- class and gender, Alia Al Zoughbi demonstrates how being tions reflecting the disparate vantage points from which classified “Abed”1 can lead to an almost total loss of social non-Arab women have viewed their role in the Arab world status in the Middle East. Ironically, as Mary Abowd points over a period of over 150 years. out, experiencing oppression, exploitation and a non-recog- nition of one’s human rights does not protect employers In the first section, both Rabha El Asri and Arda from passing it own to their hired help. In the short inter- Dargarabedian portray the position of two of the most sig- lude between the two Intifadas, Asian and Africa domestic nificant non-Arab ethnic groups in the region - the Berbers workers were treated no better in Palestine than were their and Armenians - as members of these minorities. sisters in other parts of the Arab world. Dergarabedian reports on the initial results of one of Jordan’s first scholarly surveys on its ethnic mix, whereas El Alisa Perkins and Maria F. Curtis provide insights into the Asri attempts to debunk the romanticised view of Berber lives of non-Arab women from the other side of the power- An announce- mountain life. Juxtaposed to this position, L’Hocine Ukerdis divide, illustrating the motives, experiences and integra- ment on the and Ulbani Aït Frawsen expose the historical roots of the tional success stories typical of the life of Western women bulletin board of one of the heroicised portrayal of Amazigh (Berber) women in the in modern Moroccan society. As a Malaysian academic, leisure clubs struggle of their people for cultural and political self-deter- Azza Basarudin has written a moving portrayal of her per- in Lebanon mination. One of the great disappoints in the production of sonal experience as an Asian, non-Arab woman researching this issue was our inability to find authors willing to write issues related to gender in the Arab world. Finally, both Jim 10Volume XX, No. 101-102 Spring/Summer 2003 11 Volume XX, No. 101-102 Spring/Summer 2003 File File Non-Arab Ethnic Groups The members of the fathers extended family, but espe- paces. Elderly woman were seen as being much better cially the paternal grandmother, would often considered able to find a young girl’s weak spots. One means of the baby girl as a burden befalling her son’s family, an testing her was to place an elbow on the girl’s bosom extra and useless mouth to feed, a worthless object that and then push as hard as she could. If the pain caused also potentially threatened the honor of the entire fam- the girl to flinch she was not deemed a proper match. ily. Failure in this way was certain to play out very negative- The Role ly because the potential, rebuked mother-in-law would As of early childhood, Berber girls were reminded of spare no effort to expose the girl’s fragility and inability their supposedly base nature. They were expected to to further the interests of the tribe. No young man is his atone for the disgrace that they right mind, especially if he came had caused their family by being from a respectable or influential totally obedient and submissive, by family, would consider wedding serving the male members of the Women are still such a “weak and lax creature.” of Young Women family, who were also considered However, if a young girl did pass to be superiors. Mothers knew seen as being lower, the test, worse laid in store for her that it was their duty to bare a debased creatures; after the marriage ceremony. baby boy, and were therefore eager to keep trying, even it they they are still viewed If the families of the two wedding had to have ten pregnancies and candidates did reach agreement, in Berber Society more. Mothers who had gone with suspicion and young women were conventional- without sons would transfer their ly left in the dark as to which bitterness to a new daughter, and considered a potential household they were to be trans- indirectly blame her for the fact family liability ferred, into Thus, in most cases, that her first child had not been a brides were sent to serve in a new boy. As soon as possible, the household, among strangers, and Rabha EL Asri mother would begin training her with no preparation. Involving newborn daughter to help around the house so that she their daughters in this process, or even informing them could quickly learn her duties and be prepared to face of the family’s decision was considered a source of her ultimate destiny. A successful childhood was judged shame for their fathers or other heads of the family, e.g. by the speed by which a young girl was able to carry out the grandfather or uncle. By considering his daughters The unique position of girls and young women in soci- as objectively as I could, on what I have personally wit- the everyday chores of a whole household on her own. feelings, a man proved himself to be emotional and ety has become a topic of widespread interest. Indeed, nessed or have learned through in-depth interviews If her daughter was slow at learning, a mother knew all weak, revealing womanly characteristics against which although much has been written and many conferences with various elderly women, whom I asked to tell me too well that her in-laws and the entire extended fami- every respectable man was to guard himself. If it were held on the correlation of gender and age, very few about the memories of their individual lives. These ly would blame her for it exclusively. to become public that a father had these attributes, he studies have truly dealt with the unique injustices and women also revealed to me the tales told to them as would lose the respect of his peers and the entire com- hardships undergone by young female populations in girls, stories from the remote past, recounted to them Until recently, girls were denied their human right to munity.