Unveiling Scheherazade: Feminist Orientalism in the International Alliance of Women, 1911- 1950 Author(s): Charlotte Weber Source: Feminist Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Spring, 2001), pp. 125-157 Published by: Feminist Studies, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178453 . Accessed: 15/12/2013 10:42 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Feminist Studies, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Feminist Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 131.211.208.19 on Sun, 15 Dec 2013 10:42:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions UNVEILING SCHEHERAZADE:FEMINIST ORIENTALISMIN THE INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCEOF WOMEN, 1911-1950 CHARLOTTEWEBER In an article published in 1982, Leila Ahmed chastised Western feminists for their "docilitytoward the received ideas of their cul- ture"regarding Muslim women in the Middle East.1She pointed to their complicityin perpetuatingan image of Islam as monolith- ic and unchanging,a powerful forcethat not only preventsIslam- ic societies from emulatingthe "progress"of the Westbut that also keeps women in a state of abjectslavery. That image belongs to the generalconstellation of ideas labeled "orientalism"by Edward Said, who used the term to designate the West'srepresentations and domination of the East.2His 1979 work analyzed the histori- cal constructionof a Westerndiscourse that persistentlymisrepre- sents both Islam and its adherents, especially within the Arab world.