Bad Girls of the Arab World

ジェンダー研究第22号 2019年 ◆書評◆ Edited by Nadia Yaqub and Rula Quawas Bad Girls of The Arab World （University of Texas Press, 2017, ISBN: 978-1-4773-1335-7, USD27.95） Nadje Al-Ali （The Watson Institute of Public & International Affairs and the Anthropology Dept., Brown University） Bad Girls of the Arab World pushes our of examples of women being branded as understandings of women and gender in “bad”, either intentionally or against their Arab-majority countries by challenging will, showing that the control and scru- simplistic ideas of oppression, agency and tiny of women’s behavior, their mobility, resistance. The edited volume complicates their bodies and their sexuality, is central notions about change and transgression, to reinforcing and reproducing patriarchal and succeeds in both providing interesting authoritarianism in the context of wider historical and ethnographic material while social, economic and political crises and also offering personal and artistic reflec- anxieties in the region. Examples and tions. The twelve contributions by or about contexts are wide-ranging and include the women who either defy gender norms or experience of a university professor teach- are perceived to do so, are framed by an ing feminism to students in a classroom in eloquent and insightful introduction writ- Amman, a performance artist responding ten by Nadia Yaqub, and two artistic in- to frequent suicide bombings in Beirut, an terventions in the form of Afterwords by Arab American immigrant who worked as Laila al-Atrash and Miral al-Tahawy. a CIA agent and became the target of an Inspired by the seminal collection Bad Islamophobic campaign, Palestinian wom- Girls of Japan (2005), this volume high- en accused of being bad mothers for their lights the various ways gendered bounda- supposed willingness to sacrifice their ries and norms are historically contingent children in the context of Israeli military and socially produced but are also poten- violence, and Sudanese female musicians tially shifting and subject to change in the who live in the diaspora and continue to context of both individual transgression play a role in Sudanese national politics. and wider social and historical transfor- This important book gains particular mations. The editors put together a range significance as Rula Qawas, one of the 247 書評 editors, passed away unexpectedly before the term “bad”, in fact some loathe it and the book was published. All of us, whether would much prefer to be accepted and re- students or fellow academics, who knew spected by society. It is not only strict gen- her, were touched by her commitment to der norms and gendered roles that cause gender studies, to the education of her stu- transgression, whether intended or not, but dents and to women’s rights more broadly. socio-economic factors like class, ethnic- What struck me most about Rula were her ity, religious affiliation (or lack thereof) wit and humour, coupled with a political as well as political conviction that might and intellectual astuteness, all crouched in also influence whether a certain behav- modesty and respect for others. Her com- ior is viewed as transgressive or not. The mitment to gender studies, feminism and focus on transgression, allows for a more the well-being of her students got her into nuanced approach to the way women re- trouble on more than one occasion. She sist, subvert or negotiate the structures was courageous to stand up to injustice, and processes that might restrain their inequalities and attempts to side-line or freedom, thereby shifting our focus to the suppress women’s voices. The mere fact fraud concept of agency. that she claimed the term “feminist” and I thoroughly enjoyed reading both the provided her students with the knowledge more analytical as well as the reflective and tools to challenge existing gender and artistic contributions to this volume, norms made her stand out and transgres- and recommend the book to be on reading sive in the eyes of many people, inside and lists for students learning about women outside the university. and gender in the Middle East. My only Just like Rula Qawas experienced on suggestion for future publications would several occasions during her life time, be to start challenging the idea of the Arab many of the “bad girls” presented and dis- world, given the fact that many of the “bad cussed in this edited volume are branded girls” are named as such because they are as such due to their transgression, cour- not ethnically Arab or don’t identify as age and daring to defy norms. They are such. not necessarily intending to appropriate （掲載決定日：2019年5月29日） 248.

Load more