This Is an Interdisciplinary Course That Aims to Examine Women's Role in a Range of Social and Political Activities in Various

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Muslim Societies (ISLA 210) Fall 2017 Monday and Wednesday, 1:05-2:25 Stewart Biology Building N2/2 Professor Malek Abisaab Office: Leacock 620 Office Hours: Monday 3-5 and by appointment email: via myCourses.

Research Assistants: 1. Peiyu Yang Email: [email protected] Office: Morrice Hall, room # 313 Office hrs: Friday 9:00-11:00 and by appointment

2. Wadha al-Zuair email: [email protected] Office: Morrice Hall, room # 313 Office hrs: Wednesday 3-5 and by appointment

3. Heather Porter email: [email protected] Office: Morrice Hall, room # 328 Office hrs: Thursday 11:30-1:30 and by appointment

Course Description The course introduces students to a set of discussions and debates pertaining to the legal status, roles, experiences, and conditions of Muslim Arab women from the

1 perspective of modern scholars and Arab feminists. These discussions and debates lie at the heart of our understanding of the modern history of Arab societies, the socio- economic transformation they underwent, and their exchange with Western feminism. The readings will shed light on the approaches to women offered by the foundational Islamic texts namely, the Qur`an and the Hadith (sayings and doings of the Prophet), and the range of interpretations offered by Muslim reformists and feminists. The readings also give students an overview of the origin of Arab economic and cultural institutions that shaped gender relations and women’s conditions. They highlight the practices of seclusion, veiling, and polygamy; stressing the function of patriarchy among the Arab medieval ruling elites and its transformation in the modern period. They also introduce important discussions about women and work in a comparative perspective. The course delineates the diversity in the social conditions of Arab women and the nature of class and gender inequalities in a range of historical settings including the colonial period (19th to first half of the 20th Century).

Course Requirements: 1. There will be three pop quizzes, one term paper and a final exam. The final exam (essay format) is based on both lecture and discussion topics. The term paper is due on Friday Nov. 3rd at 4:00 PM (Read instructions on writing the term paper below---only hard copies are accepted). The Final Exam will cover the material that we studied in class. The definite date of the final exam will be announced in proper time. A week before the exam date I will give you a study Guideline to prepare for the exam. The exam will be composed of 3 questions; you have to answer two. If a student cannot take the quiz on time due to a documented emergency situation, s/he MUST notify me or the TAs. A student who fails to provide a medical note for her/his absence when a quiz is given will not be given a make-up. Finally, topics for the term paper are based on the following question:

a- Write a short essay describing the status and role of women in Saudi Arabia.

2. Discussion: Most of Wednesday sessions (from 1:05-2:25) will be dedicated for discussion. Questions from the lectures and new materials are the topics for discussions. Students are required to register in one of the following four conferences: STBIO 3/4 for the section 24795; EDUC 211 for the section 24796; STBIO N2/2 for the section 24797 and Wilson 110 for the section 25667. Students are expected to attend class regularly, both lecture and discussion, and to participate in discussion of assigned materials and raise questions concerning central historical points. Students are also expected to thoroughly read and prepare the assigned materials and to be ready to respond to basic questions on them. The discussion would be graded according to the following rubric: Absence: 0; passive learning 10% (C+); active in group discussion 10% (B+); active in class discussion 10% (A).

2 3. Your final grade is based on the following division: Class attendance and discussion (30%) Quizzes (15%) [the best grade of two quizzes] Term paper (25%) Final Exam (30%)

4. Classroom rules:  It is important to check myCourses regularly especially before coming to class as the lecture’s outline, question for discussion and possible messages will be posted.

 Mobile phones should not be used in class for any reason and, most importantly, laptop computers may only be used for taking notes in class. Penalty will be applied (5 pts from your final discussion grade).

Please read this essay: http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2014/08/25/why-im-asking-you-not- to-use-laptops/

5. Books to buy (McGill’s bookstore) All Books should be found on the reserve shelf at the Islamic Library. In case you need to buy some or all of these books below is the list.  Course Pack Materials (CPM)  Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992)

6. Reading Assignments: Week 1 Wed. Sept. 6th Introduction to the course

Week 2 Mon. Sept.11th Film: Islam an Empire of Faith (Part I)

Wed. Sept. 13th Discussion: the film “Islam an Empire of Faith”; Alexander Knysh, Chapter 1, “Arabia: The Cradle of Islam,” in Alexander Knysh, Islam in Historical Perspective, Pp. 7-17 and Moojan Momen, Chapter 1, “An Outline of the Life of Muhammad and the Early History of Islam” and Ch. 2, “The Question of the Succession to Muhammad,” in Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shi`i Islam: The History and Doctrines of Shi`ism, Pp. 1-22. (CPM 1)

3 Week 3 Mon. Sept. 18th Women before Islam Lecture: Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, Part I: “The Pre-Islamic Middle East.” Pp. 9-38

Wed. Sept. 20th Lecture: Women in early Islam. Read, Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, chs. 3&4 (Women and the Rise of Islam---The Transitional Age). Pp. 39-78 The class meets in Stewart Biology Building N2/2

Week 4 Mon. Sept. 25th Lecture: Women and Misogyny. For background read Fatima Mernissi, “A Tradition of Misogyny,” (Part I& II) in The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, Pp. 49-80. (Ebook)

Wed. Sept. 27th Discussion: Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, chs. 5&6 (Elaboration of the Founding Discourses & Medieval Islam). Pp 79- 124.

Week 5 Mon. Oct. 2nd Lecture: Women and Veiling. For background read Fatima Mernissi, “The Hijab and the Veil,” in The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, Pp. 85-101. (Ebook)

Wed. Oct. 4th Discussion: Fatima Mernissi, “The Prophet and Hadith,” in The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, Pp. 25-48. (Ebook)

Week 6 Mon. Oct. 9th Thanksgiving Holiday. No Class

Wed. Oct.11th Lecture: Women and Patriarchy I. For background read Mernissi, “The Prophet and Women,” in The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, Pp. 115-140. (Ebook) The class meets in Stewart Biology Building N2/2

Week 7 Mon. Oct., 16th Term paper Guidelines & library session

Wed. Oct. 18th Discussion: Mernissi, “Umar and the Men of Medina,” in The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, Pp. 141-160. (Ebook)

Week 8 Mon. Oct. 23rd Lecture: The Prophet and the conflict with the military. For background read Mernissi, “The Prophet as Military Leader,” in The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, Pp. 161-179. (Ebook)

Wed. Oct. 25th Discussion: Mernissi, “The Hijab Descends on Medina,” & “Conclusion,” in The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, Pp. 180-195. (Ebook)

Week 9 Mon. Oct. 30th Women and Orientalism Lecture & Film: Edward Sa`id, Orientalism, ch. 3 [201-329] [myCourses] & Edward Said on Orientalism (DVD)

Wed. Nov. 1st Discussion: Arlene Elowe Macleod, “Hegemonic Relations and Gender Resistance: The New Veiling as Accommodating Protest in Cairo,” Signs vol. 17, no. 3 (Spring, 1992): 533-557. http://www.jstor.org.proxy1.library.mcgill.ca/stable/3174622

Term paper due on Friday Nov. 3rd Week 10 Mon. Nov. 6th Lecture: Women and Islam: A Revisionist Perspective

Wed. Nov. 8th Discussion: Lord Cromer and Women. Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, ch. 8 (The Discourse of the Veil), pp. 144-168 & Dohra Ahmad, “Not beyond the Veil: Muslim Women in American Popular literature,” Social Text 99, vol. 27, no. 2 (Summer, 2009): 105-131. (myCourses)

Week 12 Mon. Nov. 13th Women and Resistance Lecture: Women and Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. Read Khalid Dakhil, ch. 5 “The Rise of the Wahhabi Movement,” pp. 215-253 in Khalid Dakhil, Social Origins of Wahhabi Movement, (Ebook)

5 Wed. Nov. 15th Discussion: Manal al-Sharif, Daring to Drive: The Young Saudi Woman who Stood up to a Kingdom of Men. (Ebook)

Week 13 Mon. Nov. 20th Women and Reform. Lecture: Women and Reform in Turkey and Iran. Read, William Cleveland, Martin Burton, A History of the Modern Middle East, ch. 10, “Reforms in Turkey and Iran,” Pp. 175-181& 182-187. Ebook

Wed. Nov. 22nd Discussion: Nilufer Gole, “Kemalism: The Civilizing Mission,” in Nilufer Gole, The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling, 57- 82; 150-153 (Ebook) & Mangol Bayat Philipp, “Women and Revolution in Iran, 1905-1911,” in Lois Beck and Nikki Keddie, Women in the Muslim World, pp. 295-308 (Ebook)

Week 14 Mon. Nov. 27th Women, Work and Globalization Lecture: Read, Yossef Rapoport, “Working Women, Single Women and the Rise of the Female ribat,” in Yossef Rapport, Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society, 31-50 (Ebook) Malek Abisaab, “’Unruly’ Factory Women in Lebanon: Contesting French Colonialism and the National State, 1940-1946,” Journal of Women’s History, vol. 16, no. 3 (2004): 55-82. http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=dc0 c1517-51e8-477b-9510- 163b115a7180%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=#AN=16937359&db= a9h

Wed. Nov. 29th Discussion: Amira El-Azhary Sonbol, chs. 6 and 7, “Marriage, Obedience, and Work;” and “Honor Crime,” in Amira El-Azhary Sonbol, Women of Jordan: Islam, Labor and the Law, 151-213 (CPM 2).

Week 14 Mon. Dec. 4th Lecture: “Saving Muslim Women,” read Lila Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others,” American Anthropologist, vol. 104, no. 3 (Sept., 2002): 783-79.

6 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.2002.104.3.783/f ull

Wed. Dec. 6th Revisions

Thur., Dec. 7th Film: Inside Saudi Arabia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHzar9QKT4k

Term Paper Guidelines: Your paper should not exceed 7 pages in length (including the bibliographical list). It should include the following:

 Introduction (10).  Body/Text (70 pts.): 1. Answer all parts of the question. 2. Organization; clarity; logical and chronological order. 3. Provide enough details/evidence to identify and make clear the main points.  Conclusion (10 pts.): Show the significance of the problem or summarize your paper.

a. Citation (10 pts.):  Books: 1. William Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, 4th edition (Boulder: Westview Press, 2008), 999. 2. Juan R. I. Cole, Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt’s `Urabi Movement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 999. 3. William Cleveland, A History of the Modern, 989. 4. Juan R. I. Cole, Colonialism and Revolution, 777. 5. Ibid., 755. 6. Ibid.

 Article or a chapter in a book:

1. Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, “The Transformation of the Egyptian Elite: Prelude to the ‘Urabi Revolt,” The Middle East Journal, vol. 21, no. 3 (Summer, 1967): 325-344. 2. Malek Abisaab, “Contesting Space: Gendered Discourse and Labor among Lebanese Women,” in Ghazi-Walid Fallah and Caroline Nagel (eds.), Geographies of Muslim Women: Gender, Religion and Space (New York: The Guilford Press, 2005), 249-274.

 Bibliographical List:

Abisaab, Malek. “Contesting Space: Gendered Discourse and Labor among Lebanese Women,” in Ghazi-Walid Fallah and Caroline Nagel (eds.), Geographies of Muslim Women: Gender, Religion and Space. New York: The Guilford Press, 2005.

Abu-Lughod, Ibrahim. “The Transformation of the Egyptian Elite: Prelude to the ‘Urabi Revolt.” The Middle East Journal. Vol. 21, no. 3 (Summer, 1967): 325-344.

Cleveland, William. A History of the Modern Middle East, 4th edition. Boulder: Westview Press, 2008.

Cole, Juan R. I., Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt’s `Urabi Movement. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Bibliographical List

For the paper on women in Saudi Arabia`Aisha (books are on the reserve shelf, Islamic library)

1. Abdella Doumato, Eleanor. “Education in Saudi Arabia: Gender, Jobs, and the Price of Religion,” in Eleanor Abdella Doumato and Marsha Pripstein Posusney (eds.) Women and Globalization in the Arab Middle East: Gender, Economy & Society. Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003. 2. Le Renard, Amelie. A Society of Young Women: Opportunities of Place, Power, and Reform in Saudi Arabia. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2014. (Ebook) 3. Al-Munajjed, Mona. Women in Saudi Arabia Today. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997 (Ebook) 4. Al-Rasheed, Madawi. A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. (Ebook) 5. Deif, Farida. Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2008. https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/04/19/perpetual-minors/human-rights- abuses-stemming-male-guardianship-and-sex

Selected References: Abdella Doumato, Eleanor. “Education in Saudi Arabia: Gender, Jobs, and the Price of Religion,” in Eleanor Abdella Doumato and Marsha Pripstein Posusney (eds.) Women and Globalization in the Arab Middle East: Gender, Economy & Society. Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003.

8 Abisaab, Malek. Militant Women of a Fragile Nation. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2010. ------. “’Unruly’ Factory Women in Lebanon: Contesting French Colonialism and the National State, 1940-1946,” Journal of Women’s History. Vol. 16, no. 3(2004):55- 82. ------. “Contesting Space: Gendered Discourse and Labor among Lebanese Women.” In Ghazi-Walid Fallah and Caroline Nagel (eds.) Geographies of Muslim Women: Gender, Religion, and Space. New York: The Guilford press, 2005.

Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist. Vol. 104, no. 3 (Sept., 2002): 783-779. Abu-Odeh, Lama. “Post-Colonial Feminism and the Veil.” New England Law Review. Vol. 26, no. 4(1992): 1527-1537. Ahmad, Dohra. “Not beyond the Veil: Muslim Women in American Popular literature.” Social Text 99. Vol. 27, no. 2 (Summer, 2009): 105-131. Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. Beck Lois, and Nikki Keddie. Women in the Muslim World. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978. Cleveland, William. A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder: Westview Press, 2000. Dakhil, Khalid. Social Origins of Wahhabism. PhD Dissertation. Los Angeles: University of California, 1998 Deeb, Lara. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi`i Lebanon. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Eisenstein, Zillah. Against Empire: Feminisms, Racism, and the West. London and New York: Zed Books, 2004. Fleischmann, Ellen. The Nation and its “New” Women: The Palestinian Women’s Movement, 1920-1948. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Gole, Nilufer. The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 2013. Hooks, Bell. “Feminisms: A Movement to Fight Sexist Oppression,” in Sandra Kemp and Judith Squires (eds.) Feminisms. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Horgan, Goretti. “How does Globalisation affect Women?” International Socialism Journal. No. 92(Autumn, 2001). Knysh, Alexander. Islam in Historical Perspective. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011. Mahmood, Saba. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. Marfleet, Phil. “Globalization and the Third World,” International Socialism Journal. No. 81(Winter, 1998).

9 Mernissi, Fatima. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of Harem Girlhood. New York: Addison- Wesley Publishing Company, 1994. ------. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam. New York: Basic Books, 1991. Mohanty, Chandra T. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi`i Islam: The History and Doctrines of Shi`ism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985. Rapport, Yossef. Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1978. Al-Sharif, Manal. Daring to Drive: The Young Saudi Woman who Stood up to a Kingdom of Men. New York: Simon and Shuster, 2017. Sonbol, El-Azhary Amira. Women of Jordan: Islam, Labor & the Law. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003. Tetreault, Mary Ann. “Kuwait: Sex, Violence and the Politics of Economic Restructuring.” In Eleanor Abdella Doumato and Marsha Pripstein Posusney (eds.) Women and Globalization in the Arab Middle East: Gender, Economy & Society. Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003. Farida Deif, Farida. Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia. New York: Human Rights Watch 2008. https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/04/19/perpetual- minors/human-rights-abuses-stemming-male-guardianship-and-sex