scholarly journals Rethinking Orientalism

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 126-128
Author(s):  
Amani Hamdan
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Gender Theory ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Middle Eastern Women ◽  
And Gender

In her book, Reina Lewis discusses how to acquire an accurate understandingof the various strands of neo-Orientalism that perpetuate long-lastingand contemporary stereotypes of Muslim women from traditional Islamicsocieties. Within the context of the current global and geopolitical landscapeas well as the alleged American war on terror, the competing western imperialistand orientalist images, along with negative stereotypes, that characterizeMuslim women are rhetorical. According to Lewis, all of these elementsare at the center of knowledge that is produced and reproduced. This bookfocuses on Ottoman women’s writing from the beginning of the twentiethcentury and traces their “travel accounts, memories, and fractions that reveala gendered counter-discourse that challenges Occidental stereotypes” (p. 1).The author’s main theme is how these writings not only challenged westernOrientalist discourses, but also intervened in the Ottoman debate aboutwomen and national emancipation. The book, which follows an interdisciplinaryapproach, is divided into six chapters.In her introduction, Lewis argues that postcolonial studies have been tooparadigmatic and narrow to include Middle Eastern and particularly Turkishexperiences, since most postcolonial theories focus on the South Asian experience.Her novel endeavor helps bridge this void in postcolonial studies.Also, she introduces “to postcolonial studies the specificities of the lateOttoman situation and bringing to the reading of Ottoman sources the criticalperspectives of postcolonial and gender theory” (p. 5). Moreover, shebrings to light some western women’s writings, such as those of GraceEllison and Lady Mary Wortley, who traveled to the East exploring the statusof Middle Eastern women and, through their writings, tried to “challengeWestern misapprehensions” of their status (p. 45) ...

Orthostatic responses in Caucasian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern women

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-133
Author(s):  
Niyousha Tanbakouie ◽  
Karim Habib ◽  
Heather Edgell
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Middle Eastern Women

scholarly journals Introduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
Alia Yunis ◽  
Dale Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Arab Media ◽  
African Cinema ◽  
Broadcast Television ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
And Gender

Abstract This special issue engages the historical and contemporary heterogeneity of the Gulf, which was a transcultural space long before the discovery of oil. Over the past two decades, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have actively begun to harness the media’s power, while at the same time grassroots productions—online, through social media and in regional festivals—reframe assumptions about film and visual media. With resident expatriate population comprising up to 90 percent of the population in Gulf states, film and visual media complicate conventional frameworks derived from area studies, such as ‘Arab media’, ‘Middle Eastern and North African cinema’, or ‘South Asian film’. These articles also unsettle the modernist divisions of media into distinct categories, such as broadcast television and theatrical exhibition, and consider forms that move between professional and nonprofessional media, and between private and semi-public spaces, including the transmedia spaces of theme parks and shooting locations. Articles examine the subjects of early photography in Kuwait, the role of Oman TV as a broadcaster of Indian films into Pakistan, representations of disability and gender in Kuwaiti musalsalat, tribal uses of social media, and videos produced by South Asian and Southeast Asian expatriates, including second-generation expatriates.

scholarly journals Death and Celebration among Muslim Women: A Case Study from Pakistan

2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 929-980 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMINEH AHMED
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Female Agency ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
And Gender

After September 11 2001 questions about the nature and society of Islam were asked all over the world. Unfortunately in the rush to provide answers inadequate and even distorted explanations were provided. Muslim groups like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan with their brutal ways came to symbolise Islam. The need to understand society through a diachronic and in-depth study was thus even more urgent. The following work is an attempt to explain how Muslims organise their lives through an examination of rituals conducted by women. This particularistic account has far-reaching ramifications for the study of Muslim society.This article seeks to contribute to the general debate on Islamic societies. In particular it contributes to the ethnographic discussion on the Pukhtun. First, it seeks to establish the distinctive sociality of Pukhtun wealthy women or Bibiane in terms of their participation, within and beyond the household, in gham-khadi festivities, joining them with hundreds of individuals from different families and social backgrounds. Second, the article makes a case for documenting the lives of this grouping of elite South Asian women, contesting their conventional representation as idle by illustrating their commitment to various forms of work within familial and social contexts. Third, it describes the segregated zones of gham-khadi as a space of female agency. Reconstructing the terms of this agency helps us to revise previous anthropological accounts of Pukhtun society, which project Pukhtunwali in predominantly masculine terms, while depicting gham-khadi as an entirely feminine category. Bibiane's gham-khadi performances allow a reflection upon Pukhtunwali and wider Pukhtun society as currently undergoing transformation. Fourth, as a contribution to Frontier ethnography, the arguments in this article lay especial emphasis on gham-khadi as a transregional phenomenon, given the relocation of most Pukhtun families to the cosmopolitan capital Islamabad. Since gham-khadi is held at families' ancestral homes (kille-koroona), new variations and interpretations of conventional practices penetrate to the village context of Swat and Mardan. Ceremonies are especially subject to negotiation as relatively young convent-educated married Bibiane take issue with their ‘customs’ (rewaj) from a scriptural Islamic perspective. These contradictions are being increasingly articulated by the female graduates of an Islamabad-based reformist religious school, Al-Huda. Al-Huda, part of a broader regional and arguably national movement of purist Islamization, attempts to apply Quranic and hadith prophetic teaching to everyday life. This reform involves educated elite and middle-class women. These women actively impart Islamic ways of living to family members across metropolitan–rural boundaries. The school's lectures (dars, classes) provide a basis for questioning ‘customary’ or Pukhtun life-cycle practices, authorizing some Bibiane to amend visiting patterns in conformity to the Quran. The manipulation of life-cycle commemorations by elite and middle-class women as a vehicle of change, Islamization and a particular mode of modernity furthermore becomes significant in the light of recent socio-political Islamic movements in post-Taliban Frontier Province. More broadly, the article contributes to various sociological and anthropological topics, notably the nature and expression of elite cultures and issues of sociality, funerals and marriage, custom and religion, space and gender, morality and reason, and social role and personhood within the contexts of Middle-Eastern and South Asian Islam.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunaina Marr Maira
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
South Asian ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Silicon Valley ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
History Of

The Introduction outlines the major questions regarding Muslim American youth and the turn to rights-based activism and cross-ethnic coalitions that are the focus of the book. It discusses why the concept of “youth,” and particularly Muslim and Middle Eastern youth, is so central to to the War on Terror and also often exceptionalized in the post-9/11 moment. It offers an overview of the context of the ethnographic research in Silicon Valley and Fremont/Hayward, situating the three communities (South Asian, Arab, and Afghan American) in the study against the backdrop of the longer history of contestations over race, class, and immigration in this region. It also provides a discussion of the research methods on which the project is based.

scholarly journals Lucky to reach the top?

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 541-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Lundsgaard Ottsen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Achievement Motivation ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Middle Eastern Women ◽  
Low Expectations ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Middle Easterners

Purpose As organizations aim to become increasingly diverse, it is important to understand how perspectives of potential future leaders vary across culture and gender. This study aims to advance the understanding of the persistent gender gap in management. Design/methodology/approach Samples from the gender-segregated Qatar and the co-ed Denmark present a unique opportunity to investigate the potential effects of gender. Here, 115 Middle Easterners and 121 Scandinavians rated perceived importance of job-related skills, networking upward and serendipity in leadership acquisition. Findings Effects of gender showed that compared to men, women across cultures expected that serendipity has less to do with leadership acquisition. Middle Eastern women also showed low expectations regarding networking with people in powerful positions. Nevertheless, both genders showed conviction of meritocracy by rating job-related skills as the most important factor in leadership acquisition. Cross-culturally, Scandinavians presumed job-related skills to be more important than Middle Easterners. Research limitations/implications Despite meritocracy beliefs, it appears that gender differences in perceived possibility of leadership acquisition contribute to the gender gap in management. Scandinavian women relied more on networking than Middle Eastern women, but still lacked faith in serendipitous opportunities compared to male peers. Perceived luck enhances achievement motivation. If men rely more on luck than women, then they are more confident in succeeding and more ambitious about pursuit of leadership. Women’s lack of faith in serendipity might affect their career ambitions negatively even in societies emphasizing equality. Originality/value This is the first study that directly focuses on gender differences in perception of opportunities for leadership acquisition through serendipity.

scholarly journals Family History in the Middle East

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 126-128
Author(s):  
Ikran Eum
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family And Household ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Middle East Studies

The study of families and their histories opens up a cross-disciplinary dialogueamong anthropologists, historians, and other social scientists, includingarea specialists. The content of Doumani’s edited book, Family Historyin the Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender, falls convincinglyinto such disciplines as history, anthropology, Middle East studies,women’s/gender studies, and Islamic studies, since the collection of articlesprovides various indepth case studies drawn both from Islam and frompolitical, economic, legal, and social perspectives.The anthology’s main theme suggests that the family is an entity that,along with the progression of history, evolves continuously. By reconstructingthe family histories of elites and ordinary people in the Middle East fromthe seventeenth to the early twentieth century, the book challenges prevailingassumptions about the monolithic “traditional” Middle Eastern familytype. Instead, it argues cogently that the structure and boundaries of thesefamilies have always been flexible and dynamic.The book is divided into four sections that explore issues concerningthe family from the perspective of politics, economics, and law. In the firstsection, “Family and Household,” Philippe Fargues, Tomoki Okawara, andMary Ann Fay analyze the structure of the nineteenth-century family andhousehold and illustrate how its formation was influenced by changes in the ...

Poststructuralist theory and women in the Middle East: going in circles?

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marnia Lazreg
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
Middle Eastern Women ◽  
Poststructuralist Theory ◽  
And Gender

This article examines the effects of the uncritical use of the poststructuralist Foucauldian theoretical approach on studies of Middle Eastern women and gender. Focusing on the twin concepts of ‘empowerment’ and ‘resistance’ as they have been applied to account for the re-veiling trend among Muslim countries and communities, it explores the epistemic transformation of the explanation of this trend into its justification. It further provides an example of a historicized application of Michel Foucault's conception of power.

Arab Women and Work: The Interrelation Between Orientalism and Historiography

Hawwa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-198
Author(s):  
Malek Abisaab
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Middle Eastern Women ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Cultural Taboos ◽  
And Gender

AbstractThis essay examines the approaches and themes in two overlapping historiographical areas on women and labor since the sixties. The first area examines the scholarship on Lebanese women and modernization. The second area covers the scholarship on women, labor and the family in Arab Middle Eastern society. Despite their general critique of Orientalist representations of the “Muslim” woman, several scholars continue to invest cognate features of the modernization discourse and West-centered models of womanhood. For one, scholars have persistently stated that the social structures in Middle Eastern/Islamic society do not lend themselves to class or gendered divisions. Using classical Eurocentric criteria for gauging women's “empowerment,” these scholars tried to show that Arab working-women are unable to organize themselves on the basis of gender due to cultural taboos, sectarian affiliations, provincial loyalties, family authority, and lack of education. At times, “Islam” or “culture” is presented as operating from above-creating social attitudes that limit women's public activities and involvement in waged work. The primacy given to cultural difference prevents comparability between Western and Middle Eastern/Muslim women on the basis of shared socio-economic experiences. Several studies overlooked the complex interconnections among family, sect, class and gender expressed through the range of activities and experiences linking women's domestic and waged work. There is indeed an overwhelming focus on the ideas and attitudes of bourgeois woman and their legal rights, which are rarely analyzed in connection to historical context, economic arrangements, productive patterns, or social interest. Rather, they are discussed in connection to women's education and work and ultimately levels of modernization. These prevalent features of the historiographical literature give shape to new and subtle Orientalist narratives about Muslim/Middle Eastern women.

scholarly journals The ‘Young Muslim Man’ in Australian Public Discourse

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran Grewal
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
Ethnic Community ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Australian Community ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Ethnicity And Gender

Through an analysis of two highly mediatised recent events in Australia this article seeks to interrogate the intersections of gender, ethnicity and culture in the construction of Australian national identity. A series of gang rapes in the early 2000s attracted widespread public outrage and the harshest ever condemnation of acts of sexual violence in Australian history. Linked to these events, in December 2005 a series of riots at the Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla led to further questioning of ethnic relations and the state of Australian multiculturalism within media and political discourses. While many of the responses to the gang rapes and the Cronulla riots have drawn on the language of ‘women’s rights’, a closer look at the discourses suggests a different story. Responses to the gang rapes have often characterised the attacks as being against the Australian community, rather than against individual women. It is also interesting to contrast the outrage surrounding the gang rapes with the general silence regarding the increased racist violence committed against Muslim women in recent times. Furthermore, the linking of the gang rapes with a particular religious/ethnic community can be contrasted with the discourses on the alleged gang rapes involving Australian sporting teams, such as the Bulldogs and more recently the Wests Tigers. Finally the manner in which the events of Cronulla have been recast and linked back to the ‘threat’ posed by young Muslim/Lebanese/Middle Eastern men to Australian women suggests that ethnicity and gender both play an important and mutually reinforcing role in the construction of Australian national identity.

scholarly journals Micro-Physics of Discipline: Spaces of the Self in Middle Eastern Women Life Writings

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
The Self ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Middle Eastern Women ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
Condition Of Women ◽  
Female Subjects

Contemporary life narratives by or about Middle Eastern women often portray the female body as the object of oppressive ethical and political governmentalities. This article focuses on the writings of a generation of secular and Muslim women, whose works describe the condition of women as subjugated by sovereign states and disciplinary governments, to examine the politics of space in the workings of the complex interactions between gender and power. To this end, Erving Goffman’s spatial theories on the territories of the self and the modalities of contamination are used to examine the function of political spaces in Jean P. Sasson’s Princess, Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, Zainab Salbi’s Between Two Worlds, and Manal al-Sharif’s Daring to Drive. The findings indicate that three modes of violations strategically contaminate the female subjects’ spaces of the self: informational preserve, physical and interpersonal. Of all the three modes, physical contamination—such as mandatory veiling/deveiling, corporeal exposure, forced exposure to dirt and appropriation of personal possessions—proves to be the most common. The study concludes that even though space is used as a strategy of regulating the female body, the subjugated women constantly struggle to re-construct different spaces to disrupt the flow of contamination.

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