Introduction

Introduces the outlines of Zaynab Fawwaz’s biography and published oeuvre, in the context of the nineteenth-century Arab/ic Nahda, or knowledge movement, and the centrality of questions of gender to that series of initiatives. Considers her distinct approach to questions of gender and society by setting out a feminist analytic that distinguishes ameliorative gender activism from critique of gender as a system of hierarchical social relations based on sex-gender differentiation and instituting and maintaining patriarchal and masculinist authority over females and the young. Suggests how debates on gender in 1890s Egypt were entangled with debates across the world, and how Arabophone intellectuals used certain keywords and conceptual categories to join debate, and describes communities of discourse, or senses of audience, that animated Fawwaz. Attention to audience and terminology, and to the rhetorical uses of affect, are aspects of a methodology of deep listening which requires close attention to not only Fawwaz’s writings, but those with which they were in dialogue.

Reconsidering religious gender normativity in graphic novel adaptations: a quantitative and qualitative case study

Purpose This paper aims to illustrate how graphic novel adaptations can engage adolescents in conversations about gender and society, particularly when adaptations are weighed against messaging found in a student’s everyday life such as religiously motivated gender normativity. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on quantitative and qualitative analyzes of the interview, think-aloud and survey data collected from 15 adolescents who self-identified as Modern Orthodox Jewish women. Texts used for think-aloud were three graphic novel adaptations that critically adapted potentially misogynistic readings and interpretations of religious Jewish texts such as the Bible. Findings Epistemic network analysis and constructivist grounded theory show that visual elements found in each adaptation can spark deeply personal reflections on topics that are often explicitly or implicitly suppressed by social norms such as gender normativity in Jewish texts and practices. Originality/value This paper is timely and contributes to understanding the apparent cultural clash between religious conservativism and movements for social change, using the graphic novel to mediate between them.

Pitfalls of Secularism in Turkey

Deniz Kandiyoti is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her work on gender, development, nationalism, and Islam has been deeply influential within feminist studies, development studies and Middle Eastern studies. Her path-breaking essay ‘Bargaining with Patriarchy’ appeared in the journal Gender and Society in 1988. She is the author of Concubines, Sisters and Citizens: Identities and Social Transformation (1997) and the editor of Fragments of Culture: The Everyday Life of Modern Turkey (2002), Gendering the Middle East (1996), Women, Islam and the State (1991).

War, Gender, and Society in Late Colonial and Revolutionary Spanish America

Military conflicts and wars shaped Spanish America in the transformative period from the 1780s to the 1830s with its first anticolonial uprisings and the Spanish American Wars of Independence. This chapter explores the impact of warfare and militarization on the social and gender order in the Spanish Atlantic Empire in this transformative period and examines, conversely, how ideas about the gender order shaped society, warfare, and military culture. It focuses on the first anticolonial uprisings, especially the Tupac Amaru Rebellion in the South American Andes and the Rebellion of the Comuneros in New Granada—two of the largest and earliest in the history of Latin America—and the Spanish American Wars of Independence and their aftermath.

Whose Gaze? Stories Told between Kabul, Herat and Berlin

This visual essay focuses on contemporary women’s cinema in Afghanistan, which started in 2001, when, for the first time, women made films in Afghanistan. They narrate stories from their perspectives, and choose different filmic means, characters and genres to tell their stories. With a selection of film stills and photographs, this visual essay introduces the work of these women filmmakers. The images are accompanied by text that describes the contents and the making of their films. Text includes quotations from filmmakers reflecting on their practice. The directors whose work I present are, among others, Roya Sadat, Saba Sahar, Diana Saqeb and Aiqela Rezaie. As some of the filmmakers also work as actresses, I draw an arc into the changeful history of Afghan cinema and the role women played as actresses in these films. The essay highlights the period between 2002 and 2009, when I worked in Kabul making my film Passing the Rainbow and co-organising the film festival SPLICE IN on Gender and Society.

Becoming Land

This chapter sets the historical, anthropological and cosmopolitical context for the 13 other chapters assembled here. It is organised around the 5 thematic parts of the book. ‘The Indigenous Australian Experience of the Rhizome’ (Part One) explains Guattari’s interest for the rhizomatic practice of the Aboriginal nomadic territorialisation of myth, ritual and dreams with examples of oneiric revelations and speeches by Warlpiri women and men. ‘Totem, Taboo and the Women’s Law’ deconstructs anthropological and psychoanalytical preconceptions about religion, gender and society. ‘The Aboriginal Practice of Transversality and Dissensus’ (Part 3) analyses various forms of local, national and transnational Indigenous resistance to defend their culture, their land and social justice. ‘Micropolitics of hope and De-essentialisation’ (Part 4) introduces decolonial debates about race and environment with examples from France, Africa and the Pacific. ‘Dancing with the Spirits of the Land’ (Part 5) draws ecosophical lessons from Afro Brazilian and Indigenous forms of spiritual healing.