HU Credits: 4

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Semester: Yearly

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Liat Kozma

Coordinator Email: liat.kozma@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Wednesday, 11:00-12:00

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Liat Kozma

Course/Module description:
The purpose of the course is to study the diversity of feminist activism in the Middle East and North Africa, the achievements of women's movements and their challenges. While the first weeks of the semester will be dedicated to the beginning of feminist thought and activism in the region, most of the semester will examine various cases studies throughout the region. In Morocco and Iran, for example, we shall examine the work of Islamic feminism; the Turkish and Tunisian case studies will illustrate state intervention and sidelining of religion; the Israeli and Lebanese case studies will teach us of the challenges of a feminist movement in conflict-ridden society.

Course/Module aims:
1. Understanding the political context of feminist activism.
2. Understanding the challenges they are facing.
3. Understanding their strategies
4. Assessing their successes and failures

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Mapping women's movements around the Middle East, and explaining the differences between them

Attendance requirements(%):
90%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: The course will be based on class discussion.

Course/Module Content:
Beginnings: The beginning of the printed press, Qasim Amin, national struggle and state feminsm.
Contemporary case studies: Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian society and Iran.
Women's movements after the Arab Spring.

Required Reading:
1. Introductory Remarks
Part I: Historical overview
2. Beginnings: The printed press
Zachs, Fruma and Sharon Halevi. "From Difā' Al-Nisā' to Mas'alat Al-Nisā' in Greater Syria: Readers and Writers Debate Women and Their Rights, 1858-1900." International Journal of Middle East Studies 41 (2009), 615-633.
Baron, Beth. The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society and the Press. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994: 1-37.
3. Qasim Amin: The first Arab feminist?
Cole, Juan Ricardo. "Feminism, Class, and Islam in Turn-of-the-Century Egypt". International Journal of Middle East Studies 13 (1981): 387-407.
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992: 169-188.
Amin, Qasim. The Liberation of Women‎ and The New Woman: Two Documents in the History of Egyptian Feminism. Translated by Samiha Sidhom Peterson.‎ Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2000: 1-25.
4. Between Colonialism and Nationalism: The formation of a movement
Badran, Margot. Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994: 31-46, 124-141.
Efrati, Noga. Women in Iraq: Past Meets Present. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012: 20-50, 163-174.
Fleischmann, Ellen. The Nation and Its New Women: The Palestinian Women's Movement, 1920-1948. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003: 137-175. ‪
5. State Feminism
Charrad, Mounira M. "From Nationalism to Feminism: Family Law in Tunisia". In Kathryn M.Yount and Hoda Rashad (eds.). Family in the Middle East: Ideational Change in Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia. London: Routledge, 2008: 111-135.
Bier, Laura. Revolutionary Womenhood: Feminisms, Modernity, and the State in Nasser’s Egypt. Stanford: California University Press, 2011: 60-100.

Contemporary Case Studies
6. Morocco: A success story?
Salime, Zakia. Between Feminism and Islam: Human Rights and Sharia Law in Morocco. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011: chapters 2 and 4
7. Lebanon: Within and against a sectorial conflict
Makdisi, Jean Said. "The Mythology of Modernity: Women and Democracy in Lebanon." In Haideh Moghissi (ed.). Women and Islam. Volume I: Images and Realities. Routledge, London, 2005: 339-356.
Mokbel-Wensley, Souad. "Statutory Discrimination in Lebanon: a lawyer's view." Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives. In Mai Yamani (ed.). Ithaca: for the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Reading 1996: 321-329.
Al-Raida: The Status of Women in Lebanese Legislation, vol. 23, nos. 111-112 (2005-6), 14-44, 60-65, 74-79.
Stephan, Rita. "Women’s rights activism in Lebanon". In Pernille Arenfeldt and Nawar Al-Hassan Golley (eds.), Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2012.
8. Jordan: Challenging tribal law
Abu Hassan, Reem and Lynn Welchman. "Changing the rules? Developments on 'crimes of honour' in Jordan". Honour: Crimes, Paradigms and Violence against Women. Edited by Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain. London: Zed, 2005: 199-208.
Bydoon, Maysa. "Reservations on the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)" based on Islam and its practical application in Jordan: legal perspectives", Arab Law Quarterly, 25 (2011), 51-69.
Al-Atiyat, Ibtesam. "Harvests of the golden decades : contemporary women’s activism in Jordan". in Pernille Arenfeldt and Nawar Al-Hassan Golley (eds.). Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2012.

9. Israel: Calling equality's bluff
Radai, Frances. "The Montheisms, Patriarchy and the Constitutional Right to Human Dignity in Israel Family." In Kenneth M. Cuno and Manisha Desai (ed.). Family, Gender, and Law in a Globalizing Middle East and South Asia. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008: 43-64.
Kalev, Henriette Dahan. "Breaking Their Silence: Mizrahi Women and the Israeli Feminist Movement". Peter Y.Medding (ed.). Sephardic Jewry and Mizrahi Jews. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007: 193-209.
Shakdiel, Leah. "Women of the wall: Radical Feminism as an Opportunity for a New Discourse in Israel". Journal of Israeli History 21 (2002), 126-163.

10. Palestinian citizens of Israel: A trapped minority
Marteu, Elisabeth. "Arab Palestinian Women's organizations in Israel: Civil Organizations without National Movement?" In Elisabeth Marteu (ed.). Civil Organizations and Protest Movements in Israel: Mobilization Around the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009: 187-208.
Rouhana, Hoda. "Muslim family laws in Israel: The role of the state and the citizenship of Palestinian women". Women Living under Muslim Laws: Dossier 27 (2005), 37-49.
Kozma, Liat. "Women’s Access to Legal Knowledge: The Case of Palestinian Women’s NGOs in Israel". Women and Knowledge around the Mediterranean. Edited by Fatima Sadiqi. London: Routledge, 2013.

11. Iran: Within the confines of a regime
Moghadam, Valentine. "Feminism and family law in Iran: The struggle for women’s economic citizenship in the Islamic Republic". In Fatima Sadiqi and Moha Enaji (eds). Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Agents of Change. London: Routledge, 2011: 114-128.
Mohajer, Fariba Davoudi, Raya Toloui and Beyerle Shaazka. "The Iranian Women's Movement: Repression versus Nonviolent Resolve." In Maria J. Stephan (ed.). Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009: 281-299.
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba, "Stretching the Limits". In May Yamani (ed.). Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives. Berkshire: Ithaca Press, 1996: 285-320.

12. Palestine: A formative debate
‫Makdisi, Jean Said Noha Bayoumi and Rafif Rida Sidawi (eds.). Arab Feminisms: Gender and Equality in the Middle East. London: I.B. Tauris, 2014.
Jad, Islah. "Feminism Between Secularism and Islamism: The Case of Palestine (The West Bank and Gaza Strip)"
Kuttab, Eileen. "Palestinian Feminist Organizations in the Post-Oslo Era: The Binary Nature of Feminist Discourse"
Amireh, Amal. "Liberation Struggles: Reflections on the Palestinian Women’s Movement"
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. "Indigenizing Feminist Knowledge: Palestinian Feminist Thought Between the Physics of International Power and the Theology of Racist ’Security’ "
13. The Arab Spring and the future of Feminism in the Middle East
Gray, Doris H., "Tunisia after the uprising: Islamist and secular quests for women's rights," Mediterranean Politics 17 (2012), 285 -302.
Rizzo, Helen. "Creating community around women's rights: the anti-sexual harassment campaign in Egypt". Egypte / Monde Arabe 9 (2011), 137-150.
Morsy, Maya. "Safe city free of violence against women and girls is a safe city for everyone." Egypte / Monde Arabe 9 (2011), 151 -164.

14. Conclusion

Additional Reading Material:
none.

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 20 %
Participation in Tutorials 10 %
Project work 70 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
The course will be taught in English.