Women Flashcards
islam and long term traditions
Interpretation of islam associated with long term traditions although change over time. Change from inside the tradition – eg members of catholic church tryin g to change teaching on homosexuality from within the church. Grass roots almost. Outside change is usually totally dramatic change. You see both these changes in muslim countries
Cairo in 1920 - veil
women being veiled is a sign of your urban sophistication and your modernity. Contrast with rural areas muslim communities women wouldn’t be generally veiled – practicality, working outside etc. So by 1920’s sign of wealth and modernity if as a man you are keeping wife indoors and if you let her out it is covered up.
Regional differences veil
Lebanon more free of veil Saudi not
Feminism and Sha’arawi
After World War I, many women took part in political actions against the British rule. In 1919, Sha`arawi helped organize the largest women’s anti-British demonstration. In defiance of British orders to disperse, the women remained still for three hours in the hot sun.
Sha`arawi made a decision to stop wearing her veil in public after her husband’s death in 1922. Her decision to unveil was part of a greater movement of women.
In 1923, Sha`arawi founded and became the first president of the Egyptian Feminist Union, after returning from the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress in Rome she removed her face veil in public for the first time, a signal event in the history of Egyptian feminism.
he helped lead the first women’s street demonstration during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, and was elected president of the Wafdist Women’s Central Committee.
women and the colonial movement
Women coming in the sphere as a context of anti-colonial movement
Desire for women to take part in the national struggle.
Women coming into the sphere of public life doing it in terms of nationalism rather than intrinsic value of womens lives
Leila Khaled
is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and an airline hijacker who was later released in a prisoner exchange for civilian hostages kidnapped by her fellow PFLP members.[1][2] The PFLP is described as a terrorist organization by the United States,[3] Canada,[4] and the European Union.[5]
Khaled came to public attention for her role in a 1969 hijacking and one of four simultaneous hijackings the following year as part of Black September
Tarab Abdul Hadi
Tarab Abdul Hadi (also transliterated Tarab ‘Abd al-Hadi) (1910 Jenin[1] –1976 Cairo) was a Palestinian Muslim activist and feminist.[2][3] In the late 1920s, she co-founded the Palestine Arab Women’s Congress (PAWC), the first women’s organization in British Mandate Palestine, and was an active organizer in its sister group, the Arab Women’s Association (AWA)
Historiography - Mountain against the sea -Salim Tamari
shift that ,marriage no longer pragmatic but notions of being in love.
colonialism and women and validation
Colonial officials: Islam as backwards
Most obvious sources of weakness. No state beuracracies to collect taxes, couldn’t fund military because. Bad organisation of military and why European were able to overpower. Orientalsit discourse - Not how middle east states organised but the culture – enlightenment, European society and culture.
These practices harshly criticised and islam seen as the problem. Women and their status featured in this discourse. Women and oppressed status used to justify their colonistion in this region. An excuse to denounce idle east as backwards.
Cromer , colonial regime, women
Cromer was opposed to suffragette movement in Britain yet part of the colonial establishment that used women as an excuse for the colonial project – Continues today – Afghanistan women was used as part of a reason to invade. Legitimising narrative but not the reason for the invasion
Egypt home to various Egyptians who wanted to change womens status. Huda Sharawi, Qasim Amin, Zaynab al –Ghaza
Qasim Amin
Qasim Amin was considered by many as the Arab world’s “first feminist”. An Egyptian philosopher, reformer, judge, member of Egypt’s aristocratic class, and central figure of the Nahda Movement, Amin advocated Egyptian women’s rights. He argued that refusing women their natural rights and treating them as “slaves of their husbands” with no identity of their own kept the nation in the dark.[3]
Zaynab Al-Ghazali
Zeinab al-Ghazali promulgated a feminism that was inherently Islamic. She believed in a “notion of habituated learning through practical knowledge[1]” of Islam and the Qu’ran, and felt that women’s liberation, economic rights, political rights, etc. could be achieved through a more intimate understanding of Islam.[2] al-Ghazali also believed that a woman’s primary responsibility was within the home, but that she should also have the opportunity to participate in political life if she so chose.[2] al-Ghazali’s Patriarchal Islamist stance allowed her to publicly disagree with several issues that “put her at odds with male Islamist leaders”
Muslims women association
Her weekly lectures to women at the Ibn Tulun Mosque drew a crowd of three thousand, which grew to five thousand during holy months of the year. Besides offering lessons for women, the association published a magazine, maintained an orphanage, offered assistance to poor families, and mediated family disputes. The association also took a political stance, demanding that Egypt be ruled by the Qur’an.
Legal womens issues
Personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, inheritance, guardianship. Many countries women are the ward of their father and then ward after marriage. Needing permission from guardian to travel or get a oassport. Different terms for men and women inheritance
Social issues for women
Position of women in the public sphere.
Women as social poltical eladers
Social position of Women
\Slavery mentioned in past but reinterpretation not mention
hadd Punishments mandates directly by god, execution, theft, false accusations sex outside marriage – Saudi? But others reject this.
2 competing norms in human rights discourse.
Efforts to enact humanrights charters. Same issues inrespect to gender, ethnic minorities.
