Note: See course description for other details about the class, including the book list.
The basic text, Nashat and Tucker's Women in the Middle East and North Africa, will be referred to below as N&T.

Jan. 7    Introduction to course: introduction to, and broad outlines of, Middle East history.
Jan. 9    General overview of women in Middle East history, 700-1400 C.E. ASSIGNMENT: read N&T, 34-55. NOTE the glossary on p. xv in this book. Terms for this lecture.

Jan. 14    Issues and problems in Middle Eastern women's history. Discussion in class on assigned reading: Haddad and Smith, "Women in Islam: the Mother of All Battles," (e-reserve), and Sabbagh (hand-out).
Jan. 16    Women and early Islam. ASSIGNMENT: read "`A'isha bint Abi Bakr," in Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak, pp. 27-36; Chapter 3, "Women and the Rise of Islam," and Chapter 4, "The Transitional Age," by Leila Ahmed (reserve).

Jan. 21    Women and early Islam, II. ASSIGNMENT: read Chapter 5, "Elaboration of the Founding Discourses," by Leila Ahmed (reserve).
Jan. 23    NO CLASS. (Schedule adjustment day, whatever that means!)

Jan. 28     Gender and Islamic Law, I: basics and sources. ASSIGNMENT: read "The Koran on the Subject of Women," in Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak, pp. 7-26
Jan. 30    Women in the early modern Middle East. ASSIGNMENT: N&T, pp. 55-72; TBA

Feb. 4   Test on Part One. Click here for review/information.
Feb. 6   Women in the Ottoman Empire; background. ASSIGNMENT: TBA

Feb. 11    Case Study I: Gender and Islamic Law, II. ASSIGNMENT: read In the House of the Law, Chapters 1-3.
Feb. 13    Case Study I, cont: Gender and Islamic Law, II and "Divorce: Iranian Style." ASSIGNMENT: read In the House of the Law, Chapters 4-5.

Part Two: Modern Period, I: Family, Economic and Social Change

Feb. 18    General overview of women in Middle East history, 19-20th century. ASSIGNMENT: read N&T, 73-131.  Response paper #1 due.
Feb. 20    Women and the family. ASSIGNMENT: read Meriwether, "The Rights of Children and the Responsibilities of Women," (reserve) and Tucker, "The Ties That Bound," (reserve)

Feb. 25    Modernity and the "new" woman. ASSIGNMENT: The Liberation of Women;  Ch. 8, "The Discourse of the Veil," by Leila Ahmed (reserve). Discussion questions.
Feb. 27 Debate on The Liberation of Women.

Mar. 4    Women and work: professions. ASSIGNMENT: read Musa, "The Effects of Books and Novels on Morals," and The Difference Between Men and Women and Their Capacities for Work" in Opening the Gates, pp. 257-269; al-Badiya, "A Lecture in the Club of the Umma Party," in Opening the Gates, pp. 227-238.
Mar. 6     Women and work: professions, cont.  ASSIGNMENT: 1) Review Meriwether, "The Rights of Children and the Responsibilities of Women," (reserve); read 2) Nawfal, "The Dawn of the Women's Press," in Opening the Gates, pp. 215-219; and 3) Mary Shehadeh, "Retired Journalist" (reserve)

Mar. 11    "Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt." ASSIGNMENT: read, "The Umm Kulthum Knows," in Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak, pp. 135-166.
Mar. 13   Women and work: entertainers. Discussion of film. ASSIGNMENT: hand-out ("Voices Unveiled: Women Singers in Iran," by H.E. Chehabi)

Mar. 18- 20 SPRING BREAK

Mar, 25   Case Study II: work, marriage, social change. ASSIGNMENT: read Akram Khater, Inventing Home,  Chs. 1-3.
Mar. 27   Case Study II: work, marriage, social change. ASSIGNMENT: read Akram Khater, Inventing Home, Chs. 4-5.

Part Three: Women, Politics and Society

Apr. 1  Lecture on women and modern politics. Response paper 2 due on Inventing Home.
Apr. 3   Women and activism. ASSIGNMENT: read Fleischmann, "The 'Other' Awakening," (reserve) and Sa'ida Jarallah interview (click here).

Apr. 8    Test on part 2: click here for information
Apr. 10  "Iraqi Women in Exile"

Apr. 15   Case Study III: the Egyptian Women's Movement, I. ASSIGNMENT: read Badran, Feminists, Islam and Nation, Chs. 1-2.
Apr. 17    Case Study III: the Egyptian Women's Movement, II. ASSIGNMENT: read Badran, Feminists, Islam and Nation, Chs. 4-5, 11-12. Discussion questions.

Apr. 22    Islamic feminism. READING ASSIGNMENT: Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Jane Smith, "Women in Islam: 'the Mother of all Battles'" (e-res) and Elizabeth Fernea, "Islamic Feminism Finds a Different Voice."
Apr. 24    Middle Eastern Women and the West. ASSIGNMENT: TBA.

Apr. 29th, 2:00: Third test on part three (during exam period).