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Through a Veil Darkly: The Study of Women in Muslim Societies. A Review Article

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

David Waines
David Waines
Affiliation:
University of Lancaster
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Abstract

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Type
Women in Society
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , October 1982 , pp. 642 - 659
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1982

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References

In memory of Klaus-Friedrich Koch.

The author wishes to thank his colleague, Dr. J. E. M. Laybourn, for initially suggesting the topic of this paper and for providing amiable criticism during its preparation.

1 In the main, the present article is based upon the following works: Beck, Lois and Keddie, Nikki, eds., Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978)CrossRefGoogle ScholarFernea, Elizabeth and Bezirgan, Basima, eds., Middle Eastern Women Speak (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977)Google ScholarDwyer, Daisy H., Images and Self Images: Male and Female in Morocco (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978)Google ScholarMakhlouf, Carla, Changing Veils: Women and Modernization in North Yemen (London: Croom Helm, 1979)Google Scholar

2 Said, Edward, Orientalism (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978). In this work, the author launches a powerful—and controversial—critique of the western image of the Middle East.Google Scholar

3 Daniel, Norman, Islam, Europe and Empire (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966), p. 23.Google Scholar

4 Said, , Orientalism, p. 188.Google Scholar

5 Keddie, Nikki, “Problems in the study of Middle Eastern women,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, X:2 (05, 1979), 230.Google Scholar

6 Turner, Bryan, Marx and the End of Orientalism (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978), pp. 81–85.Google Scholar

7 Keddie, , “Problems,” 225Google Scholar; Turner, ibid., p. 1.

8 A very useful guide to the literature is al-Qazzaz, Ayad, Women in the Middle East and North Africa: An Annotated Bibliography, (Austin: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas, 1977)Google Scholar. See also the same author's article, “Current Status of Research on Women in the Arab World,” Middle Eastern Studies, XIV:3 (10, 1978), 372–80.Google Scholar

9 Beck, and Keddie, , Women, p. 14.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., p. 18. (Emphasis added).

11 This theme is found in the works of the late G. E. von Grunebaum (among others). See Waines, David, “Cultural Anthropology and Islam: The Contribution of G. E. von Grunebaum,” Review of Middle East Studies, No. 2 (1976), 113–23.Google Scholar

12 Dwyer, , Images, pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., pp. 166–67.

14 White, Elizabeth H., “Legal Reform as an Indicator of Women's Status in Muslim Nations,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 52–68Google Scholar; also “Excerpts from Les Algeriennes by Fadela M'rabet,” in Women Speak, Fernea, and Bezirgan, , eds., pp. 319–58.Google Scholar

15 Saleh, Sania, “Women in Islam: Their Status in Religious and Traditional Culture,” in Arab Society in Transition: A Reader, Ibrahim, Saad Eddin and Hopkins, Nicholas, eds., (Cairo: The American University Press, 1977), pp. 121–30, especially at 122.Google Scholar

16 Fernea, and Bezirgan, , Women Speak, pp. xviii–xvix.Google Scholar

17 Coulson, Noel and Hinchcliffe, Doreen, “Women and Law Reform in Contemporary Islam,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 37.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., p. 38.

19 Saleh, , “Women in Islam,” p. 126.Google Scholar

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22 Coulson, and Hinchcliffe, , “Women and Law Reform,” p. 41.Google Scholar

23 White, , “Legal Reform,” p. 53Google Scholar. Nadia Youssef points out that this approach has the advantage of easy measurement and comparison. Its major weakness, however, is that it contains an intrinsic evolutionary bias in the sense that “emancipation” and “rights” are seen in terms of modern Western ideas and values; Youssef, Nadia, “The Status and Fertility Patterns of Muslim Women,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 75–76.Google Scholar

24 Nath, Kamla, “Education and Employment among Kuwaiti Women.” in Women, ed. by Beck, and Keddie, , p. 177Google Scholar. White, , “Legal Reform”, p. 60, makes only passing reference to Kuwait observing that it would receive a score of one on the scale (equal to Saudi Arabia) since it has introduced no reforms in personal or family law.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., p. 177.

26 Coşar, Fatma Mansur, “Women in Turkish Society,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 124.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., p. 131.

28 Ibid., p. 132.

29 Ibid., p. 133.

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31 Coşar, , “Turkish Society,” p. 134.Google Scholar

32 Tessler, Mark A. with Rogers, Janet and Schneider, Daniel, “Women's Emancipation in Tunisia,“ in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 144–45.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., p. 153.

34 Ibid., p. 149.

35 Femea, and Bezirgan, , Women Speak, p. xxxii.Google Scholar

35 Minces, Juliette, “Women in Algeria,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 170.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., p. 164.

38 “Excerpts by Fadela M'rabet,” in Women Speak, Femea, and Bezirgan, , eds., pp. 319–58.Google Scholar

39 “Interviews with Jamila Buhrayd,” in Ibid., pp. 251–62.

40 Ibid., p. 261.

41 Anonymous, , “No Easy Exit from Slavery Behind the Veil,” in Arab Society, Ibrahim, and Hopkins, , eds., p. 174.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., p. 175.

43 The Algerian case provides interesting corroborative data to Judith Gran's study of women in Egypt prior to the revolution of 1952. Gran analyzed various attitudes towards women's emancipation as reflected in the nationalist ideologies supported by different social classes. Whereas liberal or moderate nationalists of upper and upper-middle class origin viewed social reform along western lines, nationalists of lower class background adopted a ‘radical’ posture, demanding an end to British dominance while defending indigenous social values; Gran, Judith, “Impact of the World Market on Egyptian Women,” Merip Reports, No. 58 (06, 1977), 3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 Watt, W. M., Islam and the Integration of Society, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Berque, J. and Charnay, J-P., Normes et Valeurs dans I'Islam Contemporain, (Paris: Editions Payot, 1966).Google Scholar

45 Youssef, Nadia, “The Status and Fertility Patterns of Muslim Women,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 70, 73, 75 (Tables).Google Scholar

46 Ibid., p. 79 (Emphasis added).

47 Dwyer, , Images; Sawsan el-Messiri, “Self-images of Traditional Women in Cairo,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 522–40Google Scholar; Makhlouf, , Changing Veils.Google Scholar

48 Geertz, Clifford, “On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding,” American Scientist, LXIII (1975), 47–53.Google Scholar

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50 Dwyer, , Images, p. 182.Google Scholar

51 Vielle, , “Iranian Women,” p. 465.Google Scholar

52 Ibid., p. 469.

53 el-Messiri, , “Women in Cairo,” p. 538.Google Scholar

54 Dwyer, , Images, p. 163.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., p. 153; Makhlouf, , Changing Veils, p. 44, writes that “one may argue that, in many cultures, the male view of the world is a ‘surface structure,’ and that a consideration of the deeper levels of the culture will often reveal an autonomous female view.”Google Scholar

56 Rosen, Lawrence, “The Negotiation of Reality: Male-Female Relations in Sefrou, Morocco,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 561–84.Google Scholar

57 Dwyer, , Images, p. 152.Google Scholar

58 Rosen, , “Negotiation of Reality,” p. 571.Google Scholar

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60 Supra, , p. 000.Google Scholar

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62 Ibid., p. 560. See also Chatty, Dawn, “Changing Sex Roles in Beduin Society in Syria and Lebanon,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 399–400 where she writes, “It may well be that this dichotomy (public-private) far from being a universal condition, is mainly a Western distinction and that it may not always be a relevant indicator of women's subordination.”Google Scholar

63 Altorki, Soraya, “Family Organization and Women's Power in Urban Saudi Arabian Society,” Journal of Anthropological Research, XXXIII:3 (Fall, 1977), 277–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

64 Aswad, Barbara, “Women, Class and Power: Examples from the Hatay, Turkey,” in Women. Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 480Google Scholar; see also Makhlouf, , Changing Veils, pp. 39–44Google Scholar and Joseph, Suad, “Women and the Neighbourhood Street in Borj Hammoud, Lebanon,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds. p. 543.Google Scholar

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66 Marsot, Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid, “The Revolutionary Gentlewomen in Egypt,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 261–76.Google Scholar

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68 Davis, Susan Schaefer, “Working Women in a Moroccan Village,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 418.Google Scholar

69 el-Messiri, Sawsan, “Women in Cairo,” p. 527.Google Scholar

70 Tapper, Nancy, “The Women's Subsociety among the Shahsevan Nomads of Iran,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 382.Google Scholar

71 Dwyer, Daisy, “Women, Sufism and Decision Making in Moroccan Islam,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 598.Google Scholar