8 research outputs found
Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia:Nabataea
No full textThe first centuries BC-AD see a huge increase in Nabatean depictions of women, and using inscriptions, coins and archaeological studies this book looks at the reasons for this trend, which represents a clear rise in women's status at that time - with women becoming involved in business, and enjoying a certain amount of legal independence. al-Fassi argues that a crucial factor in the creation of this social structure was the development of full time long distance trade, which entailed long periods of male absence
Saudi women and Islamic discourse, selected examples of Saudi feminisms
No full textSaudi women entered the realm of writing and language only half a century ago through the genres of both creative and journalistic prose. In this paper, I shall take the example of four Saudi female writers who represent a wide range of intellectual pluralism that runs from conservative to liberal to radical conceptions of state and society, represented in this order by, Nura al-Saad, Suhaila Zain al-Abedin Hammad, Fowziyah Abu Khalid and Wajeha al-Huwaider. This paper will try to answer how and why do gender identities change and in response to what, taking into account that the lives of these women and their literary work represent the continuous search and discovery for, and the reinventing of, themselves. It is important to mark these experiences as part of the complexity of Saudi Arabian intellectual discourse, similar to any society in this respect.Scopu
Women in the Islamic Middle East
No full textThis chapter covers Middle Eastern women’s history, experiences, stories, beliefs, struggles, and challenges during the period from the eve of Islam until the Ottoman’s capture of West Asia and North Africa in the sixteenth century. The chapter approaches women’s history from eight angles: (1) “Believers and Apostles” explores some remarkable names of early Islam, Muslims, or Infidels. (2) The Umayyad Califate period was marked by its female orators, fighters, and slaves whether they were in the court of Damascus or in the holy mosques of Makkah and Madinah. (3) The Abbasids’ queens and concubines, singers, and Sufis were marked by al-Khayzaran, Zubaidah, and Rabi’ah al-Adawiyyah. (4) The Shi’i states encompassed the first Arab queens in Islam. (5) The ninth to fifteenth centuries were a period of attacks and invasions on the Muslim borders by Mongols, Crusaders, and Portugal. (6) “Hidden Corners” focuses on the unofficial history and lives of women found in biographical references as learners and endowers. (7) “Women in Literature and Popular Literature” and finally (8) “Women in Legends and Spirituality.” Throughout women’s different roles, they impacted their societies whether they were in high or low ranks, overt or concealed. This chapter argues that reporting, documenting, and narrating her-story can offer a different view and interpretation of human history
A Note on Meccan Women in the Fifteenth Century
No full textThe history of women in Arabia is a relatively new and unexplored area of research and the place of women in Mecca (Makkah), Islam's holiest city, is particularly shrouded in darkness. From the fifteenth century, however, there has been a stream of biographical works (tabaqat) that shed much light on the women of the city. This note turns scholarly attention on such fifteenth and sixteenth century works as Taqi al-Din al-Fassi's (d. 1429) eight volume Al-'Iqd al-Thamin fi Tarikh al-Balad al-Amin, which dedicates a volume to women, in an effort to continue the scholarly appraisal of women's lives in Muslim societies. Reading such important sources shows how women actively participated in the public life of the city, including its intellectual circles, contrary to Orientalist stereotypes. By exploring the multiple roles of Meccan women in the fifteenth century, the hope is to prompt further study of their significance and its historical implications.Scopu
Saudi women:Modernity and change
No full textSaudi women were particularly affected by the shift in the country’s economic fortunes. In just three decades, female literacy rates rose sharply, and today female students outnumber male students. This jump in the number of educated women generated a demand for work outside the home, though the workplace was not developed enough to receive women. Segregation, a practice less strictly followed before modernization,1 was gradually institutionalized until it became a new reality. Thus the main challenges occupying conservatives in Saudi Arabia have been how to maintain and regulate the veil and how to prevent women from working alongside men
Does Saudi Feminism Exist?
No full texthis chapter asks an existential question about Saudi feminism. It is a question foreign to Saudi society, even for Saudi academics, since not a single Saudi university has a department of feminist studies, women’s studies or women’s history. There are so far no research centres devoted to any of these subjects for many reasons, chief among which is the absence of independent non-governmental institutions, civil society and charitable women’s organizations. Even the term ‘gender’ has negative connotations here because the fearful associate it with a plot by the United Nations and its organizations to Westernize Saudi Arab Muslim society, and break down its solidarity. The term is practically non-existent in Saudi Arabia, except among very small, specialized circles; but does this mean that Saudi feminism does not exist as well?It is perhaps better to put the question thus: are Saudi women interested in feminism? My answer is that, although many Saudi women may never have heard of Simone de Beauvoir or The Feminine Mystique, news of the feminist movements in Egypt, Greater Syria, Iraq and the Gulf region that were part of the national liberation movements and the anti-colonial struggle, and maintained contact with the Arabian Peninsula through the hajj and trade, were carried by the Saudi, Egyptian, Lebanese and Iraqi newspapers and magazines to the farthest corners of the Peninsula. We should also not forget the role that radio has played in disseminating information to large swathes of Saudi society, among those who read and those who do not alike
From Theory to Action: A Saudi Arabian Case Study of Feminist Academic Activism against State Oppression
Get PDFThis article explores the intricate landscape of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, an authoritarian state within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC), where the pursuit of modernization strategically utilizes women’s issues as symbols of national identity and markers of progress. The article focuses on the transformative potential of academic activism, exemplified by the work of Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi, in countering oppression against women. It demonstrates how women navigate the realms of academia and activism to reshape gender dynamics and shape their nation’s modernization trajectory. By emphasizing the critical intersection between academic inquiry and activism, this article dispels the misconception that academia and activism are mutually exclusive. In contexts such as Saudi Arabia, where women’s rights face suppression, this intersection emerges as imperative for informed research and frontline advocacy, effectively addressing state-sponsored violence. Furthermore, this article critically evaluates the persistent challenge of feminist neo-Orientalist scholarship, which often distorts the depiction of Saudi women’s experiences. It offers a contribution to a nuanced understanding of women’s theorization that includes the ethico-political context within which women operate.<br/
