Mounira Charrad

The course is devoted to the study of gender politics in the Islamic world.  It shows how culture is mediated by politics, resulting in diverse interpretations of the cultural tradition and in different policies with respect to gender. We start by examining the themes and issues that are part of the common denominator of the Islamic tradition.  We then consider how the diversity can be explained and what factors contribute to it.  The focus is on women's rights, which have been a key political issue in several countries and internationally. The course is designed to help students gain a better knowledge of the Islamic tradition and, at the same time, increase their understanding of major sociological concepts such as gender, social organization, culture, and politics.

Course Requirements and Grading Policy:  

Students are encouraged to take an active role in discussing readings and raising questions.  I expect students to attend class and to complete the assigned readings prior to coming to class.  

Exam 1 30%

Exam 2 30%

Country Report 20%

Team presentation 10%

Class participation 10%  

Text/Readings

M. M. Charrad, States and Women's Rights:  The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Berkeley:  Univ of California Press, 2001.

Mernissi, Fatema. Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems. New York: Washington Square Press, 2001.

Fadela Amara, Breaking the Silence:  French Voices from the Ghetto. Berkeley:  UC Press 2006

Articles are listed on relevant weeks on the syllabus.  They will be placed on Blackboard.

Audiovisuals:

Audiovisuals are an integral part of the course and will be covered in the exams. 

Description:

The course is devoted to the study of gender politics in the Islamic world. It is designed to help students gain a better knowledge of the Islamic world and, at the same time, increase their understanding of major sociological concepts such as gender, social organization, culture, and politics. It shows how culture is mediated by politics, resulting in diverse interpretations of the cultural tradition and in different policies with respect to gender. We start by examining the themes and issues that are part of the common denominator of the Islamic tradition. We then consider how the diversity can be explained and what factors contribute to it. The focus is on women’s rights, which have been a key political issue in several countries and internationally.

Texts:

E.W. Fernea, Guests of The Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. Anchor, (GS) 1965.

M. M. Charrad, States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and

Morocco. Berkeley: Univ of California Press, 2001 (SWR)

Fadela Amara, Breaking the Silence: French Voices from the Ghetto. Berkeley: UC Press 2006 (BTS).

Joni Seager, The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World. 4th ed. Penguin. 2009. (Atlas).

Articles will be placed on Blackboard.

Grading and Requirements:

Students are encouraged to take an active role in discussing readings and raising questions. I expect students to attend class and to complete the assigned readings prior to coming to class.

Exam 1 25%

Exam  2 40%

Exam 3 20%

Team presentation 10%

Class participation 5%

Course Description:

The course is devoted to the study of gender politics in the Islamic world.  It shows how culture is mediated by politics, resulting in diverse interpretations of the cultural tradition and in different policies with respect to gender. We start by examining the themes and issues that are part of the common denominator of the Islamic tradition.  We then consider how the diversity can be explained and what factors contribute to it.  The focus is on women's rights, which have been a key political issue in several countries and internationally. The course is designed to help students gain a better knowledge of the Islamic tradition and, at the same time, increase their understanding of major sociological concepts such as gender, social organization, culture, and politics.

Course Requirements and Grading Policy:  

Students are encouraged to take an active role in discussing readings and raising questions.  I expect students to attend class and to complete the assigned readings prior to coming to class.  

Exam 1 30%

Exam 2 30%

Country Report 20%

Team presentation 10%

Class participation 10%  

Text/Readings

M. M. Charrad, States and Women's Rights:  The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Berkeley:  Univ of California Press, 2001.

Mernissi, Fatema. Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems. New York: Washington Square Press, 2001.

Fadela Amara, Breaking the Silence:  French Voices from the Ghetto. Berkeley:  UC Press 2006

Articles are listed on relevant weeks on the syllabus.  They will be placed on Blackboard.

Audiovisuals:

Audiovisuals are an integral part of the course and will be covered in the exams.  

The course is devoted to the study of gender and development from a comparative perspective.  Attention is paid to patterns of gender inequality, state policies relevant to gender, and women’s movements in different countries.  Although our discussions draw on the literature in the West for the purpose of comparison, the emphasis is on gender in the context of social organization, culture and politics in societies in the rest of the world. The topics we explore include the legacy of colonialism on gender debates, the effect of globalization on women’s roles, the place of gender in the redefinition of citizenship and civil society, and the interaction between local/national movements and the international discourse of women’s rights.  Students may choose to focus their own work in the seminar on a given country or on intra-region and international comparisons.

The field of inquiry “Gender and Development” is located at the intersection of development studies and gender studies, both of which can be understood in many different ways.  The concept of development in particular has been used to mean processes ranging from long term macrostructural trajectories to micro level community programs in developing countries. This semester, the theoretical focus is on the intersection between broad sociological processes and gender issues, especially between political processes and gender, and the geographic focus is on the Middle East and Latin America. A major theme of the seminar is that development cannot be understood in economic terms only or even primarily and that the cultural and the political must be included in the concept. 

In the course of discussing substantive issues addressed in each reading, we will consider the methodology used by different authors and compare the advantages and limitations of comparative-historical research, surveys, interviews, participant observation, and other methods in the study of development and gender.  The research proposal (see below) should specify not only the question to be investigated but also the research method.

Course Requirements:  The course meets once a week and attendance is required. The course grade is based upon the following:  Position Papers/Critiques of Readings 10%, Class Presentations 10%, a take home midterm 30 % and a Research Proposal 50% (topic selected after consultation with the instructor). 

Required Texts:

Charrad, Mounira M. States and Women’s Rights:  The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, UC Press, 2001.

Myra Marx Ferree and Aila Mari Tripp, Global Feminism:  Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights New York U Press, 2006.

Rodriguez, Victoria. Women in Contemporary Mexican Politics, UT Press, 2003.

Seager, Joni:  The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World, Penguin, 2003.

Selected articles photocopied and available for purchase as a course packet at Paradigm (24^th street)

Recommended:

• Visvanathan, Nalini: et. al., eds, The Women, Gender and Development Reader, 2000
• Htun, Mala. Sex and the State:  Abortion, Divorce, and the Family Under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003.
• World Bank, Gender and Development in the Middle East and North Africa:  Women in the Public Sphere, World Bank Publications, 2004.
• B. Ehrenreich and A R Hochschild, eds.  Global Women:  Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, Metropolitan Books, 2003.
• R Datta & J Kornberg, eds, Women in Developing Countries:  Assessing Strategies for Empowerment, Lynne Rienner Pub, 2002.
• Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, Rising Tide:  Gender Equality and Cultural Change around the World,Cambridge U Press, 2003.

Journals to Consult

AJS, ASR, Gender and Society, Theory and Society, Sociological Theory, Social Politics, Women’s Studies International Forum, Signs.

                       GENDER POLITICS IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

SPRING 2009

Course Description:   The course is designed to help students gain a better knowledge of the Islamic world and, at the same time, increase their understanding of major sociological concepts such as gender, social organization, culture, and politics.  The course is devoted to the study of gender politics in the Islamic world.  It shows how culture is mediated by politics, resulting in diverse interpretations of the cultural tradition and in different policies with respect to gender. We start by examining the themes and issues that are part of the common denominator of the Islamic tradition.  We then consider how the diversity can be explained and what factors contribute to it.  The focus is on women’s rights, which have been a key political issue in several countries and internationally.

 Course Requirements and Grading Policy:  Students are encouraged to take an active role in discussing readings and raising questions.  I expect students to attend class and to complete the assigned readings prior to coming to class.  Course Requirements include 2 exams, a country report, a team presentation and participation in class discussions. Grading is as follows: Exam no.1:  40%; Exam no.2: 25%; Country Report 15%; Team presentation: 10%; Class participation: 10%. 

Text/Readings:

M. M. Charrad, States and Women’s Rights:  The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Berkeley:  Univ of California Press, 2001 (SWR)

Mernissi, Fatema. Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems. New York: Washington Square Press, 2001.

Fadela Amara, Breaking the Silence:  French Voices from the Ghetto. Berkeley:  UC Press 2006

Articles will be placed on Blackboard.

Audiovisuals:

Audiovisuals are an integral part of the course and will be covered in the exams.