Prof. Nadia Guessous
Email: nguessous@amherst.edu
Phone: 413 542-5350
Office Hours: M/W 4-5 PM
301 Cooper House
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF WOMEN AND ISLAM
IN THE CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
WAGS 34
Spring 2009
M/W 2:00-3:20 PM in Seeley Mudd 202
This seminar is an introduction to the anthropological study of women and Islam in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. We will begin the course by critically thinking about the colonial and orientalist legacies that mediate contemporary debates on and representations of women and gender in Islam and in the Middle East and North Africa. We will also explore what it means to take Islam as an object of anthropological analysis and the kinds of normative assumptions that underlie references to “religion” and “tradition”. We will spend the rest of the course reading richly contextualized autobiographical, fictional, and ethnographic accounts from places as diverse as Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran and
Yemen. These readings, combined with the films that we will be screening in class, will provide us with a comparative and critical perspective on the varieties of ways in which
Muslim women of different backgrounds and generations fashion, inhabit and conceptualize their gendered, religious and secular identities in the contemporary Middle East and North
Africa. These books will also introduce us to the variety of ways, some more successful then others, in which Muslim women of the Middle East and North Africa have been written about by academics. We will end the class by thinking about the question of difference in feminist thought and the difficult work entailed in going beyond toleration.
Students are expected to leave the course having acquired not only a familiarity with new directions in the anthropological study of women and Islam in the Middle East and North
Africa, but also with the ability to think critically about dominant representations of the region and to parochialize their own normative assumptions about tradition, modernity, religion, secularism, law, gender and sexuality. Students should bear in mind that this course is not an introduction to Islam or the Middle East/North Africa, but one that is guided by a set of analytical questions concerned with key concepts, assumptions and representations that frame contemporary discussions of women and gender in Islam and in the Middle East/North Africa.
Although no prior familiarity is required, students might wish to do supplemental background reading about Islam and the Middle East.
REQUIRED BOOKS: All books are available for purchase from Amherst Books , located at
8 Main Street in Amherst. Phone: 413 256-1547. Web: www.amherstbooks.com
The required books are also on reserve in Frost Library for those who prefer not to purchase them. All required books are marked with a [B] on the syllabus.
Leila Ahmed, 1992. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate .
New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
1

Prof. Nadia Guessous
Email: nguessous@amherst.edu
Phone: 413 542-5350
Office Hours: M/W 4-5 PM
301 Cooper House
David A. Bailey and Gilane Tawadros (Editors), 2003. Veil: Veiling Representation and
Contemporary Art . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Fatema Mernissi, 1994. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood. Pereus Books.
Alifaa Rifaat, 1983. Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories . Oxford: Heinemann.
Homa Hoodfar, 1997. Between Marriage and the Market: Intimate Politics and Survival in
Cairo . Berkeley: University of California Press.
Saba Mahmood, 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject .
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lara Deeb, 2006. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi‘i Lebanon .
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Nilufer Gole, 1997. Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. University of Michigan
Press.
Minoo Moallem, 2005. Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Politics of Patriarchy in Iran . University of California Press.
Anne Menneley, 1996. Tournaments of Value: Sociability and Hierarchy in a Yemeni Town .
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
OTHER REQUIRED READINGS:
All additional required readings (articles and selections from books not required for purchase) are available in scanned form on e-reserves and are marked as [E] on the syllabus. Students are expected to bring a hard copy of the readings to every class.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance is mandatory. Unexcused absences without proper justification will lead to a lowering of the final grade.
This is a reading intensive seminar. Students are expected to do all the required reading before coming to class and to actively participate in class discussions. Students who are concerned about the amount of required reading should bear in mind that many of the assigned fictional and ethnographic texts are short and easy to read and that I will let you know in advance which chapters to focus on. In addition, I am always willing to revisit the syllabus later on in the semester if the reading turns out to be too onerous.
In order to facilitate discussion and to learn from each other, students will take turns coming up with discussion points and questions for each class. Discussion questions and comments
2

Prof. Nadia Guessous
Email: nguessous@amherst.edu
Phone: 413 542-5350
Office Hours: M/W 4-5 PM
301 Cooper House should be thoughtful, provocative, should refer to specific passages in the text(s) and should reflect a close engagement with the text(s). Questions and comments should be typed up and submitted to me in class on the day of the discussion. Students will be graded based on the thoughtfulness of their discussion questions/comments and based on the quality (not quantity) of their participation in class discussions. Participation in class discussions will account for
30% of your final grade.
Students are be required to write two short papers (4-6 pages) based on questions that I will hand out in advance. Combined the short papers will account for 40% of your final grade .
Students are also required to write one final analytical paper (10-12 pages) on a topic of their choice. The final paper will account for 30% of your final grade. Because this is a readingintensive seminar, you are not expected to refer to outside sources in any of the papers.
Instead, all papers should demonstrate a close and thoughtful engagement with the course readings. The topic of the final paper should be determined in consultation with the instructor and should focus on a theme or set of questions raised by the readings. [Dates for assignments TBA]
Students are highly encouraged to use the services of the campus Writing Center as they work on drafts of their papers. Information about the services available to students at the writing center, including how to schedule a one-on-one appointment with a writing mentor, can be found at https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/support/writingcenter
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
Monday, January 26 th
Introductions, course objectives, requirements, expectations, logistics, etc.
ORIENTALIST AND COLONIAL LEGACIES
Wednesday, January 28 th
:
Annie Van Sommer and Samuel Zwemmer, 1907. Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from the Lands of Darkness . Interpreted by Those Who Heard It . New York: Fleming H,
Reveil Co. Selections. [E]
Malek Alloula, 1986. The Colonial Harem . University of Minnesota Press. Selections [E]
Monday, February 2 nd
:
Lila Abu-Lughod, 2002. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological
Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others,” in American Anthropologist 104(3):783-
790. [E]
3

Prof. Nadia Guessous
Email: nguessous@amherst.edu
Phone: 413 542-5350
Office Hours: M/W 4-5 PM
301 Cooper House
Charlotte Weber, 2001. “Unveiling Scheherazade: Feminist Orientalism and the International
Alliance of Women, 1911-1950,” in Feminist Studies 27(1): 125-157. [E]
WOMEN AND GENDER IN ISLAM: HISTORICAL ROOTS OF A MODERN
DEBATE
Wednesday, February 4 th
:
Leila Ahmed, 1992. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate .
New Haven and London: Yale University Press. [B]
Monday, February 9 th
:
Leila Ahmed, continued. [B]
Wednesday, February 11 th
:
David A. Bailey and Gilane Tawadros (Eds.), 2003. Veil: Veiling Representation and
Contemporary Art . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. [B]
Film Screening: “They Call Me Muslim” (2006, 27 minutes long, a film by Diana Ferrero)
WHAT IS THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ISLAM? WHAT IS RELIGION?
Monday, February 16 th :
Abdul Hamid el-Zein, 1977. “Beyond Ideology and Theology: The Search for the
Anthropology of Islam,” Annual Review of Anthropology 6: 227-54. [E]
Talal Asad, 1986. “The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam,” Occasional Paper Series.
Georgetown University. pp. 1-17. [E]
[NOTE: Crossing Borders Conference at Amherst College, February 17-18. All students are highly encouraged to attend since many of the panels have a direct bearing on the themes of the class]
Wednesday, February 18 th
:
Talal Asad, 1993. “The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category,” in
Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam . Pages
27-54. [E]
4

Prof. Nadia Guessous
Email: nguessous@amherst.edu
Phone: 413 542-5350
Office Hours: M/W 4-5 PM
301 Cooper House
MOROCCO: NARRATIVES FROM THE COLONIAL AND NATIONALIST
PERIOD
Monday, February 23 rd
:
Fatema Mernissi, 1994. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood. Pereus Books. [B]
Wednesday, February 25 th :
Fatema Mernissi, continued. [B]
Alison Baker, 1998. “Zhor Lazraq: Fez, the Next Generation,” and “Oum Keltoum El Khatib:
Casablanca,” in
Voices of Resistance: Oral Histories of Moroccan Women . New York: State
University of New York Press. [E]
EGYPT: PIETY IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Monday, March 2 nd :
Alifaa Rifaat, 1983. Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories . Oxford: Heinemann. [B]
Wednesday, March 4 th
:
Homa Hoodfar, 1997. Between Marriage and the Market: Intimate Politics and Survival in
Cairo . Berkeley: University of California Press. [B]
EGYPT CONTINUED: PIOUS SELF-FASHIONING AND THE ISLAMIC REVIVAL
Monday, March 9 th
:
Saba Mahmood, 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject .
Princeton: Princeton University Press. [B]
Wednesday, March 11 th
:
Saba Mahmood, continued. [B]
SPRING BREAK: No class March 16 th and 18 th
HAVE FUN!!! RELAX!!!
Monday, March 23 rd
:
Film Screening: “Four Women of Egypt”(1997, 90 minutes long, a film by Tahani Rached)
5

Prof. Nadia Guessous
Email: nguessous@amherst.edu
Phone: 413 542-5350
Office Hours: M/W 4-5 PM
LEBANON: PIOUS MODERNITY IN A SHI’I COMMUNITY
Wednesday, March 25 th
:
301 Cooper House
Lara Deeb, 2006.
An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi‘i Lebanon
.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [B]
Monday, March 30 th :
Lara Deeb, continued. [B]
TURKEY: PIETY AND SECULARITY IN A SECULAR REPUBLIC
Wednesday, April 1 st
:
Nilufer Gole, 1997. Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. University of Michigan
Press. [B]
Talal Asad, 2003. “Secularism, Nation-State, Religion,” in
Formations of the Secular:
Christianity, Islam, Modernity . Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 181-201. [E]
Monday, April 6 th
:
Nilufer Gole, continued. [B]
TURKEY CONTINUED: EMBODIMENTS OF PIETY AND SECULARITY A
SECULAR REPUBLIC
Wednesday, April 8 th
:
Esra Özyürek, 2006. “The Elderly Children of the Republic: The Public History in the Private
Story,” in
Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey.
Duke
University Press. Pages 29-64. [E]
Yael Navaro-Yashin, 2002. “The Market for Identities: Buying and Selling Secularity and
Islam,” in
Faces of the State: Secularism and Public Life in Turkey . Princeton: Princeton
University Press. Pages 78-113. [E]
Alev Cinar, 2005. “Clothing the National Body: Islamic Veiling and Secular Unveiling,” in
Modernity, Islam and Secularism in Turkey . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Pages 53-98. [E]
6

Prof. Nadia Guessous
Email: nguessous@amherst.edu
Phone: 413 542-5350
Office Hours: M/W 4-5 PM
IRAN: WOMEN AND LAW IN AN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
Monday, April 13 th
:
301 Cooper House
Film Screening : “
Divorce Iranian Style” (1998, 80 minutes, a film by Kim Longinotto and
Ziba Mir-Hosseini)
Wednesday, April 15 th :
Arzoo Osanloo, 2006. “Islamico-civil ‘rights talk’: Women, Subjectivity, and Law in Iranian
Family Court,” in American Ethnologist 33(2): 191-209. [E]
IRAN CONTINUED: THE POLITICS OF GENDER IN AN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
Monday, April 20 th
:
Minoo Moallem, 2005. Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Politics of Patriarchy in Iran . University of California Press. [B]
Wednesday, April 22 nd
:
Minoo Moallem, continued. [B]
YEMEN: CROSS GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES
Monday, April 27 th
:
Anne Menneley, 1996. Tournaments of Value: Sociability and Hierarchy in a Yemeni Town .
Toronto: University of Toronto Press. [B]
Wednesday, April 29 th
:
Anne Menneley, continued. [B]
Anne Menneley, 2007. “Fashions and Fundamentalisms in Fin-De-Siècle Yemen: Chador
Barbie and Islamic Socks,” in
Cultural Anthropology 22(2): 214-243. [E]
ISLAMIC FEMINISM
Monday, May 4 th
:
Margot Badran, 2002. “Islamic Feminism: What’s in a Name?” Al-Ahram Weekly , 17 Jan.
2002. [Available online at http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/569/cu1.htm
] [E]
7

Prof. Nadia Guessous
Email: nguessous@amherst.edu
Phone: 413 542-5350
Office Hours: M/W 4-5 PM
301 Cooper House
Valentine M. Moghadam, 2002. “Islamic Feminism and Its Discontents: Toward a Resolution of the Debate,” in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 27(4): 1135-1171 [E]
Ziba Mir-Hosseini, 2006. “Muslim Women’s Quest for Equality: Between Islamic Law and
Feminism” in Critical Inquiry 32(4): 629-645. [E]
PROVOCATIONS: THINKING ABOUT DIFFERENCE/GOING BEYOND
TOLERATION
Wednesday, May 6 th
:
Susan Moller Okin, 1999. “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” in Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?
Edited by Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard, and Martha Naussbaum. Princeton:
Princeton University Press. Pages 9-24.
[E]
Wendy Brown, 2006. “Tolerance As/In Civilizational Discourse,” in
Regulating Aversion:
Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire . Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pages
176-205. [E]
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