Palace Walk : Diverse Communities Project

“Women and Gender in Islam” by Leila Ahmed was published in 1992, at a time when research on Arab women was a young, newly emerging field of study. Leila Ahmed is an Egyptian American writer and feminist. Her text “Women and Gender in Islam” targets proclaimed feminists, both western and non-western, as the intended audience. The text is involved with the discourse of gender, the discourses of women, the discourses of feminist, and colonial and post-colonial discourses.

"The Discourse of the Veil" Ahmed examines Amin’s recommendations regarding women and formed part of his thesis and how/why he believed that unveiling was key to the social transformation, which is important for unraveling the significance of the debate that his book provoked (Ahmed, 145). Ahmed discusses the origins and history as an idea of the veil which informs Western colonial discourse and 20th century-Arabic debate have several implications. The first implication is the evident connection between the issue of culture of women, as well as between the cultures of other men and the oppression of women, which was created by Western discourse. The idea that improving the status of women resulting in abandoning native customs was

It is a society in which the woman is in charge inside of the house while the man has more power outside. People would think of this as degrading towards women, but it is done to look after them. As a protection to women, men are forced to go outside of the house into the world that is cold and evil. They are told that they must do this everyday and bring home money to provide for their family and wife. The woman is to stay home in a safe place and take care of what she knows best. This is not mean to make women feel inferior but to make them feel safe and free from the world.

1. What is a patriarchal society? In what ways do the different civilizations we have studied exhibit patriarchy and how did they reinforce it (hint: Hammurabi’s code, Chinese philosophy, Ancient

For those who are unaware, a patriarchy is defined as a society that is “male-dominated, male-identified, male-centered, and control-obsessed character” (Johnson 73); whereas, a matriarchy, is a society that is female-dominated and female-identified - the exact opposite of a patriarchy. In her novel, Daughters of the North, Sarah Hall describes a post-apocalyptic England, where the citizens, especially the women, become stripped of their basic rights. The country is ravaged by a foreign war and economic collapse, becoming dependent on rationing food, controlling reproduction, and maintaining order at all costs.

Patriarchy is defined as a social system in which males are the primary authority figures central to social organization (www.wikipedia.com). This is the term used by author Catherine Newman to describe marriage. Being so bitter and cold about marriage seems to me, to be coming from a cold-hearted, feminist point of view. To not be so callus and sexist could open one to a new world of loving experiences.

The Romance of resistance is an article which is written by Lila Abu-Lughod in regard with the different forms of resistance among the Bedouin women and the traditional structure of power among the Bedouin Community in the Egypt's Western Desert. She arrived in late 1970 to begin a fieldwork, and she discovered different forms of resistance among the Bedouin women. In this Article she emphasis on how the Bedouin women resisted the decision of their fathers, uncles, and older brother, how the resisted the sexually segregation, and sexually irreverent discourse. Furthermore, it also talk about how local communities are being incorporated into modern states and integrated into a wider economy.

feminism, patriarchy is a male centered and controlled society and is arranged to make women

In today’s society women are given ample opportunity just as much as men. In some countries, such as middle-eastern nations that is not the case. Muslim women are often perceived to be submissive to Muslim men and unequal. Mohammed never taught for women to be treated as lower class citizens. Nonetheless, the blame is pointed towards the religion of Islam. The Islamic religion began as all monotheist religions representing a belief in one God and moral standards. In the following essay I will discuss and elaborate what Mohammed taught, how women lived in early Islamic society, and what it has become.

Badran, M. (1995) Feminists, Islam and Nation, Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt, Princeton, Princeton University Press

Patriarchy usually means a family that is male-dominated and headed by the father. It is a social construct in which men and masculine roles are considered to be absolutely superior to women and feminine roles. A society is considered patriarchal when it is male-dominated, male-centered, and male-identified. Being a male-dominated culture means that positions of power and authority in the political, economic, legal, religious, domestic, educational, and military spheres are usually reserved only for men. Male-identification means that a culture’s ‘normal’ way of living is based on men and their lives. Male-dominance means that the culture has been shaped by men in a way that mostly serves male interests. Patriarchal societies are male-identified because their core ideals concerning what is morally right, desirable or normal are connected with how they think about masculinity or men in general. They are always male-centered, with the culture’s focus is

The occupation and abuse of national and female bodies causes them to be portrayed as fragmented in literature dealing with colonial themes. With the infitah opening Egypt’s doors to the world, elements of the modern flooded in and the nation become a conglomeration of old and new, tradition and modern (Shechter 572). Conflicting views between how to incorporate modern and tradition into Egyptian culture impacted all levels of the nation. Elements of the modern and the tradition were split and emphasized differently to different groups. As a figure thought to be representative of the purity of the nation, tradition is emphasized for the female body in order to maintain the identity of the nation despite economic change (Sadaawi “Hidden Face” 31). While the man is allowed to enter the world of money and exchange promised by capitalism, it is the female who must remain unaffected as a symbol of the nation’s purity in contrast to the Western nations. She is still suppressed by cultural ideas that restrict and criminalize her body. Her virginity is not only a symbol of honor for her family, but also for her nation. While Egypt desired economic power and adapted western economic policies, they wished to keep their cultural and social traditions and further oppress the female as a symbol of sanctity. The contradicting background and situation the female finds herself in leads to individual fragmentation. There is a divide created between love, sex, and pleasure. Stringent

This is a significant aspect of the course because the article examines the strengths and weaknesses of femininity through a cultural Muslim perspective and the reading is a prime example of how ideologies regarding race affect those involved. In class we have discussed the significances of social constructs and how assumptions are made on the basis of physical characteristics. In this situation, identity is related to gender as Muslim women are categorized as both good/respectful and rebellious/evil individuals because they are apart of a culture where they are both oppressed and liberated simultaneously.

In the Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb Saih portrays the heavy issues of sexism and colonialism through the role of women. The book not only informs its readers of the stereotypical gender roles, but it also illustrates the truth behind colonialism as a conquest of a people often enslaving them mentally and leaving them empty. According to this lens, the gender roles of men like Mustafa Sa’eed and Wad Rayyes represent the colonizers who ravish the colonized (personified by the female characters). Salih’s men are primarily sexual beings who see women as theirs to conquer while the women are meant to be subservient to sexual conquest.

Before examining particular societies, the general notions of patriarchy must be established. Generally, women were considered inferior to men, but each facet of society provides a distinctive insight into gender roles. A fundamental difference between the two genders was that the responsibility of a man was to be a member of the public, whereas the responsibility of a woman was to be in the home. Social norms defined men as “rulers, warriors, scholars, and heads of households” (Ways of the World 59). Even if a man had little