Abstract: Written by a
pioneer in the field of Middle Eastern women's history, Women in the
Middle East is a concise, comprehensive, and authoritative history of the
lives of the region's women since the rise of Islam. Nikki Keddie shows
why hostile or apologetic responses are completely inadequate to the
diversity and richness of the lives of Middle Eastern women, and she
provides a unique overview of their past and rapidly changing present. The
book also includes a brief autobiography that recounts Keddie's political
activism as one of the first women in Middle East
Studies.
Positioning women within their individual economic
situations, identities, families, and geographies, Women in the Middle
East examines the experiences of women in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey,
in Iran, and in all the Arab countries. Keddie discusses the interaction
of a changing Islam with political, cultural, and socioeconomic
developments. In doing so, she shows that, like other major religions,
Islam incorporated ideas and practices of male superiority but also
provoked challenges to them. Keddie breaks with notions of Middle Eastern
women as faceless victims, and assesses their involvement in the rise of
modern nationalist, socialist, and Islamist movements. While acknowledging
that conservative trends are strong, she notes that there have been
significant improvements in Middle Eastern women's suffrage, education,
marital choice, and
health |