Internet Search Paper

5-6 pages, meaning 1250-1500 words.

For this paper, you should spend some time looking at Islamic websites that are created by religious Muslims.  You'll find some suggestions on the web-links section of my web-site.  Read two or three such web-sites carefully, looking at what they have to say about Islam and women.  Then write a paper that compares the content of these websites to materials that you have read for class, and also to each other.  You will need to focus on a narrow enough theme that you can address that theme in 5-6 pages. 

How do the web-sites you have read present women's roles or status in Islam?  Who is writing?  Do the web authors agree on major points?  Do they disagree?  What kinds of evidence or argumentation do they use to back up their main points?  How does their presentation differ from Leila Ahmed's presentation of women and Islam? 

You may know what you want to write about.  If you have not decided what to write about, you might want to consider the following quotations as a starting point.

“My argument here is not that Islamic societies did not oppress women.  They did and do; that is not in dispute.”[1]

            “In an urban Middle East with already well articulated misogynist attitudes and practices, by licensing polygamy, concubinage, and easy divorce for men, originally allowed under different circumstances in a different society, Islam let itself to being interpreted as endorsing and giving religious sanction to a deeply negative and debased conception of women.”[2]           

            “The Muslim woman is accorded full spiritual and intellectual equality with man, and is encouraged to practice her religion and develop her intellectual faculties throughout her life.

“If at different times and in different places these principles and laws have sometimes been distorted, ignored or flouted, it is not the principles and laws which are at fault, but man's selfishness which sometimes leads them to distort, ignore and flout what [sic] do not like, and turn aside from the truth.”[3]

Structurally, every paper should have an introductory paragraph (or two) that will accomplish the following goals:

1) explain to the reader what this essay concerns

2) articulate your thesis (your major argument)

3) give the reader an understanding of the direction that the paper will take.

 When you make an argument in your paper, it is understood that you are expressing your thought.  Therefore, you do not need to use phrases like "In my opinion," or "I think" except when you want to make very clear that your own thought differs strongly from the various items that you are reading.

Every paper should have a concluding paragraph that will:

1) pull together the arguments of the paper

2) NOT introduce new material or new arguments

Each paragraph in a paper or essay should have clear purpose: developing part of your thesis, exploring evidence, raising critical questions.  Paragraphs should be structured so as to make your paper “skim-able”: if the reader were to read only the first sentence of each paragraph, would he/she get the gist of your paper and your argument?  [I say this not because I intend to skim your paper—I do not—but to make you edit your own work for clarity.]

Citation:  you need to use citation whenever you quote an author’s words directly, AND when you use an author’s interpretation or idea.  The second part is the real challenge: we all know when we are quoting, but good citation means knowing when we are referring to the ideas of others, and attributing those properly.

Citation Styles:

Historians tend to use citation styles that are just about as finicky as possible.  Social sciences generally accept parenthetical reference (Ahmed, 143), but most historians prefer full footnotes [and yes, I prefer footnotes to endnotes; I hate flipping to the end of a paper to see your citation]. You can go to the link for footnotes.