Comparative Essay

5-6 pages, due Monday, Dec 13.

Final Paper, Women and Islam

For the final essay, you will need to choose from one of the following, and write an essay that is 1300 to 1700 words in length.  As always, essays should have a clear thesis and direction for the paper explained in the introduction, should support that thesis through well-argued and documented references to the works indicated, and a strong conclusion, and should use footnotes. 

1.  Compare the ways that Nafisi and Mernissi understand freedom.   How are these understandings of freedom shaped by society and culture, and in what ways are they responses or reactions to society and culture?  Does Islam itself (as opposed to Moroccan culture or Iranian culture) bring freedom or restrict freedom?

2. Draw on three articles from Gender and Citizenship to discuss the status of women in three Middle Eastern countries.  What differences do you find in the status of women in these three countries and their relative equality or inequality with men?  What accounts for those differences?  To what extent does Islam shape state interpretations of women’s roles and rights? (You can add to your source with other readings for this course.)

3. Iman Bibars and Leila Abu-Lughod make opposing arguments about feminism and feminist concern about women in Islamic countries. Bibars is Egyptian, and did her graduate studies abroad; she is an activist for women’s issues in Egypt .  Abu-Lughod is American-born; she is an anthropologist who carries out research mainly in Egypt .

Bibars (who notes that she is writing about both Christian and Muslim women in Egypt ) contends:

Another problem with the post-modern argument is that it too classifies women into categories:  Third World women and ‘the others,’ be they Western or Third World middle-class Westernized women.  This argument also labels those who describe Third World women as victims or as oppressed by a patriarchal order as ‘ethnocentric,’ ‘culturally insensitive,’ or ‘imperialist feminists.’  The fear of being labeled as such prompts many Western and other feminists to select moments of subversion and call them resistance. It persuades them to ignore aspects of oppression in order to be able to describe their subjects as resourceful and empowered. (Bibars, Victims and Heroines, 168) 

Abu-Lughod writes: 

What I am advocating is the hard work involved in recognizing and respecting differences--precisely as products of different histories, as expressions of different circumstances, and as manifestations of differently structured desires. We may want justice for women, but can we accept that there might be different ideas about justice, and that different women might want, or choose, different features from what we envision as best?

…Can there be a liberation which is Islamic?  And beyond that, is liberation even a goal for which all women or people strive? Are emancipation, equality and rights part of a universal language that we must use? . . . In other words, might other desires be more meaningful for other groups of people? (Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?..., 787-788)

Examine and compare the basic arguments that these two authors make about the oppression of women. You might compare their points of view with some from these course readings: Elizabeth Ann Meyers, Abdulahi an-Naim, Leila Ahmed, and chapters from Gender and Citizenship (especially Amawi and Hoodfar).