In memory of Klaus-Friedrich Koch.

The author wishes to thank his colleague, Dr. J. E. M. Laybourn, for initially suggesting the topic of this paper and for providing amiable criticism during its preparation.

¹ In the main, the present article is based upon the following works: Beck, Lois and Keddie, Nikki, eds., Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978)CrossRefGoogle ScholarFernea, Elizabeth and Bezirgan, Basima, eds., Middle Eastern Women Speak (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977)Google ScholarDwyer, Daisy H., Images and Self Images: Male and Female in Morocco (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978)Google ScholarMakhlouf, Carla, Changing Veils: Women and Modernization in North Yemen (London: Croom Helm, 1979)Google Scholar

² Said, Edward, Orientalism (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978). In this work, the author launches a powerful—and controversial—critique of the western image of the Middle East.Google Scholar

³ Daniel, Norman, Islam, Europe and Empire (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966), p. 23.Google Scholar

⁴ Said, , Orientalism, p. 188.Google Scholar

⁵ Keddie, Nikki, “Problems in the study of Middle Eastern women,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, X:2 (05, 1979), 230.Google Scholar

⁶ Turner, Bryan, Marx and the End of Orientalism (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978), pp. 81–85.Google Scholar

⁷ Keddie, , “Problems,” 225Google Scholar; Turner, ibid., p. 1.

⁸ A very useful guide to the literature is al-Qazzaz, Ayad, Women in the Middle East and North Africa: An Annotated Bibliography, (Austin: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas, 1977)Google Scholar. See also the same author's article, “Current Status of Research on Women in the Arab World,” Middle Eastern Studies, XIV:3 (10, 1978), 372–80.Google Scholar

⁹ Beck, and Keddie, , Women, p. 14.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ibid., p. 18. (Emphasis added).

¹¹ This theme is found in the works of the late G. E. von Grunebaum (among others). See Waines, David, “Cultural Anthropology and Islam: The Contribution of G. E. von Grunebaum,” Review of Middle East Studies, No. 2 (1976), 113–23.Google Scholar

¹² Dwyer, , Images, pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

¹³ Ibid., pp. 166–67.

¹⁴ White, Elizabeth H., “Legal Reform as an Indicator of Women's Status in Muslim Nations,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 52–68Google Scholar; also “Excerpts from Les Algeriennes by Fadela M'rabet,” in Women Speak, Fernea, and Bezirgan, , eds., pp. 319–58.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Saleh, Sania, “Women in Islam: Their Status in Religious and Traditional Culture,” in Arab Society in Transition: A Reader, Ibrahim, Saad Eddin and Hopkins, Nicholas, eds., (Cairo: The American University Press, 1977), pp. 121–30, especially at 122.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Fernea, and Bezirgan, , Women Speak, pp. xviii–xvix.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Coulson, Noel and Hinchcliffe, Doreen, “Women and Law Reform in Contemporary Islam,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 37.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Ibid., p. 38.

¹⁹ Saleh, , “Women in Islam,” p. 126.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ali, Syed Ameer, The Spirit of Islam (London: Chatto & Windus, 1964), p. 229.Google Scholar

²¹ White, , “Legal Reform,” p. 58.Google Scholar

²² Coulson, and Hinchcliffe, , “Women and Law Reform,” p. 41.Google Scholar

²³ White, , “Legal Reform,” p. 53Google Scholar. Nadia Youssef points out that this approach has the advantage of easy measurement and comparison. Its major weakness, however, is that it contains an intrinsic evolutionary bias in the sense that “emancipation” and “rights” are seen in terms of modern Western ideas and values; Youssef, Nadia, “The Status and Fertility Patterns of Muslim Women,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 75–76.Google Scholar

²⁴ Nath, Kamla, “Education and Employment among Kuwaiti Women.” in Women, ed. by Beck, and Keddie, , p. 177Google Scholar. White, , “Legal Reform”, p. 60, makes only passing reference to Kuwait observing that it would receive a score of one on the scale (equal to Saudi Arabia) since it has introduced no reforms in personal or family law.Google Scholar

²⁵ Ibid., p. 177.

²⁶ Coşar, Fatma Mansur, “Women in Turkish Society,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 124.Google Scholar

²⁷ Ibid., p. 131.

²⁸ Ibid., p. 132.

²⁹ Ibid., p. 133.

³⁰ Maher, Vanessa, “Women and Social Change in Morocco,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 108–09.Google Scholar

³¹ Coşar, , “Turkish Society,” p. 134.Google Scholar

³² Tessler, Mark A. with Rogers, Janet and Schneider, Daniel, “Women's Emancipation in Tunisia,“ in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 144–45.Google Scholar

³³ Ibid., p. 153.

³⁴ Ibid., p. 149.

³⁵ Femea, and Bezirgan, , Women Speak, p. xxxii.Google Scholar

³⁵ Minces, Juliette, “Women in Algeria,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 170.Google Scholar

³⁷ Ibid., p. 164.

³⁸ “Excerpts by Fadela M'rabet,” in Women Speak, Femea, and Bezirgan, , eds., pp. 319–58.Google Scholar

³⁹ “Interviews with Jamila Buhrayd,” in Ibid., pp. 251–62.

⁴⁰ Ibid., p. 261.

⁴¹ Anonymous, , “No Easy Exit from Slavery Behind the Veil,” in Arab Society, Ibrahim, and Hopkins, , eds., p. 174.Google Scholar

⁴² Ibid., p. 175.

⁴³ The Algerian case provides interesting corroborative data to Judith Gran's study of women in Egypt prior to the revolution of 1952. Gran analyzed various attitudes towards women's emancipation as reflected in the nationalist ideologies supported by different social classes. Whereas liberal or moderate nationalists of upper and upper-middle class origin viewed social reform along western lines, nationalists of lower class background adopted a ‘radical’ posture, demanding an end to British dominance while defending indigenous social values; Gran, Judith, “Impact of the World Market on Egyptian Women,” Merip Reports, No. 58 (06, 1977), 3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁴ Watt, W. M., Islam and the Integration of Society, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Berque, J. and Charnay, J-P., Normes et Valeurs dans I'Islam Contemporain, (Paris: Editions Payot, 1966).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Youssef, Nadia, “The Status and Fertility Patterns of Muslim Women,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 70, 73, 75 (Tables).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Ibid., p. 79 (Emphasis added).

⁴⁷ Dwyer, , Images; Sawsan el-Messiri, “Self-images of Traditional Women in Cairo,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 522–40Google Scholar; Makhlouf, , Changing Veils.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Geertz, Clifford, “On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding,” American Scientist, LXIII (1975), 47–53.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Vielle, Paul, “Iranian Women in Family Alliance and Sexual Politics,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 451–72.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Dwyer, , Images, p. 182.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Vielle, , “Iranian Women,” p. 465.Google Scholar

⁵² Ibid., p. 469.

⁵³ el-Messiri, , “Women in Cairo,” p. 538.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Dwyer, , Images, p. 163.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Ibid., p. 153; Makhlouf, , Changing Veils, p. 44, writes that “one may argue that, in many cultures, the male view of the world is a ‘surface structure,’ and that a consideration of the deeper levels of the culture will often reveal an autonomous female view.”Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Rosen, Lawrence, “The Negotiation of Reality: Male-Female Relations in Sefrou, Morocco,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 561–84.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Dwyer, , Images, p. 152.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Rosen, , “Negotiation of Reality,” p. 571.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Ibid., p. 581.

⁶⁰ Supra, , p. 000.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Nelson, Cynthia, “Public and Private Politics: Women in the Middle Eastern World,” American Ethnologist, I (1974), 551–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶² Ibid., p. 560. See also Chatty, Dawn, “Changing Sex Roles in Beduin Society in Syria and Lebanon,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 399–400 where she writes, “It may well be that this dichotomy (public-private) far from being a universal condition, is mainly a Western distinction and that it may not always be a relevant indicator of women's subordination.”Google Scholar

⁶³ Altorki, Soraya, “Family Organization and Women's Power in Urban Saudi Arabian Society,” Journal of Anthropological Research, XXXIII:3 (Fall, 1977), 277–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶⁴ Aswad, Barbara, “Women, Class and Power: Examples from the Hatay, Turkey,” in Women. Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 480Google Scholar; see also Makhlouf, , Changing Veils, pp. 39–44Google Scholar and Joseph, Suad, “Women and the Neighbourhood Street in Borj Hammoud, Lebanon,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds. p. 543.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Aswad, , “Women, Class and Power,” p. 474.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Marsot, Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid, “The Revolutionary Gentlewomen in Egypt,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., pp. 261–76.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Philipp, Thomas, “Feminism and Nationalist Politics in Egypt,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 283.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Davis, Susan Schaefer, “Working Women in a Moroccan Village,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 418.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ el-Messiri, Sawsan, “Women in Cairo,” p. 527.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Tapper, Nancy, “The Women's Subsociety among the Shahsevan Nomads of Iran,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 382.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Dwyer, Daisy, “Women, Sufism and Decision Making in Moroccan Islam,” in Women, Beck, and Keddie, , eds., p. 598.Google Scholar