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Through a Veil Darkly: The Study of Women in Muslim Societies. A Review Article

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

David Waines
Affiliation:
University of Lancaster

Abstract

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Type
Women in Society
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1982

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References

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

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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

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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

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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. 5268Google 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

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

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25 Ibid., p. 177.

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34 Ibid., p. 149.

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40 Ibid., p. 261.

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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), 37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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