Honor violence is commonplace in parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and female genital circumcision (FGC) is often the first violence experienced by many females there. The consequences of this dangerous procedure have led some countries to enact laws prohibiting the practice. While the FGC originated in Egypt and is still common in the country, there has also been recorded opposition toward the procedure for nearly a century. This article will explore the history of FGC within Egypt, both as a tradition and as a legislative initiative.
ALL I WANT IS EQUALITY WITH GIRLS: GENDER AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GULF
This article explains how women in the Gulf states have harnessed political and socioeconomic changes over the last decade to alter their standing at home and abroad. It argues that Gulf women have benefited from investments made by Gulf governments in higher education since the 1970s, the war on terrorism, the ever higher costs of employing expatriate workers, and the inability of their male colleagues to fill either skilled or unskilled positions. It also argues that the position of women today is consistent with their position historically in Gulf society, and that questions of gender are not limited to women.
Women in Algeria Today and the Debate over Family Law
This article argues that family law is at the heart of the contentious discourse concerning the role and legal status of women in Algeria today.
Women in the New Iraq
Volume 12, No. 3 – September 2008, Total Circulation 25,000 Article 3 of 7 WOMEN IN THE NEW IRAQ Judith Colp Rubin* *The following article is an extract from Barry Rubin (ed.), Iraq After Saddam (Sharpe, forthcoming). Iraqi women once enjoyed more civil and social rights than many of their sisters in other […]
Lagging Far Behind: Women in the Middle East
The following article is an extract from the author’s book Women in the Middle East (Sharpe, forthcoming). This article reviews the political and social situation of women in the Islamic Middle East over the past decade. It concludes that while these women have been guaranteed equal rights under their own constitutions and international laws adopted […]
Approved in Islam, Denounced by the State: The Representation of Polygamy in Egyptian Popular Cinema, 1950s-1970s
Published by the GLORIA Center,Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya Volume 11, No. 1, Article 8/11 – March 2007Total Circulation 23,500 APPROVED IN ISLAM, DENOUNCED BY THE STATE: THE REPRESENTATION OF POLYGAMY IN EGYPTIAN POPULAR CINEMA, 1950s-1970sShmulik Bachar* For many centuries, polygamy has been one of the pillars of Muslim patriarchal society, based on Koranic permission for men […]