Beyond the Exotic: Women's Histories in Islamic Societies

Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East

by Amira El-Azhary Sonbol (Editor)

Most research has accepted stereotypical images of Muslim women, treating their outward manifestations, such as veiling, as passive and oppressive. Muslim women have been depicted as different, and by exoticizing (orientalizing) them—or Islamic society in general—“they” have been dealt with outside of general women’s history and regarded as having little to contribute to the writing of world history or to the life of their sisters worldwide. By approaching widely used sources with different questions and methodologies, and by using new or little-used material (with much primary research), this book redresses these deficiencies. Scholars revisit and reevaluate scripture and scriptural interpretation; church records involving non-Muslim women of the Arab world; archival court records dating from the present back to the Ottoman period; and the oral and material culture and its written record, including oral history, textbooks, sufi practices, and the politics of dress. By deconstructing the past, these scholars offer fresh perspectives on women’s roles and aspirations in Middle East societies.

Genres: History, Feminism, Islam, Nonfiction, Religion

522 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2005

About the author

Amira Sonbol specializes in the history of modern Egypt, Islamic history and law, women, gender and Islam and is the author of several books including The New Mamluks:Egyptian Society and Modern Feudalism; Women, the Family and Divorce Laws in Islamic History; The Creation of a Medical Profession in Egypt: 1800-1922; The Memoirs of Abbas Hilmi II: Sovereign of Egypt; Women of the Jordan: Islam, Labor and Law; Beyond the Exotic:Muslim Women's Histories. Professor Sonbol is Editor-in-Chief of HAWWA: the Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World published by E.J. Brill and Co-Editor of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, a quarterly journal co-published with Selly Oak Colleges (UK). She teaches courses on the History of Modern Egypt, Women and Law, and Islamic Civilization.

Reviews

[Scheherazade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly informative.