Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East

Contemporary Issues in the Middle East

by Suad Joseph (Editor)

The essays in this work illustrate the various ways in which women in the Middle East fall short of being vested with the rights and privileges that would define them as fully enfranchised citizens. They offer an examination of national legislation on personal status, penal law and labour.

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Suad Joseph is Professor of Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis and current President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Her research addresses issues of gender; families, children, and youth; sociology of the family; and selfhood, citizenship, and the state in the Middle East. Joseph is the founder of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association, the founder and coordinator of the Arab Families Working Group, the founder of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies, the General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, and the Founding Director of the Middle East/South Asian Studies Program at the University of California at Davis. She is also the founder and facilitator of the American University of Beirut, American University in Cairo, Lebanese American University, University of California at Davis, and Birzeit University Consortium.

Reviews

[Mona Kareem]

The introduction by Joseph is helpful as it surveys many important works on citizenship. The chapters on Gulf countries were rather disappointing. Soraya alTorki's chapter on women and citizenship in KSA suggests that the family can be a departure point for women's demands and change; a very problematic view, and heteronormative to say the least. As for the chapter on Kuwait, the two scholars echo much of the liberal-urban discourse on power and politics, speaking of "desertization" and acquitting the dominant class from the authoritarian game played by the ruling family. Of course the chapter is also outdated, written before women got their rights, and is only helpful, i think, in surveying key events and laws about women and citizenship in kuwait, for those who do not already know this history. I particularly liked the chapter on Turkey in which Yesim Arat discusses how secularism is used as a popularist tool for the regime.