World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies
Barcelona, July 19th – 24th 2010
< NOT_DEFINED backto SUMMARY OF PANELS· NOT_DEFINED date: THU, 22 / 11.30 am - 1.30 pm
· NOT_DEFINED institution: Truman Institute for Advancement of Peace Research
· NOT_DEFINED organizer: Ruth Roded
· NOT_DEFINED language: English / Français
· NOT_DEFINED description: Religion, whether as faith, cultural identity or social framework, is a prominent characteristic of Middle Eastern societies and plays an important role in shaping gender ideals, norms, and identities. Although Islam is the most prevalent religious frame of reference, prominent Jewish communities have existed in the Middle East for centuries. Even though current politics have emphasized differences more than similarities, understanding Islam and Judaism from the prism of gender may provide additional perspectives, especially in relation to personal identities and inter-group relations in the Middle East.
The aim of this panel (or linked panels) is to examine gender ideals, as well as norms and social realities among Muslim and Jewish women and men in order to highlight similarities and differences, as well as possible cultural exchange and symbiosis. The starting point of our discussion is that neither Islam nor Judaism is monolithic, nor can either religion be considered “better” than the other, from a gendered perspective. We hope to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of how gender and religion interact for both Muslims and Jews throughout the Middle East, as well as to reveal the richness and variety in the lives of Muslims and Jews and the ties between them in the region.
Chair: Ruth Roded (Truman Institute for Advancement of Peace Research)
Paper presenter: Shoshana S Stein (State University of New York at Albany), “'So that Her Son Will not be a Burden Upon Her:' Divorce, Migration, and Child Custody in Cairo Bet Dins (Rabbinical Courts), 1941-1946”
Cairo has long been a hub for economic and political migrants of varying religions and origin. During the 1940s migration accelerated within Egypt due to conditions generated by World War II. This paper will look at what it meant to receive or ask for child custody within the Jewish community of Egypt between the years 1941 and 1946 as shaped by the social and economic realities of Egyptian Jewry during this period, as well as the halakhic reasoning of the Egyptian rabbinate. In particular, it will look at custody cases between couples separated by geographic space and negotiating for child custody and maintenance through Bet Dins (Rabbinical Courts) in different locations.
This paper is based on 168 sets of correspondences related to these petitions in which the Rabbinical authorities paraphrased the arguments of petitioners, asked for confirmations of stories advanced by one of the litigants, forwarded advice and also gave indications of final judgments made.
A fascinating aspect within these correspondences is the parallel in language used by litigants in Shari’a records of previous periods with the language used within these Rabbinate court documents. There is furthermore, a symmetry in the ways men and women understood their gendered rights and social obligations as reflected in their statements to these religious courts. This paper will also challenge our understanding on how Egyptian social realities frequently led women to petition for a delinquent father to take over custody, or in some cases, take drastic measures to retain custody, including conversion to Islam and migration beyond the jurisdiction of Bet Dins. Finally, the paper will address the reasoning used by the Cairo Bet Din, and in particular, Rabbi Chaim Nahum Effendi, in flexing the interpretation of Halakhic family law so as to ensure an outcome in ‘the best interest’ of all family members involved.
Paper presenter: Laila Abed Rabho (Truman Institute for Advancement of Peace Research), “From Victim to Empowerment: Muslim Women's Narratives in the Shari'a Courts of A Jewish State”
The prominence of the al-Sadrs in modern Middle Eastern history has been the subject of scholarly interest. They have been viewed as renewers of the Shi‘i scholastic tradition -- Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (Mallat, 2004), and as modernizers of the role of the religious establishment -- Musa al-Sadr (Ajami, 1986), Muqtada al-Sadr (Cockburn, 2008). However, with the single exception of Bint al-Huda, the social and cultural role that Sadr women have been playing in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, at least since the 1970s, has not been studied. Sadr women have been active as chairpersons of charitable foundations, such as the Mu’assasi-ye Farhangi Tahqiqati-ye Imam Musa Sadr in Tehran and the Imam Sadr Foundation in Beirut. They have also produced some influential Islamic feminist fiction, articles in periodicals, critical essays, and (auto-biographies). Sadr women have also been indirectly influential as wives of prominent men such as Muhammad Khatami (two times President of Iran) and Ahmad ibn Ruhallah Khumayni (son of the Father of the Islamic Revolution).
This paper sheds light on women’s understandings of modernity and gender roles in an élitarian Muslim context based on interviews, oral histories and field research conducted in Iran, Lebanon, and London during the years 2006-2009. It is grounded in an Islamic historical and historiographic approach in which female role models play a prominent part.
The Sadr women struggle to balance their position as both bearer of the memory (and privileges) of their noble family, and possible role model for young generations of Muslim women eager to reconcile modernity with their religion and “historical identity”. The role performed by women of the al-Sadr family emerges as an apparently strange balance between two traditional Shi‘i models: Zaynab, sister of Imam Hussein and active keeper of the memory of his sacrifice, and Fatima, the model woman (olgu-ye zanan), silent wife of Imam Ali, daughter of the Prophet and transmitter of the noble blood of the Family.
My work shows that the Sadr women have been effective in modernizing the roles of Zaynab and Fatima and have even improved their privileged status, contributing to the enhancement of their own elite status and that of all Ahl al-Bayt, descendants of the family of the Prophet Muhammad, in contemporary society.
Paper presenter: Ruth Roded (Truman Institute for Advancement of Peace Research), “Islamic and Jewish Religious Feminism: Similarities, Parallels and Interactions”
The roots of both Islamic and Jewish religious feminism may be found in the 1970s. Both ideological movements arose in response to the feminism of the 1960s in the United States and in France which was secular and even anti-religious. The two forms of religious feminism were parallel responses to the rise of Islamism and Jewish fundamentalism that promoted strict interpretations of Islam and Judaism, particularly as regards gender issues. Islamic and Jewish religious feminism each have global and local manifestations.
The aim of this study is to examine similarities and differences in the roots and development of the two religious feminist movements. Parallels may be expected as functions of the similar sociologies of Islam and Judaism. On the theoretical level, feminist exegesis of the Quran and of the Hebrew Bible have been prominent. In practice, women’s greater involvement in communal prayer has been a goal of both movements.
Interactions between Jewish and Muslim religious feminists may seem impossible in the current politically-charged atmosphere. On the other hand, there is clearly a communality of interests among religious women of both faiths which may serve to prevail over conflict.
This study focuses on women, feminism and gender, subjects that are extremely sensitive in Muslim and Jewish communities. The findings may contribute to continued serious research on relations between Muslims and Jews.
Paper presenter: Raffaele Mauriello (Independent Scholar), “Performance of Muslim Modernity by the al-Sadrs: Lives of Women Descendants of the Family of the Prophet Muhammad (Ahl al-Bayt)”
The prominence of the al-Sadrs in modern Middle Eastern history has been the subject of scholarly interest. They have been viewed as renewers of the Shi?i scholastic tradition -- Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (Mallat, 2004), and as modernizers of the role of the religious establishment -- Musa al-Sadr (Ajami, 1986), Muqtada al-Sadr (Cockburn, 2008). However, with the single exception of Bint al-Huda, the social and cultural role that Sadr women have been playing in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, at least since the 1970s, has not been studied. Sadr women have been active as chairpersons of charitable foundations, such as the Mu’assasi-ye Farhangi Tahqiqati-ye Imam Musa Sadr in Tehran and the Imam Sadr Foundation in Beirut. They have also produced some influential Islamic feminist fiction, articles in periodicals, critical essays, and (auto-) biographies. Sadr women have also been indirectly influential as wives of prominent men such as Muhammad Khatami (two times President of Iran) and Ahmad ibn Ruhallah Khumayni (son of the Father of the Islamic Revolution).
This paper sheds light on women’s understandings of modernity and gender roles in an élitarian Muslim context based on interviews, oral histories and field research conducted in Iran, Lebanon, and London during the years 2006-2009. It is grounded in an Islamic historical and historiographic approach in which female role models play a prominent part. The Sadr women struggle to balance their position as both bearer of the memory (and privileges) of their noble family, and possible role model for young generations of Muslim women eager to reconcile modernity with their religion and “historical identity”. The role performed by women of the al-Sadr family emerges as an apparently strange balance between two traditional Shi’i models: Zaynab, sister of Imam Hussein and active keeper of the memory of his sacrifice, and Fatima, the model woman (olgu-ye zanan), silent wife of Imam Ali, daughter of the Prophet and transmitter of the noble blood of the Family. My work shows that the Sadr women have been effective in modernizing the roles of Zaynab and Fatima and have even improved their privileged status, contributing to the enhancement of their own elite status and that of all Ahl al-Bayt, descendants of the family of the Prophet Muhammad, in contemporary society.