To scholars (including graduate/doctoral students) interested in Arab women’s movements:

Call for Book Chapters

Proposed Title:
Mapping Arab Women’s Movements

Editors:
Dr. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley
Dr. Pernille Arenfeldt

Over the past 100-150 years, women from across Arab countries (from Syria in the North to Yemen in the South and Morocco in the West to Iraq in the East) have been struggling, together with sympathetic Arab men, to achieve greater gender equality. The accomplishments are not consistent across the Arab region and significant work remains to be done.

Mapping Arab Women’s Movements is meant to provide a comprehensive overview of women’s movements in Arab countries from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. While an abundance of good analyses are available on the history of the women’s movements in a few Arab countries, little or no literature is available on the developments in other parts of the Arab region. The goal of the volume is to chronicle and analyze the Arab women’s movements (its successes as well as its setbacks), thus bringing together a selection of papers that allow an impression of both differences and similarities between the Arab countries.

Contributions that cover the following countries will be considered: Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

Each chapter should examine the women’s movements in an Arab country (or region) in terms of its origins, organizations (both formal organizations and less-formalized groups/networks), ideologies, participation in international networks, class and racial diversities, counter-movements, and outcomes. The volume takes a pluralistic approach to women’s movements and the contributions should consider both organizations/groups with an explicit feminist agenda, and women’s organizations that arose from philanthropic and/or religious concerns but in retrospect can be seen to have contributed to a transformation of women’s status and their presence in the public sphere. Consequently, attention to the journals/magazines and literary salons that developed already from the late-1800s in some Arab countries is encouraged. Similarly, we welcome considerations of so-called “state feminism” and state-sponsored as well as independent groups/organizations. The exact chronological frame for the individual contributions will inevitably vary, but a concerted effort will be made to incorporate papers on the youngest Arab nation-states where women’s movements/organizations are a relatively recent phenomenon.

Priority will be given to papers that actively employ both primary and secondary sources. The chapters should be 20-30 double-spaced pages (Times New Roman, font size 12). The volume will only include papers in English.

The idea for Mapping Arab Women’s Movements grew out of our teaching experiences with women’s studies/women’s history at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. As a result, the intended audience is primarily undergraduate students – both in the Arab region and in other parts of the world, where an increasing number of universities offer courses related to women in the Arab region. In addition, we hope that the collection will prove to be an indispensable tool for scholars who wish to develop more in-depth comparisons and contextualization in research projects that focus on a single or a few Arab country/countries.

Most importantly, however, Mapping Arab Women’s Movements should provide the young generations of Arab women and men with accessible but comprehensive and analytical accounts of what has been achieved in their respective countries and, thus, encourage them to continue to work towards enhancing gender equality in the Arab countries.

If you would like additional information, please contact Dr. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley or Dr. Pernille Arenfeldt (parenfeldt@aus.edu)

Nawar Al-Hassan Golley is Associate Professor in Literary & Cultural Theory, Women's Studies Advisor and Head of the Department of Arabic Studies at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. Al-Hassan Golley is the author of, Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies. Shahrazad Tells her Story (Texas University Press: 2003) and editor of Arab Women's Lives Retold. Exploring identity through Writing. (Syracuse University Press: 2007).

Pernille Arenfeldt is Assistant Professor of History at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. Her most recent publication is, “Gendered Patronage and Confessionalization: Anna of Saxony as a ‘Mother of the Church’” (Renaessanceforum, vol. 4, (2008)). She co-edited (with Regina Schulte, et al.) The Body of the Queen. Gender and Rule in the Courtly World, 1500-2000 (Berghahn Books: 2006; German edition by Campus Verlag: 2002).