MER Article Women and Gender in Middle East Studies: A Roundtable Discussion Ellen Fleischmann, an editor of this magazine, recently invited scholars who write and teach about women and gender issues in the Middle East to participate in an electronic mail roundtable discussion of the field. The questions generated very positive reactions; many people who could not participate in this roundtable for Ellen Fleischmann • 6 min read
MER Article Women and Gender in Middle East Studies In the past two decades, there has been growing interest in the study of women and gender issues in the Middle East, reflected in the greater number of books, journal articles, dissertations and conference panels devoted to such topics. [1] As a result, many scholars in Middle East studies have come Simona Sharoni • 8 min read
MER Article "This Is the Bride" With only approximately 6 percent of married women in Yemen living in polygamous marriages, such relationships are neither popular nor widespread. Nevertheless, polygamy in Yemen remains a complicated issue. Janine A. Clark • 3 min read
MER Article Men, Women and God(s) Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Men, Women and God(s): Nawal El Saadawi and Arab Feminist Poetics (California, 1995). Persis M. Karim • 4 min read
MER Article Secularism and Personal Status Codes in Lebanon Marie Rose Zalzal is secretary general for Tayyar al-‘Ilmani (Movement for Secularism) and a practicing lawyer in Abu Rumana, Matn, Lebanon. Part of a research project on the impact of Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990) on women, the interview was conducted by Suad Joseph on September 29, October 6 and Suad Joseph • 8 min read
MER Article Making It on the Middle Eastern Margins of the Global Capitalist Economy Victoria Bernal, Cultivating Workers: Peasants and Capitalism in a Sudanese Village (Columbia, 1991). Jenny White, Money Makes Us Relatives: Women’s Labor in Urban Turkey (Texas, 1994). Janet Bauer • 6 min read
MER Article Sheikha in al-Warraq Clouds of smoke fill the room. Young women sit talking about the events of the day, while Sana’ inhales smoke from the strongest water pipe tobacco available on the market. “Everything else is for innocent children,” she scoffs. Her smoking habit symbolizes her social status. Sana’ is the sheikhat a Karim El-Gawhary • 5 min read
MER Article Relocation and the Use of Urban Space in Cairo Sahar was only ten years old when her family, along with almost 5,000 Egyptian working-class families, was relocated from her neighborhood in the center of Cairo to a public housing project in al-Zawiya al-Hamra, in northern Cairo. The relocation project was part of Sadat’s open-door policy (infitah Farha Ghannam • 7 min read
MER Article Nasrallah, On Boys, Girls and the Veil Yousry Nasrallah’s new documentary film, On Boys, Girls and the Veil, touches on a paradoxical aspect of Egyptian filmmaking. Despite the ubiquitous hijab -- the neo-Islamic “veil” -- in Egyptian life, covered women are quite rare in the cinema. The reason for this is that both filmmakers and Islami Walter Armbrust • 6 min read
MER Article Berber Associations and Cultural Change in Algeria It was another hot August night. Several hundred villagers, for whom this was the third of four late-night weddings in a row, watched with jaded interest as first women, then men, occupied the dancing space -- a circle carved from a dusty village square, around which women spectators sat on Jane Goodman • 13 min read
MER Article Women and Personal Status Law in Iran Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, personal status law -- governing marriage, divorce and custody -- has become one of the most politically salient issues in Iranian society. Within weeks of the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the Justice Ministry was notified to cancel all laws that were deemed Homa Hoodfar • 8 min read
MER Article Women's Organizations in Kuwait Women’s groups, like all voluntary associations in Kuwait, are controlled and funded by the state. They have elected boards, written constitutions and paid memberships. Law 24 of 1962 governing the activity of associations -- partially amended in 1965 and still in force -- gives the Ministry of Soci Haya al-Mughni • 10 min read
