Gender and Diversity in the Middle East and North Africa [Paperback]

The images of women in chadors or burqas as contrasted with images of belly dancers which circulate today as representations of Muslim/Middle Eastern women do not fluctuate from the images propagated by Orientalist paintings and colonial photographs which also offer contrasting representations of the veiled thus secluded and the naked or semi-naked thus eroticised Muslim/Oriental woman.

As well as challenging the prevailing stereotypes of the Middle Eastern and North African women, the book aims to highlight the element of diversity which characterises the lives of these women and the regions to which they belong. The sense that most of the Middle Eastern and North African countries are Muslim does confer a common identity, a distinction from others that may serve to bridge wide social, cultural, and economic differences among them. However, it is also important to stress that significant elements other than Islam contribute to the making of MENA societies and womens cultural identities.

This book was published as a special issue of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

1. Introduction: Gender and Diversity in the Middle East and North Africa Zahia Smail Salhi  2. Masculinity in Crisis: The Case of Palestinians in Israel Amalia SaarandTaghreed Yahia-Younis  3. The Central Role of the Family Law in the Moroccan Feminist Movement Fatima Sadiqi   4. Steps to the Integration of Moroccan Women in Development Moha Ennaji  5. Gender Equality in Tunisia Amel Grami  6. Party Politics of the AKP (2002  2007) and the Predicaments of Women at the Intersection of the Westernist, Islamist and Feminist Discourses in Turkey Ayse Gunes Ayata and FatmaTutuncu  7. Women and MedilsŒ