History, Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East: From Orientalism to the Arab Spring

A History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East looks at women’s history and the history of women and men’s gendered social and political experiences from the 19th through the early 21st centuries. From both theoretical and topical points of view, the book considers the events that have shaped women’s experiences in Egypt, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Turkey. At the same time, Lisa Pollard and Mona Russell discuss the ways in which phenomena specific to the modern era (colonialism and independence movements, the rise of the nation-state, nationalism, the Cold War, the rise of various forms of political Islam) have produced or altered gendered institutions, gender roles and discourses about gender in the region as well as the circumstances under which institutions and ideologies have been gendered both masculine and feminine over the course of the modern era.

The book includes discussions of masculinity, sexuality, male and female experiences with marriage and the family, and the increased visibility of lesbian and gay communities and examines how women’s roles, as well as gendered systems and institutions, have changed over time.

Combining a chronolgical and thematic approach, and including illustrations and coming right up to date with the Arab Spring, this is the perfect text for all students Middle Eastern History.