Islam, Democracy and the Status of Women

Islam, Democracy and the Status of Women
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 142
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781135873899
ISBN-13 : 1135873895
Rating : 4/5 (99 Downloads)

Synopsis Islam, Democracy and the Status of Women by : Helen M. Rizzo

This book examines the relationship between religion, democracy, and women's organizations in Kuwait. More specifically, it looks at whether these organizations are working toward achieving formal political rights for women. Helen Rizzo examines how interpretations of religion affected the goals and activities of the organizations in terms of women's empowerment and if the organizations were pushing the democratization process. Much of the recent literature on the relationship between Islam, democracy, and women's rights has been negative and pessimistic. Instead, this book examines the complicated relationship between these three things, arguing that some women in Kuwait are using Islam in their discourse to justify women's right to equality and public participation, thus countering the arguments that see Islam, democracy, and women's rights as inherently and culturally incompatible.

Gender and Politics in Kuwait

Gender and Politics in Kuwait
Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages : 370
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780857722607
ISBN-13 : 0857722603
Rating : 4/5 (07 Downloads)

Synopsis Gender and Politics in Kuwait by : Meshal Al-Sabah

The role of women in politics in the Gulf is a much-debated and often little-understood subject in the West. In Gender and Politics in Kuwait the author sheds new light on the struggle of Kuwaiti women for political participation, examining both the positions women hold in society and politics, and the discourses surrounding feminism and civil rights. He charts the history of women and their contribution to the Kuwaiti state, from independence and the writing of the constitution in the 1960s, through the Iraqi occupation in 1990, to the struggle for the right to vote and stand for election in the twenty-first century. Drawing on the experiences of women in a range of roles in Kuwaiti society, including government, education, employment, civil society and the media, this is a comprehensive examination of gender politics and its impact in the Middle East.

Women and Power in the Middle East

Women and Power in the Middle East
Author :
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages : 245
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780812206906
ISBN-13 : 0812206908
Rating : 4/5 (06 Downloads)

Synopsis Women and Power in the Middle East by : Suad Joseph

The seventeen essays in Women and Power in the Middle East analyze the social, political, economic, and cultural forces that shape gender systems in the Middle East and North Africa. Published at different times in Middle East Report, the journal of the Middle East Research and Information Project, the essays document empirically the similarities and differences in the gendering of relations of power in twelve countries—Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. Together they seek to build a framework for understanding broad patterns of gender in the Arab-Islamic world. Challenging questions are addressed throughout. What roles have women played in politics in this region? When and why are women politically mobilized, and which women? Does the nature and impact of their mobilization differ if it is initiated by the state, nationalist movements, revolutionary parties, or spontaneous revolt? And what happens to women when those agents of mobilization win or lose? In investigating these and other issues, the essays take a look at the impact of rapid social change in the Arab-Islamic world. They also analyze Arab disillusionment with the radical nationalisms of the 1950s and 1960s and with leftist ideologies, as well as the rise of political Islamist movements. Indeed the essays present rich new approaches to assessing what political participation has meant for women in this region and how emerging national states there have dealt with organized efforts by women to influence the institutions that govern their lives. Designed for courses in Middle East, women's, and cultural studies, Women and Power in the Middle East offers to both students and scholars an excellent introduction to the study of gender in the Arab-Islamic world.

Everyday Conversions

Everyday Conversions
Author :
Publisher : Duke University Press
Total Pages : 289
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780822373223
ISBN-13 : 082237322X
Rating : 4/5 (23 Downloads)

Synopsis Everyday Conversions by : Attiya Ahmad

Why are domestic workers converting to Islam in the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf region? In Everyday Conversions Attiya Ahmad presents us with an original analysis of this phenomenon. Using extensive fieldwork conducted among South Asian migrant women in Kuwait, Ahmad argues domestic workers’ Muslim belonging emerges from their work in Kuwaiti households as they develop Islamic piety in relation—but not opposition—to their existing religious practices, family ties, and ethnic and national belonging. Their conversion is less a clean break from their preexisting lives than it is a refashioning in response to their everyday experiences. In examining the connections between migration, labor, gender, and Islam, Ahmad complicates conventional understandings of the dynamics of religious conversion and the feminization of transnational labor migration while proposing the concept of everyday conversion as a way to think more broadly about emergent forms of subjectivity, affinity, and belonging.

Oil and Politics in the Gulf

Oil and Politics in the Gulf
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 262
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0521466350
ISBN-13 : 9780521466356
Rating : 4/5 (50 Downloads)

Synopsis Oil and Politics in the Gulf by : Jill Crystal

This book asks why in recent years the social and economic upheavals in Kuwait and Qatar have been accompanied by a remarkable political continuity.

Politics of the Possible

Politics of the Possible
Author :
Publisher : Anthem Press
Total Pages : 561
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781843310518
ISBN-13 : 1843310511
Rating : 4/5 (18 Downloads)

Synopsis Politics of the Possible by : Kumkum Sangari

A refreshing and wide-ranging approach to the study of South Asian politics.

The Politics of Women's Suffrage

The Politics of Women's Suffrage
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 280
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1912702967
ISBN-13 : 9781912702961
Rating : 4/5 (67 Downloads)

Synopsis The Politics of Women's Suffrage by : Alexandra Hughes-Johnson

A history of the early twentieth-century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. In the United Kingdom, the question of women's suffrage represented the most substantial challenge to the constitution since 1832, seeking not only to expand but to redefine definitions of citizenship and power. At the same time, it was inseparable from other urgent contemporary political debates--the Irish question, the decline of the British Empire, the Great War, and the increasing demand for workers' rights. This collection positions women's suffrage as central to, rather than separate from, these broader political discussions, demonstrating how they intersected and were mutually constitutive. In particular, this collection pays close attention to the issues of class and Empire which shaped this era. It demonstrates how campaigns for women's rights were consciously and unconsciously played out, impacting attitudes to motherhood, spurring the radical "birth-strike" movement, and burgeoning communist sympathies in working-class communities around Britain and beyond.

Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa
Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages : 606
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781442203976
ISBN-13 : 1442203978
Rating : 4/5 (76 Downloads)

Synopsis Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa by : Sanja Kelly

Freedom HouseOs innovative publication WomenOs Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance analyzes the status of women in the region, with a special focus on the gains and setbacks for womenOs rights since the first edition was released in 2005. The study presents a comparative evaluation of conditions for women in 17 countries and one territory: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine (Palestinian Authority and Israeli-Occupied Territories), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The publication identifies the causes and consequences of gender inequality in the Middle East, and provides concrete recommendations for national and international policymakers and implementers. Freedom House is an independent nongovernmental organization that supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights. The project has been embraced as a resource not only by international players like the United Nations and the World Bank, but also by regional womenOs rights organizations, individual activists, scholars, and governments worldwide. WomenOs rights in each country are assessed in five key areas: (1) Nondiscrimination and Access to Justice; (2) Autonomy, Security, and Freedom of the Person; (3) Economic Rights and Equal Opportunity; (4) Political Rights and Civic Voice; and (5) Social and Cultural Rights. The methodology is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the study results are presented through a set of numerical scores and analytical narrative reports.

Mapping Kurdistan

Mapping Kurdistan
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 243
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781108601689
ISBN-13 : 1108601685
Rating : 4/5 (89 Downloads)

Synopsis Mapping Kurdistan by : Zeynep N. Kaya

Since the early twentieth-century, Kurds have challenged the borders and national identities of the states they inhabit. Nowhere is this more evident than in their promotion of the 'Map of Greater Kurdistan', an ideal of a unified Kurdish homeland in an ethnically and geographically complex region. This powerful image is embedded in the consciousness of the Kurdish people, both within the region and, perhaps even more strongly, in the diaspora. Addressing the lack of rigorous research and analysis of Kurdish politics from an international perspective, Zeynep Kaya focuses on self-determination, territorial identity and international norms to suggest how these imaginations of homelands have been socially, politically and historically constructed (much like the state territories the Kurds inhabit), as opposed to their perception of being natural, perennial or intrinsic. Adopting a non-political approach to notions of nationhood and territoriality, Mapping Kurdistan is a systematic examination of the international processes that have enabled a wide range of actors to imagine and create the cartographic image of greater Kurdistan that is in use today.

Stories of Democracy

Stories of Democracy
Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Total Pages : 332
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0231114893
ISBN-13 : 9780231114899
Rating : 4/5 (93 Downloads)

Synopsis Stories of Democracy by : Mary Ann Tétreault

A sophisticated investigation of the shifting tides of democratic governance in modern Kuwait from 1921 to the present based on interviews both with political activists and members of the political elite, Stories of Democracy sheds light on a wide array of issues concerning Middle Eastern politics and democratic institutions in general. Mary Ann Tétreault explores how various political factions have sought to advance their own notions of Kuwaiti history and politics through distinctive popular appeals: (1) pro-democracy forces focusing on Kuwait's relationship to the universal values of the democratic world around them, and (2) anti-democrats proffering Arab and Muslim religious and cultural traditions. She explores how such dramatic events as the suspension of the Kuwaiti constitution in 1986 and the invasion by Iraq in 1990 occasioned major shifts in the course of the democracy movement. The current running through virtually all of the nation's political drama is the monolithic Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), used by the government as an instrument of economic strength to safeguard sovereignty in the absence of military might.