From Stasis to Mobility: Arab Muslim Feminists and Travelling Theory

Description

This book takes into account the confluence of different factors in studying pressures on, and prospects for, the mobility of Arab Muslim women. Saiyma Aslam discusses Arab Muslim feminism as a travelling theory which is deeply sensitive to global realities. She calls for a challenge to the long-celebrated myths and ideologies that have circulated within or outside the Muslim world regarding the status and role of Arab Muslim women. The book considers their lived reality as diverse, fluid, and marked by heterogeneity. It explores the works of two writers, the Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi and the Egyptian novelist Nawal El Saadawi, who call attention to the stasis in domestic gender relations and the processes of change under global restructuring.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements
2. PART 1. DEMYTHOLOGIZING THE POLITICS OF GENDER AND MOBILITY
   1. Introduction
   2. Arab Women: Old Images, New Challenges
   3. Travel and Myths of the Orient
   4. Travel and Nahda
   5. Postcolonial Travelling Influences
   6. Travelling Theory
   7. Theory and Travel
   8. Feminism: A Travelling Theory
   9. Feminism(s) in the Arab World
   10. Why Fatima Mernissi and Nawal El Saadawi?
   11. Research Strategy and Working Definitions
   12. Working Definitions
       1. Feminism(s)
       2. Western Feminism
       3. Arab Feminism
       4. Muslim Feminism
       5. Statis
       6. Mobility
       7. Fundamentalism
       8. Ijtihad
   13. Organization of the Book
3. PART 2. THE WORLD OF STATIS
   1. The Nature and Perception of Arab Muslim Women’s Travelling
   2. Factors Influencing Women’s Travelling
   3. Family Domain
   4. Public-Private Division
   5. Educational and Economic Opportunities
4. PART 3. THE WORLD OF MOBILITY
   1. Between Tradition and Change
   2. Economic Globalization
   3. Cultural Globalization
   4. Social Globalization
   5. Technological Globalization
5. PART 4. FEMINISM IN THE ARAB WORLD: BREAKING THE SILENCE
   1. Feminisms: Similarities and Differences
   2. Liberal Feminism
   3. Socialist Feminism
   4. Radical Feminism
   5. Muslim Feminism
   6. Arab Muslim Feminism as a Travelling Theory
6. PART 5. BREAKING THE IMPASSE: A WAY FORWARD
7. Conclusion
8. Bibliography
9. Index

Author Biography

Dr Saiyma Aslam is Assistant Professor in English Literature at International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan, where she also teaches modern drama, modern fiction, postcolonial literature, South Asian literature, and globalization. She is a researcher in Postcolonial Studies and English Literature, with a focus on travelling theory, mobility, globalization, and Islamic feminism. She has published essays within the broader spectrum of feminist ethnography and intersections of Arab feminism, travelling theory, nation, and self. Her most recent research interests include connections between the Arab world and South Asia in women’s writing.