Routledge Handbook on Women in the Middle East

"This Handbook provides an extraordinarily comprehensive study of Arab, Iranian, and Turkish women’s occluded presence and activism from antiquity through European colonial occupations to the recent uprisings across the region. Using a decolonial and intersectional lens, 51 scholars examine the social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics of a region never far from international headlines. Joseph and Zaatari have pulled together an indispensable resource for anyone wanting to learn about women’s education, journalism, fashion, family law, physical and mental health, new reproductive technologies, sexualities, queer sites of political organizing, political graffiti, plastic arts, literature, entertainment, acting, and music, as well as complicating our understanding of Middle Eastern women’s Christian, Jewish and Islamic faith practices. Scholars examine the role of civil wars, protests, and revolutions in driving millions out of their homes, with women suffering the worst consequences, including intergenerational poverty as well as sexual and domestic violence that have sparked movements to criminalize all forms of violence against women. Highly recommended."

miriam cooke, Braxton Craven Professor of Arab Cultures, Duke University, United States

"A volume of stunning breadth and depth, this Handbook on Women in the Middle East will undoubtedly be an invaluable resource for scholars and students for years to come. The editors have brought together a brilliant collection of authors, providing insights into not only chronically important themes in the field, but also the cutting-edge of new research and theory on gender in the region."

Lara Deeb, Professor of Anthropology, Scripps College, United States

"Essays inthis Routledge Handbook on Women in the Middle East richly reward researchers and educators in gender studies of the region. They comprise a timely, insightful array of resources --- historical and legal records, archeology, epigraphy, biography, media representations, ethnography and so much more --- that narrate women who are revolutionaries and citizen-activists, symbols and actors of independence movements, poets and artists, teachers, orators, merchants, queens and saints, wives and mothers."

Susan Slyomovics, co-editor Women and Power in the Middle East, United States

"This is an impressive compilation of essays that contributes valuable knowledge in the field of women in the Middle East. It consists of cutting-edge research by distinguished scholars on a wide range of topics and historical periods. The Handbook is a must-read for researchers, teachers and students."

Hoda Elsadda, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Cairo University, Egypt

"The impressive scope of this marvelous collection, drawing on its editors’ immense collective experience, offers a wonderful reframing of the foundational debates in twentieth-century gender studies of the Middle East. The collection is distinctive for its range, depth, theoretical ingenuity and most of all for bringing together diverse contemporary works from different disciplines, professions, national contexts and historical periods."

Livia Wick, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

"A masterful, unique and impressive contribution to gender in the Middle East. Combining works by renowned experts and upcoming scholars, the volume brings together vibrant, cutting-edge scholarship. Sophisticated and provocative in its approach, it is at the same time attentive to history and to recent developments. It captures theoretical, substantive, methodological and empirical breakthroughs. Joseph, Zaatari and their contributors redefine the field. They have produced a landmark."

Mounira M. Charrad, Author of States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and Co-editor of Women Rising: In and Beyond the Arab Spring, United States