HIST 481: From Harem to the Streets: Gender in the Middle East, 1900- Present

Instructor: Marie Brown

Day & Time:
Tuesday/Thursday
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM

Category Fulfillment: II
a crowd of cell phones raised to a woman, clad in a white hijab, falling back as she speaks to a crowd.

From Harem to the Streets: Gender in the Middle East, 1900- Present

What does it mean to be a man in Palestine? Who is considered beautiful in Sudan? How is U.S. foreign policy shaped by the presumption that Muslim women need to be saved? This course uses the lenses of gender and sexuality to examine critical moments in nineteenth and twentieth century Middle East history. We’ll see how gender and sexual identity determined how people in the Middle East were affected by, and responded to, political, economic, and social change. Topics covered will include: western intervention and the construction of the man/woman binary in Iran; past and present debates over healthy, fertile, and beautiful women’s bodies in Sudan; and the connections between homeland, strength, and impotency in Israel/Palestine. There will also be plenty of opportunities to discuss contemporary events. No background knowledge of the Middle East or gender studies is necessary to succeed in this class!

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Catalog Description:

  • This reading-intensive seminar examines shifts in gender roles and expectations in the Middle East during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

  • The course begins with the importance of harem within Middle Eastern society, and traces Middle Eastern women's increasingly public presence in national movements,

  • feminist activism, and peace protests as well as the impact of Western standards of marriage, child-rearing, beauty, and sexuality on gender roles.

  • The course uses primary and secondary sources to analyze how gender identity is informed by religion and culture and grounded in specific historical moments.