|
Schedule
January
15: Introduction - Judaism and Islam. Common heritage, parallel
traditions. Modern approaches in scholarship on women in Islam.
- Readings:
Gibb, Mohammedanism (for background on Islam)
- (Handouts)
Plaskow, "It’s Feminist, But Is It Jewish?" Standing
Again at Sinai; Badran, "Independent Women: More than
a Century of Feminism in Egypt;" J. Tucker, ed., Arab
Women; Arebi, "Gender Anthropology in the Middle East:
The Politics of Muslim Women’s Misrepresentation" American
Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
January
22 and 29: Guest lecture, Ross Kraemer "Judaism Basics and
Jewish Women." Feminism and Orientalism. Defining the "Other."
Methodology in studying women and religion.
- Readings:
Nachtrieb "Women in Islam;" Shareef "Sermon from
Canada;" Sommer and Zwemer Our Moslem Sisters; al-Hibri
"Who Defines Third World Women’s Human Rights?"
Jameelah "The Feminist Movement vs. the Muslim Women;"
Greenberg On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition (selection);
Davidman Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox
Judaism (selection)
February
5: Women in traditional texts. Torah and Qur’an. Women’s
interpretations.
- Readings:
Heschel On Being a Jewish Feminist: Cantor "The Lilith
Question;" Baskin Jewish Women in Historical Perspective:
Niditch "Portrayals of Women in the Bible;" Stowasser
Women in the Qur’an: pp. 25-82; von Schlegell "Hagar:
Mother of Islam;" Matter "The Virgin Mary: A Goddess?"
February
12: God-talk. Can the divine be gendered? Does a goddess equal
egalitarian society?
- Readings:
Heschel: Plaskow "The Right Question is Theological;"
Gross "Steps;" Green "Bride, Spouse, Daughter"
- S.
Murata The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships
in Islam (selection); Eller Living in the Lap of the Goddess,
"The Birth of a New Religion;" Encyclopaedia of
Islam "Allah" and "Ilah"
- Film:
"In Her Own Way" by Barbara Myerhoff
- Journal
due.
February
19: Women exemplars in Jewish and Muslim history. Political leadership.
Sex segregation. Public religious life.
- Readings:
Baskin: Baskin "Jewish Women in the Middle Ages;" Kraemer
"Jewish Women in the Diaspora World of Late Antiquity;"
Melammed "Sephardi Women;" Weissler "Prayers in
Yiddish and the Religious World of Ashkenazic Women" Keddie
and Baron Women in Middle Eastern History: Keddie "Introduction;"
Spellberg "Political Action and Public Example: ‘A’isha
and the Battle of the Camel;" Ahmed "Early Islam;"
All of Chapter 2 ("The Mamluk Period")
- (Bulkpack)
Siddiqi "Women Scholars of Hadith;" Fadel "Two
Women, One Man: Knowledge, Power, and Gender in Medieval Sunni
Legal Thought;" Goitein "Professions of Women"
(Jewish and Muslim); Mernissi "How Does One Say ‘Queen’
in Islam?"
February
26: Mysticism
- Readings:
Keddie and Baron: Clancy-Smith "The House of Zeinab"
- Eichenbaum
"Sacred Unions: A Comparative Study of the Portrayal of Sex
and Sexual Union in the Zohar and the Writings of Ibn ‘Arabi;"
Roded Women in Islamic Biographical Collections "Mystic
Women;" Hoffman-Ladd "Mysticism and Sexuality in Sufi
Life and Thought;" Elias "Female and Feminine in Islamic
Mysticism;" von Schlegell "Sufism and Social Innovation
among Women Masters of Contemporary Damascus"
- Evening
film: "Door to the Sky" (Moroccan Sufi women)
March
5: Religious law and modesty guidelines. Female hair, female skin.
- Readings:
Mernissi The Veil and the Male Elite (entire)
- Article
"What is hijab?" Rippin "Feminism’s
‘New Islam’" Toronto op-ed pieces
- Films:
"The Veiled Revolution" and "The Price of Change"
(Egyptian Islamist women)
March
12: Purim and University Break - No Classes.
March
19: Circumcision, male and female. History and meanings.
- Readings:
Anees "The Clitoral Inferno;" Brooten Love between
Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism "Clitoredectomy"
Toubia "Female Circumcision as a Public Health Issue"
Abu-Salieh "To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah;"
Internet pieces: Epps "Circumcision History" and Rothenberg
"Men’s Oppression"
- Journal
due.
March
26: Purity taboos. Is menstruation contagious?
- Readings:
Heschel: Waskow "Restoration of the Moon" Wagner "The
Image and Status of Women in Classical Rabbinic Judaism"
- Reinhart
"Impurity/No Danger;" Mawdudi Towards Understanding
the Qur’an ( Q 2: 222-241 )
- Philips
Islamic Rules on Menstruation and Post-Natal Bleeding (selection)
April
2: Sex and marriage. Masturbation. Outside the bounds: Lesbianism,
fornication, adultery.
- Readings:
Abu Lughod Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories (entire)
Heschel chapter "Jewish Lesbians"
- Haeri
"Temporary Marriage and the State in Iran;" Goitein
"The Sexual Mores of the Common People;" Musallam Sex
and Society in Islam (selection on contraception and abortion);
Murray and Roscoe Islamic Homosexualities (selection on
lesbianism)
April
9: Marriage and divorce. Domestic violence. New interpretations
of the role of men in the family.
- Readings:
Heschel: Scarf "Marriages Made in Heaven?"
- Wegner
"Status of Women in Jewish and Islamic Marriage and Divorce
Law;" Esposito Women in Islamic Family Law (selection)
- Film:
"A Wedding in Galilee" (Palestinian and Israeli)
April
16: Choosing the tradition - "Fundamentalism" Orthodox
and Islamist in Modern Societies.
- Readings:
Heschel: Kendall "Memories of an Orthodox Youth" (Discussion
leaders, read and introduce novel The Romance Reader about
Orthodox teen and The Gates of Damascus a biographical
account of a secular women and Islamist trends in Syria. Borrow
from BRvS) El-Or Educated and Ignorant: Ultraorthodox Jewish
Women and Their World (selection); Och Words on Fire (selection);
Muslim Women’s League "Issues" statement Films:
"The Fundamentalism Project" (Judaism and Islam)
- Journal
due.
April
23: Student Presentations
Paper
due: May 1st under my door, 212 Logan Hall.
|
