This volume explores the dialogue between Arab media and global developments in the information age, looking at the influence of new technologies in Arab societies and the evolving role of Arab women in ‘old’ and ‘new’ media. By gathering together contributions from both Arab and non-Arab scholars alike, a timely and important collection is presented that sheds new light on the growing involvement, role and image of Arab women in the media.
Nineteen Arab women journalists speak out about what it’s like to report on their changing homelands in this first-of-its-kind essay collection, with a foreword by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour “A stirring, provocative and well-made new anthology . . . that rewrites the hoary rules of the foreign correspondent playbook, deactivating the old clichés.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times A growing number of intrepid Arab and Middle Eastern sahafiyat—female journalists—are working tirelessly to shape nuanced narratives about their changing homelands, often risking their lives on the front lines of war. From sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo to the difficulty of traveling without a male relative in Yemen, their challenges are unique—as are their advantages, such as being able to speak candidly with other women at a Syrian medical clinic or with men on Whatsapp who will go on to become ISIS fighters, rebels, or pro-regime soldiers. In Our Women on the Ground, nineteen of these women tell us, in their own words, about what it’s like to report on conflicts that (quite literally) hit close to home. Their daring and heartfelt stories, told here for the first time, shatter stereotypes about the region’s women and provide an urgently needed perspective on a part of the world that is frequently misunderstood. INCLUDING ESSAYS BY: Donna Abu-Nasr, Aida Alami, Hannah Allam, Jane Arraf, Lina Attalah, Nada Bakri, Shamael Elnoor, Zaina Erhaim, Asmaa al-Ghoul, Hind Hassan, Eman Helal, Zeina Karam, Roula Khalaf, Nour Malas, Hwaida Saad, Amira Al-Sharif, Heba Shibani, Lina Sinjab, and Natacha Yazbeck
"The Women of the Arabs" by Henry Harris Jessup is a pioneering work that delves into the lives, roles, and status of women in Arab society. Published in 1873, this book provides valuable insights into the culture, customs, and experiences of Arab women during the 19th century. Henry Harris Jessup, an American missionary and scholar, offers a comprehensive examination of various aspects of Arab women's lives, including their social, familial, religious, and economic roles. He explores the intricacies of gender dynamics, marriage customs, childbirth practices, and the upbringing of children within Arab households. One of the key themes of the book is the portrayal of Arab women as multifaceted individuals with agency and resilience, challenging common Western stereotypes of passive and oppressed women in the Arab world. Jessup provides nuanced accounts of women's participation in public life, their contributions to the family economy, and their influence within the community. Moreover, Jessup discusses the intersection of religion and gender in Arab society, examining the role of Islam in shaping women's rights, responsibilities, and freedoms. He offers insights into the interpretation of Islamic teachings on gender relations and highlights the diversity of practices and attitudes across different Arab regions. "The Women of the Arabs" is not only a scholarly study but also a compassionate portrayal of Arab women's lives, aiming to foster understanding and appreciation for their experiences and contributions. Despite being written over a century ago, the book remains relevant for its insights into the complexities of gender in Arab culture and society.
The book presents the first English edition of Hubertine Auclert's Arab Women in Algeria which offers a unique picture of Algerian society in late 19th century. Hubertine Auclert (1848-1914) was one of the foremost militants for women's political rights in France from the mid-1870s. She lived in Algeria from 1888 to 1892, where she investigated the customs and traditions that defined the condition of women. She witnessed both the exploitation of women and that of the colonized people; in doing so, she drew a picture of colonial Algerian society. While women were mistreated by men (sale of prepubescent girls into marriage, forced marriage, repudiation permitted only to men, polygamy), Arab men were mistreated by the colonial administration and excluded from the government of Algeria. She denounced the contradictions and hypocrisy of French justice, which often enforced, for their own interest, the "anomalies" of Muslim law in contradiction with French law. The last chapter of the book comprises of several striking anecdotes that illustrate the author's theoretical views. Jacqueline Grenez Brovender is a freelance translator and a former lecturer in French at Tufts University. Denise Brahimi-Chapuis taught in French and Algerian universities about the relationship between France and the Maghreb and its effect on women.
Women's transgressive behaviors and perspectives are challenging societal norms in the Arab world, giving rise to anxiety and public debate. Simultaneously, however, other Arab women are unwillingly finding themselves labeled "bad" as authority figures attempt to redirect scrutiny from serious social ills such as patriarchy and economic exploitation, or as they impose new restrictions on women's behavior in response to uncertainty and change in society. Bad Girls of the Arab World elucidates how both intentional and unintentional transgressions make manifest the social and cultural constructs that define proper and improper behavior, as well as the social and political policing of gender, racial, and class divisions. The works collected here address the experiences of women from a range of ages, classes, and educational backgrounds who live in the Arab world and beyond. They include short pieces in which the women themselves reflect on their experiences with transgression; academic articles about performance, representation, activism, history, and social conditions; an artistic intervention; and afterwords by the acclaimed novelists Laila al-Atrash and Miral al-Tahawy. The book demonstrates that women's transgression is both an agent and a symptom of change, a site of both resistance and repression. Showing how transnational forces such as media discourses, mobility and confinement, globalization, and neoliberalism, as well as the legacy of colonialism, shape women's badness, Bad Girls of the Arab World offers a rich portrait of women's varied experiences at the boundaries of propriety in the twenty-first century.
Arab American women have played an essential role in shaping their homes, their communities, and their country for centuries. Their contributions, often marginalized academically and culturally, are receiving long- overdue attention with the emerging interdisciplinary field of Arab American women’s studies. The collected essays in this volume capture the history and significance of Arab American women, addressing issues of migration, transformation, and reformation as these women invented occupations, politics, philosophies, scholarship, literature, arts, and, ultimately, themselves. Arab American women brought culture and absorbed culture; they brought relationships and created relationships; they brought skills and talents and developed skills and talents. They resisted inequities, refused compliance, and challenged representation. They engaged in politics, civil society, the arts, education, the market, and business. And they told their own stories. These histories, these genealogies, these narrations that are so much a part of the American experiment are chronicled in this volume, providing an indispensable resource for scholars and activists.
Excerpt from The Women of the Arabs: With a Chapter for Children For the facts about 'the Druze religion, I have consulted Col. Churchill's Works, Mount Lebanon, and several Arabic manuscripts in the mission library in Beirut. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
