Introduction: Looking Beyond Islam

The topic of women and gender in MENA politics has long been associated with Islam because of a historically-held notion that Islam determines every aspect of life in the region, including politics, economics, culture, and of course, women’s status and gender. Decades of research on women and gender in the MENA have challenged this notion, and, instead, pointed out how complex contexts and relationships among actors shape the role and status of women. This previous scholarship has demonstrated that women’s political, economic and legal statuses vary greatly across and within MENA countries, that they change over time within a single country in response to political activism as well as strategic calculation, and that in this sense the region is not fundamentally different from the rest of the world. This by no means suggests that Islam is irrelevant. Religion continues to influence women’s status and gender through public policies and laws as well as political and social attitudes. But Islam is far from being the single or even the most significant factor. The collection of essays in this symposium, despite their different foci and methodologies, all look beyond Islam to highlight complex interactions among rational political actors who operate in varies economic, institutional, legal, cultural and historical contexts.

This symposium’s essays aim to shed light on recent developments in gender politics in the MENA region. The topics covered are impressively wide-ranging: Citizenship and women’s legal status, social movements, state policies and Islamists’ positions, political economy, political and social attitudes, and methodological discussions. The empirical evidence examined involves an equally impressive large list of countries, including Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Israel, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, and Algeria.

The first four essays explore the question of citizenship, broadly defined, and the legal status of women and sexuality. Lillian Frost raises the question as to why Jordan refuses to remove the discriminatory clause in its citizenship law that prevents women from passing their nationality onto their spouses and children. Frosts highlights the variation among the Arab countries when it comes to conferring nationality in law and argues that the state’s concern with migration and demography plays a critical role in this discrimination towards women. Lihi Ben Shitrit discusses how contemporary Israeli discussions of annexation of the West Bank revolve around preoccupation with the “Palestinian woman” seen through her reproductive functions. Shitrit demonstrates how these concerns are often framed as a “feminist” concern for Palestinian women’s rights and opportunities. Catherine Warrick investigates how the gendered legal system becomes another tool for the state in citizenship management and argues that these discriminatory clauses often trigger political activism and demands for reform, as demonstrated by the recent uprisings in the region. Shirin Saeidi moves beyond the concept of citizenship as an institution, and, rather, examines “self-acts of citizenship in different geographical spaces” by drawing on the self-immolations of two Iranian women. Saeidi notes that what these acts of citizenship symbolize is that the modern nation-state cannot respond to the current demands of citizenship and that we need to create a space where the vulnerable seek refuge and are respected.

Women’s political activism has experienced unusual dynamism over the last decade in many parts of the region. Erika Biagini and Paola Rivetti raise the question of how women are mobilized in contexts of authoritarianism and state violence. By discussing the feminist movements in Egypt and Iran, Biagini and Rivetti explain that these movements take advantage of informal spaces, which allow them to become invisible and hide until the conditions change.

State policies and Islamists’ positions towards women’s political and economic statuses are examined in the following two essays. By using the Moroccon case, Aili Mari Tripp asks why some autocratic leaders adopt women’s rights policies. Tripp argues that the leaders adopt these reforms under pressure from women’s rights activism. By doing so, Tripp continues, the leaders hope to seek two objectives: 1) present a modernizing image, externally, and 2) neutralize Islamist movements, internally. Tripp also notes that in a radical move, the Party of Justice and Development that has been in a coalition government since 2011, changed its position on women’s rights and supported the proposed reforms. My own essay on Turkey discusses how public policies under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule have created a “double-burden” for women by encouraging them to maintain their traditional roles at home and seek employment at the same time. I argue that as a result of these conservative views held by the top brass and the neoliberal policies, female employment is now more concentrated in low-paying, low-status type of jobs that provide no benefits or job security, which in turn increases women’s poverty levels and makes them vulnerable to clientelist relations. These two essays demonstrate, among others, that state policies and Islamist positions on women do change and evolve, at times in opposite and unexpected directions.

The next two essays explore political and social attitudes towards women’s economic participation and political representation. Marwa Shalaby examines the relationship between gender stereotypes and women’s political representation in MENA by using the case of Morocco. Shalaby demonstrates that voters view candidates from a gendered perspective and vote accordingly. Specifically, male policy and trait stereotypes play the most significant roles in affecting citizens’ decisions to support female candidates while female policy stereotypes also matter but to a lesser degree. Shalaby’s findings are consistent with extant work in more established democracies. Lindsay Benstead examines the relationship between women’s labor force participation and social attitudes, specifically, feminist views in society. Benstead’s empirical analysis is based on Arab Barometer data from six countries (Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Yemen). Benstead finds that while beliefs about the role of Shari’a law strongly predict whether an individual believes that women should have equality in the workplace, women interpret religious teachings in a more egalitarian way. Benstead’s essay ends with a positive note because it demonstrates that women’s employment play an important role because employed women and their husbands exhibit greater egalitarianism possibly paving the way for more egalitarian attitudes in the long run.

The last essay by Nermin Allam tackles the question of methodology. Allam makes a case for a community engaged research approach, which she argues provides great insights to researchers and also ensures positive outputs for communities. Community engaged research, which includes such methods as participant observation and interviews, unravels women’s diverse identities and positions and contributes to undermining biases against women as victims of an oppressive culture. As many of us take our research to online settings due to COVID-19 pandemic, Allam’s essay reiterates the value of this approach and reminds us of the necessity to pursue community engaged research during the pandemic albeit in a limited fashion.

Together, these contributions offer a glimpse of recent developments and provide provocative insights by looking beyond Islam to show the diverse and complex ways in which political context and human agency shape the status of women and gender politics in MENA.

Gamze Cavdar, Colorado State University, Gamze.Cavdar@colostate.edu