History 296ME - Wom./Gender in the Middle East

This course is designed to provide students with a nuanced historical understanding of issues related to women and gender in the region defined as the area from Morocco to Iran. After an introduction to the main themes and approaches in the study of women and gender, we will examine the development of discourses on gender and the lived experiences of women from the rise of Islam, through the Ottoman Empire, and up to the twentieth century. Topics: the politics of marriage, divorce, and reproduction; women's political and economic participation; Islamist movements; the new field of masculinity studies; and the highly contested topics of homosexuality and transsexuality in the Middle East.