Keddie, Nikki R. Women in the Limelight: Some Recent Books on Middle Eastern Women’s History. Int. J. Middle East Stud. 34 (2002), 553-573.
Nikki Keddie provides an extensive overview of books on Middle Eastern women’s history published since 1990. She claims that the most studied areas of Middle Eastern women’s history concern women and politics, ie. their position within and against the state via legislation of political rights and personal status. Studied to a lesser extent, but still studied, are ideologies of women, ranging from Islamist and conservative to liberal and leftist. Keddie claims that areas like sexuality, the most oppressive aspects of women’s treatment, and rural and tribal areas are sparsely covered due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter or the difficulty in covering the subject. She also addresses the need to cover recent legal changes all calls for a comprehensive book to compare and contextualize the changes in the legal situation in highly populated countries of the Middle East.
Devoting a relatively large space to the topic, Keddie writes of the effects of westernization. Iran was not officially colonized under the west, but is better described as being under “Western hegemony with colonialism as a subcategory” (554) As Western domination grew the secular, educated, upper class developed increasing ties to the West. This move towards westernization was not universal, and created a divide between the poorer “conservative” “Muslim” women and the wealthier “progressive” “secular” women. These class differences effectually meant that the earliest feminists were of the upper class. The popular-class people, in contrast, shied away from Western ways, associating them with the issues brought by Westernization. In Tehran specifically this divide may also be physical (as Pardis Mahdavi spoke of in Passionate Uprisings), with the Westernized secular elite living in the north end of the city and the more traditional Islamic families living in payin shahr.
Keddie links this divide in Middle Eastern women and culture to historians righting and Middle Eastern women’s history. In the last paragraph of her conclusion Keddie calls for analyses of women in the Middle East not to blame “relations with the west for every major problem” (570). Rather, she emphasizes the importance of studying women’s history as an aspect of the entire human history to achieve a better, “more holistic and comparative picture” (570). This point is crucial; to blame the west seems like an easy path that leads to superficial understanding. What is needed instead is full scale analysis, taking history, culture, religion, geography, economics, and a myriad of other factors into account. The status and history women in the Middle East, while affected by relations with the West and with Islam, is not solely affected by the west and Islam. Holistic analysis of the past is necessary for holistic understanding of the present and future.
Reflection
Keddie’s analysis of the divide in Middle Eastern culture that is rooted in westernization is something to keep in mind. Another question I can seek to answer is how one’s relationship and opinion towards westernization may affect their opinion of and participation in Iran’s birth-control/family planning program. As Keddie warned though, I must be mindful not to rely on westernization as a scapegoat and avoid oversimplified answers that do not give a whole and holistic view.
This article is one that will prove very useful in my future research, especially as a compass to better direct me towards pertinent references. One work likely valuable to pursue is Parvin Paidar’s Women and the Political Process in Twentieth Century Iran, particularly for its analysis of the class divide between the westernized upper class and the traditional popular-class. Unfortunately for my project however, Keddie writes that Paidar does not stress the advances in education, birth control and women’s health, as she emphasizes advancements based on feminist struggles as opposed to those brought by government social reform.
Keddie notes Homa Hoodfar’s work with volunteer female health workers working in the government women’s health program and these women’s work as social activists. If this is not one of the Hoodfar works I am already planning to read, this would be certainly be something to seek out and pursue.
