Course: GWS 420. Women and Gender in Islamic Societies (3)
This interdisciplinary and cross-cultural course explores how religious authorities, and scriptural and legal sources have contributed to the status and legal rights of women and to the construction of theories, laws and practices concerning gender roles and sexuality in the Islamic tradition. Students study how these constructed gender roles, sexual norms and attitudes have reflected, resisted or changed in response to modern cultural, social, economic and political changes. The course examines how Muslim women themselves have sought to articulate and define their roles and identities. What has been the impact of modernity, modernization, colonialism, nationalism, democratization and globalization, especially the global feminist movements, on the status of Muslim women and gender relations? What is the impact of the recent waves of Islamist movements (“fundamentalism”), the identity politics, and politics of the veil on women and the gender arrangement in Muslim societies? Available for graduate credit.