HIST136

Description

How have categories of sexuality and gender been defined, maintained, and/or contested in Muslim societies? This course will survey debates concerning prescribed gender roles, (trans)gendered bodies, intimacy, and illicit sexuality in classical and modern Islamic legal writings. This close study of gender and sexuality begins in the early Islamic period with primary texts about the Prophet Muhammad and his female companions. Gender roles and sexuality found in legal, medical, and sexual advice manuals are also included in the survey. Students will learn how modern veiling debates in both the Middle East and France have taken shape in light of the emergence of Arab feminism, Muslim women's responses to Islamic conservatism, and immigration debates in Europe. Finally, we will explore how Muslim women's oppression was historically instrumentalized by imperialism and, more recently, centered during the US war on terror. The format will be a combination of lecture and discussion. Materials for the course are scholarly monographs, articles, primary source documents, films, and art. Assignments will be comprised of short papers and a final iterative paper project.