When women took to the streets during the mass protests of the Arab Spring, the subject of feminism in the Middle East and North Africa returned to the international spotlight. In the subsequent years, countless commentators treated the region’s gender inequality as a consequence of fundamentally cultural or religious problems. In so doing, they overlooked the specifically political nature of these women’s activism. Moving beyond such culturalist accounts, this book turns to the relations of power in regional and international politics to understand women’s struggles for their rights. Based on over a hundred extensive personal narratives from women of different generations in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, Nicola Pratt traces women’s activism from national independence through to the Arab uprisings, arguing that activist women are critical geopolitical actors. Weaving together these personal accounts with the ongoing legacies of colonialism, Embodying Geopolitics demonstrates how the production and regulation of gender is integrally bound up with the exercise and organization of geopolitical power, with consequences for women’s activism and its effects.

This much-needed book explores Arab women's share in employment and their contribution to national economic development. It documents the patterns and trends of female employment and highlights the determinants of labour force participation in a number of countries.

A powerful and essential anthology that sheds light on the status of women throughout the world Hailed by Alice Walker as “one of the most important human documents of the century,” this collection of groundbreaking essays examines the global status of women’s experiences, from oppression to persecution. Originally published in 1984, the compilation features pieces written by a diverse set of powerful women—journalists, politicians, grassroots activists, and scholars—from seventy countries. Author Robin Morgan, a champion of women’s rights herself, expertly weaves these inspiring essays into one comprehensive feminist text. These compelling “herstories” contain thoroughly researched statistics on the status of women throughout the world. Each chapter focuses on a different country and includes data on education, government, marriage, motherhood, prostitution, rape, sexual harassment, and sexual preference. Sisterhood Is Global transcends political systems and geographical boundaries to unite women and their experiences in a way that remains unequalled, even decades after its first publication.

This annotated guide of English-language material on education in the Arab world includes books, journal articles, national and international reports and documents and Ph.D. dissertations. The author opens with an introductory essay on the development of education in the Arab Gulf states and an analysis of current issues in educational research. Chapters cover the social context of education; educational systems and structures; country reports on educational developments between 1950 and 1980; religion and education; education at the pre-college level; and higher education with special attention to systems and institutions, curriculum and evaluation, management, students in national and foreign universities, research, sciences, and technology. The book also examines women's education; teachers and teacher education; educational planning; manpower and education; educational guidance and counseling; special education; literacy and adult education; and educational media and instructional technology. Author and subject indexes are provided.

Bringing together some of the leading names in comparative and international education, this second edition provides new perspectives on the dynamic interplay of global, national and local forces as they shape education systems in specific contexts.

Family remains the most powerful social idiom and one of the most powerful social structures throughout the Arab world. To engender love of nation among its citizens, national movements portray the nation as a family. To motivate loyalty, political leaders frame themselves as fathers, mothers, brothers, or sisters to their clients, parties, or the citizenry. To stimulate production, economic actors evoke the sense of duty and mutual commitment of family obligation. To sanctify their edicts, clerics wrap religion in the moralities of family and family in the moralities of religion. Social and political movements, from the most secular to the most religious, pull on the tender strings of family love to recruit and bind their members to each other. To call someone family is to offer them almost the highest possible intimacy, loyalty, rights, reciprocities, and dignity. In recognizing the significance of the concept of family, this state-of-the-art literature review captures the major theories, methods, and case studies carried out on Arab families over the past century. The book offers a country-by-country critical assessment of the available scholarship on Arab families. Sixteen chapters focus on specific countries or groups of countries; seven chapters offer examinations of the literature on key topical issues. Joseph’s volume provides an indispensable resource to researchers and students, and advances Arab family studies as a critical independent field of scholarship.