2023/2024

Women in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Type: Optional course (faculty)

Delivered by: Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies

When: 3 module

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Mozhgan Samadi

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Contact hours: 36

Course Syllabus

Abstract

"The course about women in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is designed for one module (four lectures and three seminar sessions). The course starts with an academic survey of the MENA cultures and Islam as a religion. It then continues with identifying interactions and contradictions between patriarchy and Islam in this region, as the background material of the course. In so doing, it focuses on women’s movements in the Middle East and North Africa. The course concludes with a lecture studying the representations of women in contemporary MENA art, including cinema and literature. Students will be introduced to the use of a range of the most up-to-date international sources relating to the study of women in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa, including reference and survey works, studies of subjects, and internet resources. Students will be able to answer the following two principal questions by the end of the course: “How has the situation of women in the MENA been changing throughout the modern age?” and “In what senses (if any at all) and to what extent the situation of Middle Eastern women distinctive and exceptional?” The key objectives of these courses are to lay the foundations for a deeper study of the Middle East and North Africa while facilitating acquisition of intellectual and personal transferable skills."