Project MUSE®: Journal of Middle East Women's Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Journal of Middle East Women's Studies.daily12026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (2005) through current issue
Latest Articles: Journal of Middle East Women's StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Journal of Middle East Women's Studies1558-95791552-5864Latest articles in Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Intellectual and Creative Paradigms: Syrian Women Resistance Approaches
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983903
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On the eleventh of January, 2011, violent clashes between Tunisian police and demonstrators protesting high unemployment and miserable living conditions spread through the suburbs of the city of Kasserine. After the revolution successfully toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian ruler of twenty-three years, Egyptians and Libyans were inspired by the notion of freedom and added two more dictators to the list of those overthrown. A wide wave of demonstrations, which came to be called the Arab Spring, surfaced in different Arab countries, with citizens demanding "dignity and bread," better living conditions, social services, and the ousting of governments. Regardless of where they were protesting, these
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallIntellectual and Creative Paradigms: Syrian Women Resistance Approaches2026-02-26text/htmlen-USIntellectual and Creative Paradigms: Syrian Women Resistance Approaches2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®753422026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Naturalizing Motherhood: Neoliberal Femininity and the Re-Traditionalization of Gender in Turkey
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983904
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Attitudes and behaviors around "ideal mothering" have been shifting significantly, specifically among urban, well-educated, middle- and upper-middleclass women in Turkey over the last decade. It has become more and more commonplace to opt for long-term breastfeeding, organic nutrition, clean/organic household products, homeopathic care, and so on. A niche and quite unaffordable market started spreading along with an ideology of naturalist mothering. This increasing interest in eco-conscious or "clean" living, distancing from conventional medicine, or moving toward more "natural" practices, in general, became even more visible through the consciously motivated efforts of these affluent mothers. Since they not only
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallNaturalizing Motherhood: Neoliberal Femininity and the Re-Traditionalization of Gender in Turkey2026-02-26text/htmlen-USNaturalizing Motherhood: Neoliberal Femininity and the Re-Traditionalization of Gender in Turkey2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®1110972026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Between Patriarchal Intimacy and Sovereign Violence: Male Circumcision in Turkey
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983905
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In Turkey, three rites of passage play a crucial role in men's lives: male circumcision, compulsory military service, and marriage (Açıksöz 2019; Başaran 2014; Altinay 2004; Sirman 2005).1 These consecutive rites, rooted in nationalist, heteronormative, and patriarchal ideologies, enable (some) men to embody the ideal Turkish masculinity: a middle-class, heterosexual, (Sunni) Muslim, able-bodied man who is obedient to state authority. By completing these rites of passage, such men can, at least theoretically, claim the full subjecthood denied to others (for instance, women and men with disabilities) and represent their families in public as free and equal heads of households.Unlike the other two rites, male
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallBetween Patriarchal Intimacy and Sovereign Violence: Male Circumcision in Turkey2026-02-26text/htmlen-USBetween Patriarchal Intimacy and Sovereign Violence: Male Circumcision in Turkey2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®915792026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Djinn as the "Embodiment of Knowledge": Revisiting the Politics of Memory and (His)toriography in Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983906
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Shafak, as a writer of Turkish origin, is known for tapping into the vocabularies and perceptions made available by the social and cultural transformation of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish historical fiction has played a crucial role in the formation of the modern Turkish nation's collective consciousness (Yikik 2022). In the same light, by rummaging through the zones of existence that have been hitherto buried under the dust, Shafak aims to reshape modern Turks' understanding of their past. Shafak (2019) asserts that in a wounded democracy like Turkey, the art of storytelling needs to "ask questions" by bringing the "periphery to the center, making the invisible more visible." The relevance of these "questions"
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallDjinn as the "Embodiment of Knowledge": Revisiting the Politics of Memory and (His)toriography in Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul2026-02-26text/htmlen-USDjinn as the "Embodiment of Knowledge": Revisiting the Politics of Memory and (His)toriography in Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®851932026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26A First Glance at the Woman in the Mirror: Representations of Women in Advice Literature for Rulers
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983907
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To let small offenses go unpunished is to invite grave ones. A woman's dishonesty starts with a word that is gently addressed to her, and the rebelliousness of a horse begins with the first wrong turn that one forgives.In reality, the king is the shepherd of [his] women (rāʿī-al-ḥuram).Together, these two sayings from the tradition of premodern Islamic advice literature for rulers succinctly encapsulate the framing of interactions with women in this genre. Women are likened to unruly cattle who must be disciplined and shepherded by men. Additionally, the allusion to the allegory of the pastoral ruler, which had been circulating throughout the region since antiquity, describes the ruler's dealings with his wives and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallA First Glance at the Woman in the Mirror: Representations of Women in Advice Literature for Rulers2026-02-26text/htmlen-USA First Glance at the Woman in the Mirror: Representations of Women in Advice Literature for Rulers2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®1107602026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26The Future Is Feminist: Women and Social Change in Interwar Algeria by Sara Rahnama (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983908
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What is the landscape of feminist possibility under settler colonialism in the absence of a woman-led movement for women's rights? This fascinating question animates Sara Rahnama's new and groundbreaking history of interwar Algeria. The Future Is Feminist traces debates about women and gender in the French and Arabic Algerian press between the 1920s and 1950s, placing these discussions firmly in their local, regional, and global contexts. Working across languages, communities, and social divides, Rahnama shows how questions of women and gender became central to different visions of Algeria's future, including but not limited to the anticolonial nationalism that would drive the Algerian War of Independence after
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallThe Future Is Feminist: Women and Social Change in Interwar Algeria by Sara Rahnama (review)2026-02-26text/htmlen-USThe Future Is Feminist: Women and Social Change in Interwar Algeria by Sara Rahnama (review)2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®119312026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey by Oyman Başaran (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983909
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Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey is an ethnographic and historical investigation into the medicalization of male circumcision in Turkey, focusing on three distinct groups of practitioners: nonprofessional itinerant circumcisers, low-ranking public health workers, and medical doctors. By examining the developmentalist era (1960s–1980s) and the neoliberal era (1980s–present), Oyman Başaran skillfully demonstrates not only the transformation of circumcision techniques and the roles of circumcisers but also how the medicalization of male circumcision intersects with state-building, market formation, and class inequalities. The book illustrates that male circumcision is neither a mere surgical procedure nor a
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallCircumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey by Oyman Başaran (review)2026-02-26text/htmlen-USCircumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey by Oyman Başaran (review)2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®88392026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon by Maya Mikdashi (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983910
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In her book, Maya Mikdashi proposes a new theoretical framework, sextarianism, to understand how sex and sexual difference complicate the already convoluted relationship between sect, secularism, and power in Lebanon. She defines sextarianism as "how sex, sexuality, and sect structure legal bureaucratic systems, as well as how citizenship and statecraft are performed at the mutually constitutive intersections and suffusions between sex and sect" (2). To give a full picture of the Lebanese state and how power functions within it, she also introduces the companion concepts of "evangelical secularism" and "epidermal state"; the former refers to secularism's capacity to attract people into its fold, while the latter
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallSextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon by Maya Mikdashi (review)2026-02-26text/htmlen-USSextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon by Maya Mikdashi (review)2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®81492026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Islamic Divorce in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Perspective ed. by Erin E. Stiles and Ayang Utriza Yakin (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983911
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The volume Islamic Divorce in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Perspective, edited by Erin E. Stiles and Ayang Utriza Yakin, explores the ways in which state officials, religious authorities, and laypersons in varying settings creatively navigate the legal terrain in their pursuit or arbitration of divorce within a rapidly changing global context. This collection of case studies on divorce engages with the recent literature highlighting the flexibility of Islamic law (Messick 1993; Bowen 1998; Tucker 1998; Peirce 2003; Osanloo 2009), showing how Islamic legal practices are shaped by and respond to global and local politics, kinship structures, and societal norms, as well as the global discourse on rights, gender
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallIslamic Divorce in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Perspective ed. by Erin E. Stiles and Ayang Utriza Yakin (review)2026-02-26text/htmlen-USIslamic Divorce in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Perspective ed. by Erin E. Stiles and Ayang Utriza Yakin (review)2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®142442026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Cover Art Concept
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983912
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Sara Khayat is a feminist graphic designer, illustrator, and visual artist from Syria. Born in Damascus, she studied graphic design at the International University for Science and Technology (IUST Syria), in the city of Ghabagheb. Her work centers women's and LGBTQI+issues, refugees, and themes related to political oppression, forced disappearance in Syrian prisons, and children in devastated areas in Syria. She fights for these causes and explores her own identity through her art and the visual documentation of memories. Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Khayat has worked on documenting human rights violations by all parties involved in the conflict and the oral histories of women detained by
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallCover Art Concept2026-02-26text/htmlen-USCover Art Concept2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®44412026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Introduction to Forum: Questioning and Reframing Feminist Solidarity in the Time of Genocide in Gaza
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983913
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As we finish editing this issue of "Third Space," Israel's terror campaign not only in Gaza but across the entirety of the Occupied Palestinian Territories—and Lebanon and Syria as well—continues. While the official, confirmed death count in Gaza as of the time of writing is 43,391, as reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health (which does not include 732 in the West Bank and about 1,000 in Israel) (OHCA 2024), we also know that this number significantly underestimates the true number of dead, as it does not take into consideration the likely 10,000 or more still buried under the rubble of decimated buildings, as well as those killed by indirect health conditions caused by the "war" (such as communicable diseases and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallIntroduction to Forum: Questioning and Reframing Feminist Solidarity in the Time of Genocide in Gaza2026-02-26text/htmlen-USIntroduction to Forum: Questioning and Reframing Feminist Solidarity in the Time of Genocide in Gaza2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®128632026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26The Genocide in Gaza and the Selective Plot of Women's Rights Solidarity
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983914
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At a time when the voices of the oppressed are intentionally silenced, your solidarity serves as a beacon of hope. Your actions are a resounding message that injustice and oppression will not be tolerated. … We draw inspiration from the courage of those who refuse and resist the continuing injustices of settler colonialism and military occupation.The linkage between the imperialist notions of "the woman's question" as it circulates across borders and converges with various forms of nationalism and universalism has been studied by feminist scholars. However, the convergence of feminism, Zionism, and imperialism needs to be interrogated. The intersection of imperialist and Zionist feminism that is complicit with the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallThe Genocide in Gaza and the Selective Plot of Women's Rights Solidarity2026-02-26text/htmlen-USThe Genocide in Gaza and the Selective Plot of Women's Rights Solidarity2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®423282026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Solidarity as Life-Giving Affect
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983915
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The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.A parent, a relative, a friend, a neighbor, standing with arms folded in funerary prayer. A parent, a relative, arms wrapped around a ricebag full of a body, bones, parts of a loved, loving being-spirit-once enlivened. A parent, a relative stretched on the fresh soil … of a grave. A parent, a relative burning incense on a grave with a portrait on the headstone looking on.Sitting-standing-lying down-sleeping-not sleeping-speaking-not speaking in solidarity here in North America and here in Palestine and the South Caucasus and beyond. Not
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallSolidarity as Life-Giving Affect2026-02-26text/htmlen-USSolidarity as Life-Giving Affect2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®193502026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26Stitching Armenian Imagination: Processing Grief to Find Solidarity
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983916
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Imagine: seventeen months before Russia invades Ukraine in February 2022, a country attacks its smaller, less powerful neighbors over a disputed region of land, bombing women, children, and the elderly with cluster munitions and white phosphorus, eventually displacing thirty thousand civilians from their ancestral, mountainous piece of homeland.Imagine being a member of the smaller country's diaspora living in the US, your family recovering from genocide for three generations, watching from afar. Imagine photos of villagers packing up their belongings on trucks, leaving behind homes made of stone, gardens enclosed behind walls, and loved ones buried in nearby cemeteries. Imagine the aerial image of a line of cars
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-13T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/329/image/coversmallStitching Armenian Imagination: Processing Grief to Find Solidarity2026-02-26text/htmlen-USStitching Armenian Imagination: Processing Grief to Find Solidarity2026-02-262026TWOProject MUSE®172992026-05-13T00:00:00-05:002026-02-26