History, Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East From Orientalism to the Arab Spring

This book is unrivaled as an undergraduate textbook dealing with the gendered transformations in the Middle East over the last two hundred years. Combining their depth of knowledge and experience of teaching undergraduates and drawing on recent scholarship, the authors provide a lucid, accessible, and judicious introduction to the diverse and dynamic history of women's lives in the modern Middle East. Thematically and geographically wide-ranging, the authors provide insightful and engrossing accounts of the various ways in which women from diverse backgrounds and contexts< ranging from royal women in the Ottoman empire to factory workers in Lebanon to political activists in the Arab Spring, have lived, worked, and contributed to the economic, cultural, and social life of their societies and the multifaceted ways in which women have experienced and negotiated major social and political transformations and upheavals. This is not only an essential book for undergraduate courses but a valuable resource for anyone interested in gender, the modern Middle East, and comparative history.

Nurten Kilic-Schubel, Associate Professor of History, Director of Asian and Middle East Studies Program, Kenyon College, USA