Mounira M. Charrad

Kinship, Islam, or Oil: Culprits of Gender Inequality?

Gender inequality in the Muslim world has become the object of high drama on the international scene. Ghostlike images of women wrapped in burqas and begging in the streets of Afghan cities swept television screens in the United States following 9/11. The number of articles on Muslim women in English newspapers has increased exponentially in the last few years. Although the popular press and the media continue to emphasize seclusion and subordination in their description of Muslim women, scholars have written extensively and persuasively to debunk the myth of the Muslim woman as a victim, passively suffering the subordination imposed on her. Starting in the 1970s and continuing to the present, a rich literature has argued that as elsewhere in the world, Muslim women have not only resisted subordination but have actively shaped their own destiny (e.g., work by Leila Ahmed [1992], Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt [2008, 2009], Elizabeth Fernea [1998], Nikki Keddie [2002, 2007, 2008], and Fatima Sadiqi and Moha Ennaji [forthcoming]).

Central and Local Patrimonialism State-Building in Kin-Based Societies

How useful is the concept of patrimonialism to analyze state formation and political dynamics in postcolonial nation-states? Using Tunisia, Morocco, and Iraq during critical periods of state-building following the end of colonial rule, the author considers this question. The purpose of the article is to build on Max Weber by exploring how patrimonialism operates in kin-based social contexts where power on the basis of kinship ties is exerted not only by a central authority but also by leaders of local communities organized along lines of real or fictive kinship—as was the case in the three countries in the period under examination. Suggesting that Weber undertheorized the way in which central authority relates to local collectivities in his analysis of patrimonialism, the author identifies three patterns in the strategies used by central power toward local patrimonial networks: marginalization, integration, and shifts between marginalization and integration. The article argues that central patrimonialism can be accommodated with all three strategies directed toward local patrimonialism.

CONTEXTS, CONCEPTS AND CONTENTIONS: GENDER LEGISLATION AS POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Debates over gender relevant legislation such as family law have led to serious conflict in many periods of Middle Eastern history, especially in recent times. One way to understand the intensity of the current debates is to recognize that gender issues raise fundamental questions about the relationship between individual and society and the role of states. In this article I argue that, in considering gender relevant legislation in the Middle East, we need to develop a framework that is different from the paradigms anchored in the politics of western liberal democracies in the U.S. and Western Europe. The frame of reference I propose is built upon the following propositions. (1) We should treat gender legislation in the Middle East as an inherently political matter that goes to the heart of the organization of power. Such a perspective opens up the possibility of considering the role of multiple and complex political processes including pressures from below by social movements and top down reforms. (2) We need to reformulate the concepts of tradition and modernity that have pervaded the study of gender in the Islamic world. Tradition and modernity as two distinct, well-defined cultural forms should be dropped altogether. Instead, the discourses of tradition and modernity should be taken as political constructs and the following question should be asked: who benefits from each discourse in given political contexts? (3) The role of kin-based solidarities should be considered in the nexus of conflicts and alliances that shape the process of state formation. The individualistic model of politics in western liberal democracies has limited value for the understanding of political processes in the historical development of the Middle East. The focus should be instead on the role of identities based in communities that define themselves in collective and ascriptive terms of common kinship.

Patrimonial capitalism and empire

There is today a new interest in empires past and present. Scholars seek fresh ways of understanding a form of power far older than the modern nation state. Others see empire, not long ago assumed to be a mode of governance on the way out, as having a surprising new lease on life, and want to better understand the reasons why. This volume focuses on the interconnected formations of patrimonialism, colonialism/empire and capitalism. Leading scholars analyze patrimonial politics in empires in regions throughout the world, including the United States, Latin America, China, South Africa, North Africa, West Africa, India, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The articles show that patrimonial practices, which often form the backbone of empire, are present throughout history, including in global capitalist modernity. This volume will appeal to students of politics, and to a multidisciplinary scholarly audience in political sociology; historical social science; history; social theory, and area studies.

Patrimonial states in early modern Europe and in the contemporary Era: Similarities?

The book focuses on the Netherlands as a distinctive case which, as the first hegemonic economic and political entity in Western Europe, sheds light on similar processes but different outcomes in France and England. The time periods considered are the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century when the Dutch established a position of world power through a global colonial system, and the decline of Dutch hegemony in the 18th century (although Adams is careful to point out that the timing of the decline is open to debate). The purpose of the book is at once historical and theoretical. It is to analyze Dutch ascendancy and decline in an effort to “build the foundation of a more adequate explanation of historical hegemonies, of varying patterns of state formation and collapse in early modern Europe (p. 12).” Accordingly, Adams treats the Netherlands in part as a “vehicle for tackling theoretical issues of the largest possible interest (p. 7).”

Constructing Citizenship: Gender and Changing Discourses in Tunisia

Citizenship means belonging to a community defined in political terms and nation-states have historically constituted the most relevant political community. A matter of inclusion and exclusion, citizenship can be understood as involving rights and obligations as codified in the laws and regulations of a country. It can also be seen in its more symbolic form in terms of how different categories of people in a given political community are represented in public discourse or in culturally significant national texts such as constitutions. This chapter uses a multifaceted conceptualization of citizenship that highlights its several dimensions. We show how different dimensions of “being a citizen” come to the fore in national politics in different political contexts. Taking the example of Tunisia, a small majority Muslim population country that stands out in the Arab world for its long history of legislation relatively favorable to women, we consider two critically important political contexts, postcolonial state formation in the 1950s and democratization in the Arab Spring revolution in 2011. We first show how the first national postcolonial state addressed issues of gendered citizenship in the 1950s in making reforms in rights in family law. We then consider how women themselves debated issues of representation in the drafting of a new constitution following the 2011 revolution. Our analysis demonstrates how gendered the discourse and debates on citizenship have been, regardless of the particular issues at stake.