Arab Feminism in Periods of Transition | Marilyn Booth & Nova Robinson

E335 | In this episode, we uncover histories of feminist writing and activism in the Modern Middle East, asking how women's textual production and activism changed over the twentieth century and looking at new directions in research on the history of women and feminism in the region. In the first half of the episode, Marilyn Booth introduces us to feminist writer and biographer Zeinab Fawwaz, who transformed women's writing in 1890s Egypt. We show how central questions of gender, marriage, and girls' education were to discussions about society and nation after the British occupation of Egypt in 1882 and through the first decades of the twentieth century. In the second half of the episode, Nova Robinson discusses her research on Nour Hammada, a women's activist from interwar Lebanon who argued for an "Eastern" or "Arab" women's rights framework. At the end, we come together to think about the new avenues of inquiry shaping Middle East history and the history of women and gender in the region. More at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2017/10/arab-feminists.html Marilyn Booth is the Khalid bin Abdullah al-Saud Professor in the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at Oxford University. She is a well-known translator and author of many works, most recently Classes of Ladies of Cloistered Spaces: Writing Feminist History through Biography in Fin-de-Siècle Egypt, out from Edinburgh University Press in 2015. Nova Robinson is an Assistant Professor of History and International Studies at Seattle University. Her research is situated at the intersection of women's history, Middle Eastern history, and the history of international governance. She is presently working on her manuscript, "Truly Sisters": Syrian and Lebanese Women's Transnational Activist Networks, 1910-1955. Recent articles have been published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies and the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. Seçil Yilmaz received her PhD degree in History from the Graduate Center, CUNY with her dissertation entitled "Love in the Time of Syphilis: Medicine and Sex in the Ottoman Empire, 1860-1922." She is currently a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the Society for the Humanities and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. Susanna Ferguson is a Ph.D. Candidate in Middle Eastern History at Columbia University. She is currently working on a dissertation entitled "Tracing Tarbiya: Women, Gender and Childrearing in Egypt and Lebanon, 1865-1939." Episode No. 335 Release Date: 8 October 2017 Recording Location: Hofstra University Audio editing by Chris Gratien Music: from archive.org - Katibim (Uskudar'a Gider iken) - Safiye Ayla; Baglamamin Dugumu - Necmiye Ararat and Muzaffer; from Excavated Shellac - Munira al-Mahdiyya – Aldahre Kataâ Awsali Bibliography courtesy of Nova Robinson and Susanna Ferguson available at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2017/10/arab-feminists.html