Gender in the Mediterranean

Gender

Leila Ahmed's 1992 book Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate is divided into three parts. One is devoted to the pre-Islamic Middle East including Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. This background section provides an historical and cultural context that is often omitted from discourse on gender and Islam. The second section of Women and Gender in Islam is on the founding discourses, and encompasses the period from the beginning and Muhammad to the Medieval era of Islam and its spread throughout the Mediterranean world. The last part of Ahmed's book is entitled "New Discourses," and it bridges the gaps between past and future, and between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. Ahmed's thesis in Women and Gender in Islam is multifaceted. The author suggests that the multiple and heterogeneous discourses on the subject of gender in Islam must be taken into consideration of their cultural and historical contexts. Moreover, Ahmed presents the scope of gender and Islam within a broader political context. The author affirms that gender raises "complicated questions" and that the history of women in Islam is more "kaleidoscopic" than straightforward (Ahmed, 1992, p. 4-5).

Much of Women and Gender in Islam is exploratory in nature, but the arguments are substantiated with fact and scholarly research. One of the elements of support lending credence to Ahmed's argument is that Islam, like Christianity, borrowed from and blended with the "earlier and adjoining societies" it would later influence (Ahmed, 1992, p. 5). Thus, elements of gender demarcation like the veil cannot be considered as a strictly Muslim phenomenon but should be considered in light of the pre-Muslim societies that promoted gender segregation via the use of the veil. The author then draws upon primary source material ranging from the Quran to the codified laws of Muslim societies until the medieval era throughout the second part of Women and Gender in Islam.

The author uses primary sources whenever possible. When discussing most of the pre-Islamic societies for their political, historical, and cultural contexts, the author relies on secondary sources or translations of primary source material such as Hammurabi's Code. The author uses primary sources for the second and third parts of the book, in addition to a cornucopia of secondary sources. Ahmed's background enables a rich evaluation of both primary and secondary source material.

In terms of methodology, use of evidence, framework or theory the author employs, Ahmed carves out a unique path for Muslim feminism. The author frames patriarchy as a political issue from the opening of the book, as Ahmed notes that women were held in high esteem in most societies prior to urbanization. The competition for male labor may have led to the theft of women by warring tribes. As warrior tribes kidnapped and raped women, women became increasingly viewed as a form of political, social, cultural, and economic property. Urbanization led to an even more severe form of patriarchy, and gradually sexism became entrenched and institutionalized in multiple societies around the world. Islam then borrowed heavily from the cultures that preceded it. Ahmed uses primary and secondary sources to substantiate the claims, weaving those claims together to form a complex but accessible discursive tapestry.

Ahmed is generally successful in Women and Gender in Islam. She fails to mention a few details related to gender in Mediterranean Islamic societies. For example, Berkey points out that female circumcision is a core component of any discourse on the gender in Islam but that a "silence affects the scholarly discussion of ritual female excision," (p. 19).

Although Ahmed's book could have been bolstered also by more detail, Women and Gender in Islam is a successful work of scholarship. The discussion of the veil is comprehensive and fits in well with other research on how the veil manifests in the cultures of the Mediterranen. For example, Bass and Wunder discuss veils in early modern Spain and the influence of Islam there. Like Ahmed, Bass and Wunder discuss the veil in terms of its political and social context. These discussions also touch on the symbolic aspects of veiling, and how the veil corresponds to that which is hidden or silenced.