Gender in Islamic History

Undergraduate

This course is a historical study of gender in Islamic History, with special emphasis given to the modern Middle East and Afghanistan. We will examine the role of gender systems at different times and places in Islamic history through primary sources. Some themes of the course may be: 1) the ways in which discourses of gender were constructed in ways usually disadvantageous to women. Though careful attention must be paid to important differences in time and place; 2) The relationship of gender systems to other hierarchical social structures such as class, ethnicity and age; 3) women and mens’ roles in preserving and constructing the gender systems of their society; and 4) the ways in which women and men were able to exercise agency in overcoming or transcending limitations of the dominant discourses on gender.