Analysing Women's Movements

Women's movements, understood as variant forms of collective action in pursuit of common goals, have been analysed in both feminist political theory and development studies. This article aims to combine these two discussions to provide a theoretical account of the emergence and character of such movements through the identification of three different forms of collective action, termed ‘independent’, ‘associative’ and ‘directed’. The article considers the relation of such movements to projects of general political import, be these of an authoritarian or democratic character, and returns to the debate over the usefulness or otherwise of conceptualizing women's interests. It concludes with an assessment of the place of women's movements in the contemporary politics of citizenship.     

欧洲中世纪后期的异端运动与妇女权利

在中世纪基督教异端研究中,妇女问题一直是西方史学家关注的重要问题。本文通过对贝居因派、古列尔迈派、卡特里派、韦尔多派和罗拉德派这五个10世纪以后欧洲比较重要的大众异端派别中女性权利的总结和分析,指出她们享有大致与男性相等的宗教权利和自由,即效仿基督贫穷的权利、完成部分圣礼的权利、接受平等宗教和文化教育的权利。虽然在实践中,由于传统性别观念的影响,她们的权利实践或多或少受到限制,但她们依然获得了比天主教妇女更大的权利和自由,打破了传统社会对女性的限制和禁忌,获得了一定的发言权。尤其是贝居因派和古列尔迈派的妇女表现出的强烈的女性意识,被认为是妇女争取平等权利的榜样,对后世女性主义的发展具有借鉴意义。     

War and Diplomacy in the Middle East

Book reviewed in this article: The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989–1992, James A. Baker, III, with Thomas M. DeFrank The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait: Saddam Hussein, his state and International Power Politics, Mussallam Ali Musallam     

A Matter of Framing: Explaining the Failure of Post‐Islamist Social Movements in the Arab Spring

Shortly after the Arab Spring began in 2010, multiple scholars noted that the dominant discursive trend present within these protests was that of post‐Islamism. Post‐Islamism is broadly defined as an ideology seeking to establish a democratic state within a distinctly Islamic society. Despite the presence of post‐Islamist opportunity structures, social movements embodying post‐Islamist principles have had little success consolidating power. The theoretical argument presented here is that the failure of these movements is the result of inherent flaws within post‐Islamist frames. Specifically, this study posits that unlike traditional Islamist frames (i.e., frames emphasizing the creation of a state governed by Shari‘a) post‐Islamist frames limit the ability of movements’ to monopolize religion as a cultural asset. As such, when post‐Islamist movements face political challenges during contentious periods they cannot rely on nontemporal legitimacy to retain power. Additionally, the challenging task of integrating Islamic and democratic frames in contentious moments renders post‐Islamist movements susceptible to counterframing. The preceding claims will be tested through a comparative analysis of the Iranian Hierocracy (1977–1979), and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (2011–2014). Comparing the experiences of a post‐Islamist movement (Brotherhood) with that of an Islamist movement (Hierocracy) will explicate the flaws within post‐Islamist frames.     

The Superpowers in the Middle East

RAMI GINAT. The Soviet Union and Egypt, 1945–1955. London: Frank Cass, dist. Portland, OR: ISBS, 1993. Pp. xii, 268. $45.00 (US);

ABRAHAM BEN-ZVL The United States and Israel: The Limits of the Special Relationship. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Pp. xi, 312. $35.00 (US).     

Gender and feminist geographies in the Middle East

This article aimed to review the research carried out in the Middle East primarily on gender and feminist geography and also on place formation, urban space, movement and mobility in the social and political sciences. This aim turned out to be challenging primarily because of the colonial and post-colonial history of the region that continues to have a profound effect on the development of academic knowledge among Middle Eastern scholars as well as a restricted accessibility to material published inside the Middle East. Despite this, the article primarily focuses on feminist research on Middle Eastern women done by Middle Eastern scholars and published in Middle Eastern journals and books primarily in Arabic (and Hebrew in Israel). However, during the process of reviewing a large variety of articles, book chapters and books that exist on Middle Eastern women, we realized that it is sometimes difficult and rather artificial to review the material with only this division in mind. In the end, we reviewed the literature on gender and feminism in the Middle East mainly highlighting local published research and also briefly referring to research published in the West by both Westerners and local researchers. The article begins with presenting its research methodology. It then analyzes the website and literature review that we carried out on the contexts, frameworks and themes of gender and feminist geography and spatial research in the Middle East with particular attention on the research carried out in Israel/Palestine. We focus on the private–public spheres; migration and diaspora and the veil as key concepts in analyzing the literature in this section. In the last section, we explain the reasons for the limitations on gender and feminist research in geography inside the Middle East and mention some general conclusions.