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Mirroring the myriad confused cultural endeavors surfacing since the fall of the Soviet Union, filmic images of Central Asian women defy easy categorization. The mother figure, the prostitute, and the veiled recluse coexist in discord as Central Asian filmmakers search for their own historical and cultural identities between Islam and post-socialist postmodernism. Typical of Soviet attitudes toward equal gender participation in the workforce, efforts were made during the burgeoning Central Asian film industry of the 1960s and 1970s to convey mode…

Introduction In the 1960s and 1970s, second-wave white feminist activism in the Global North focused on contraceptive access as a way to establish women’s rights over their bodies and sexualities (Heise 1993). While this has remained an important strategy for many European and American feminists, for most Bangladeshi women, in particular impoverished women, access to contraceptives has not led to greater freedom and rights (Parvin 2016). Instead, during the late twentieth century, large numbers o…

The nations in the South Asian region, a region which exhibits a striking cultural and civilizational continuity across national boundaries, emerged in the process of modernization, a consequence of imperialism and colonization. Though their history indicates vibrant scientific traditions, modern science mainly came to these nations through colonial encounters or through contact with the West. These encounters largely led to the marginalization of traditional systems of knowledge, though they d…

Introduction This essay surveys the impact that European imperialism exerted upon knowledge about women in Islamic cultures from the eighteenth century to the eve of the First World War. The two major colonial powers, Great Britain and France, are its primary focus, although others are considered for comparative purposes. Since more scholarship currently exists on women in the British Empire than for other colonial powers, that empire receives relatively greater attention. It is hoped that this e…

Marriage is central to social life and religious practice for Muslims throughout the Islamic world as well as in the United States. Given the considerable diversity of the American Muslim population – composed of first- and second-generation immigrants of many different nationalities, long-established Arab and African American Muslim communities, and converts to Islam – it is not surprising that there is a range of marriage practices among Muslims in the United States. Indeed, marriage-making ma…

The development of women's higher education Southeast Europe was dependent on a number of factors. One issue was that the female population in Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, and Greece was smaller than the male population at the start of the twentieth century, and only during the 1920s did they become equal. Another factor was that matrimony curbed women's education. Marriage was virtually mandatory for both Balkan Christian and Muslim women who married early, by the age of 25, and they gave birth to many children, starting as early as during the first year of marriage. Continuing patriarcha…

Introduction: The Film Industry in Pakistan Out of an average of about 240 films produced annually in British India (Figure 1) (1931-1948) in studios in Bombay, Calcutta, Poona, and Madras, even through the Second World War (1939-1944) and right up to Partition (1947), Lahore contributed about half a dozen full-length romantic musicals (MPSI et al. 1949, 1–79, Malik 1963, 5–8). The violence and migration of Partition, however, changed the scene. Pakistan did not release any films in 1947 because Lahor…

Marriage in Afghanistan is still predominantly a matter of family negotiation, especially for first marriages. Although child marriage is officially illegal, child or infant engagement by parents still occurs, especially in rural settings and traditionally educated families. Even between adults, initial negotiation is usually by women with other women. Two or three women, usually from the groom's side, visit a girl's family to suggest the match (the reverse approach happens occasionally, but is …

For Dr. Mine Ener In the seven hundred years of the Ottoman Empire, the health care standard shifted from a decentralized Islamic model based on elite scholarship, autonomous endowed clinics and hospitals, and local traditional practitioners, to one in which state centralization and social regulation played an increasingly important role in the health care options of poor women and their children. The main implications for poor women's health care were not dramatic changes in access to or qual…

In Turkey several large-scale repatriation programs have been organized, after crises have subsided, by the Turkish government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and other relevant organizations, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Human Resource Development Foundation (HRDF), and the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC). Specific examples of repatriation programs include the repatriation of Bosnians and Kosovars in the late …

Informal settlements, called gecekondus (meaning “built overnight”), have appeared on the Turkish scene since the 1950s as the result of rapid urbanization. In the attempts to modernize and incorporate society into the global capitalist economy, the agricultural sector was mechanized to produce for the market by the support of the Marshall Plan; highways were built, and industrialization, although limited, grew in big cities, resulting in mass migration from villages to cities. Predictably, the cit…

Representations: Proverbs, Adages, and Riddles: Egypt and Sudan Representations: Proverbs, Adages, and Riddles: Gulf Representations: Proverbs, Adages, and Riddles: Iran Representations: Proverbs, Adages, and Riddles: North Africa Representations: Proverbs, Adages, and Riddles: Ottoman Empire Representations: Proverbs, Adages, and Riddles: Turkey and the Caucasus Representations: Proverbs, Adages, and Riddles: Yemen

The gendered division of labor within the family in societies in Sub-Saharan Africa is a consequence of the particular historical conditions under which family structures emerge and the ways in which family relations are constantly renegotiated. Islam Islam is practiced today by the majority of men and women in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Gambia, Guinea, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, and the Comoro Islands. Additionally, Islam is an important minority religion in the East African countries such as Kenya and in the …

Introduction This article explores the roots of the Malaysian Domestic Violence Act 1994 (DVA). It traces the many ways in which the courts conceived of and defined marital violence. Legal judgments in the Sharia and civil systems reveal that Muslim and non-Muslim women were treated differently when they sought justice against their abusers in court. This inconsistent and inappropriate implementation of justice formed the basis for much gender angst and unity. By the mid-1990s, domestic violence …

Customary law in Afghanistan needs to be understood in the context of the semi-autonomous segregated societies that have made up the Afghan landscape. These are self-defined by ethnicity or geographical location/boundaries. As the practice of customary law can be an identifying marker of a geographical group or ethnicity, legislation in the case of Afghan customary law needs to be understood outside the more common state-bound usage. Legislation occurs where adjudication takes place by the p…

Introduction Pakistan has a long history of labor migration. Women make up a large part of internal migrants, including rural to rural, rural to urban, and urban to urban migration. While many migrate for marriage, some relocate to find better work opportunities. Although Pakistan’s transnational labor force is predominantly male, labor migration has an impact on the lives of the women left behind. The absence of men and the increase in disposable income due to remittances change women’s interaction with the work force and the way they …

When the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923, the state, although entirely paternalistic, nonetheless supported women's participation in social life as a symbol of modernization. After the transition to a multi-party system in 1946, this symbolic place of woman lost its importance. However, limited union and social security rights were recognized in this period. With the constitution of 1961, the attribute “social” was added to other attributes of the state, and social and economic rights were recognized; but the state failed to pass …

Egypt is one of the largest recipients of foreign aid in the world and the second largest recipient of aid from USAID (United States Agency for International Development) in the world (after Israel) – the largest, in fact, if military aid is excluded. Furthermore, foreign funding is expected to be directed to the cause of women's empowerment from 2005 onwards, as part of the Greater Middle East Partnership Initiative, since Egypt is one of its targeted recipients. In addition to contrib…

An examination of theater in Bangladesh must be located in the geographic and socioeconomic context. This may be briefly stated thus: officially known as the People's Republic of Bangladesh, the country extends over 147, 570 square kilometers of territory, nudged at the tip of the Bay of Bengal, with the eastern part of India enclosing it on three sides. The country is a flat alluvial plain dissected by numerous rivers, and the labor and culture are predominantly intertwined with agriculture. Mo…

Zabarma people Childhood: Coming of Age Rituals: Sub-Saharan Africa zabbalīn (“rag pickers”) Environment: Change and Natural Resource Extraction: Egypt Ẓahirī school of law Sexualities and Queer Studies zajal poetry Andalusian Literature: 9th to 15th Century zakat (alms giving), hadiths on Representations: Cultural Heritage: North America zakat (Islamic charity), in United States Public Spaces and Gender: Sport and Activism: United States zakat funds in Indonesia Economics: Islamic Banks: Indonesia in Pakistan Laboring Practices: Pakistan zakāt Political-Social Move…