Arab and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, and Belonging

by Rabab Abdulhadi (Editor), Evelyn Asultany (Editor), Nadine Naber (Editor)

Overview

In this collection, Arab and Arab American feminists enlist their intimate experiences to challenge simplistic and long-held assumptions about gender, sexuality, and commitments to feminism and justice-centered struggles among Arab communities. Contributors hail from multiple geo­graphical sites, spiritualities, occupations, sexualities, class backgrounds, and generations. Poets, creative writers, artists, scholars, and activists employ a mix of genres to express feminist issues and highlight how Arab and Arab American feminist perspectives simultaneously inhabit multiple, overlapping, and intersecting spaces: within families and communities; in anticolonial and antiracist struggles; in debates over spirituality and the divine; within radical, feminist, and queer spaces; in academia and on the street; and among each other. Contributors explore themes as diverse as the intersections between gender, sexuality, Orientalism, racism, Islamophobia, and Zionism, and the restoration of Arab Jews to Arab American histories. This book asks how members of diasporic communities navigate their sense of belong­ing when the country in which they live wages wars in the lands of their ancestors. Arab and Arab American Feminisms opens up new possibili­ties for placing grounded Arab and Arab American feminist perspectives at the center of gender studies, Middle East studies, American studies, and ethnic studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815632238
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2011
Series:	Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Rabab Abdulhadi is associate professor of ethnic studies and senior scholar of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative at San Francisco State University. Evelyn Alsultany is assistant professor in the Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan. Nadine Naber is assistant professor in the Department of Women's Studies and the Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

List of Contributors xiii

Arab and Arab American Feminisms: An Introduction Rabab Abdulhadi Evelyn Alsultany Nadine Naber xix

Part 1 Living with/in Empire: Grounded Subjectivities

1 Beyond Words Suheir Hammad 3

2 The Political and Cultural Representations of Arabs, Arab Americans, and Arab American Feminisms after September 11, 2001 Mervat F. Hatem 10

3 Palestinian Women's Disappearing Act: The Suicide Bomber Through Western Feminist Eyes Amal Amireh 29

4 Arab Jews, Diasporas, and Multicultural Feminism: An Interview with Ella Shohat Evelyn Alsultany 46

5 In the Belly of the Beast: Struggling for Nonviolent Belonging Zeina Zaatari 60

6 Decolonizing Culture: Beyond Orientalist and Anti-Orientalist Feminisms Nadine Naber 78

7 Inanna Dunya Mikhail Elizabeth Winslow 91

Part 2 Defying Categories: Thinking and Living Out of the Box

8 Between the Lines Youmna Chlala 95

9 Quandaries of Representation Mona El-Ghobashy 97

10 Dyke March, San Francisco, 2004: Many Are Intrigued by the Fact That I Am Also a Belly Dancer Happy/L. A. Hyder 104

11 The Pity Committee and the Careful Reader: How Not to Buy Stereotypes about Muslim Women Mohja Kahf 111

12 History's Traces: Personal Narrative, Diaspora, and the Arab Jewish Experience Kyla Wazana Tompkins 124

Part 3 Activist Communities: Representation, Resistance, and Power

13 The Burden of Representation: When Palestinians Speak Out Nada Elia 141

14 Taking Power and Making Power: Resistance, Global Politics, and Institution Building: An Interview Anan Ameri Nadine Naber 159

15 Inside Out: Youth of Color Organizing from Multiple Sites: An Interview Janaan Attia Nadine Naber 166

16 Arabiya Made Invisible: Between Marginalization of Agency and Silencing of Dissent Noura Erakat 174

17 On Rachel Corrie, Palestine, and Feminist Solidarity Therese Saliba 184

18 Just Peace Seder, Toronto Just Peace Seder Community 203

19 Dissidents, Displacements, and Diasporas: An Interview Dena Al-Adeeb Nadine Naber 213

Part 4 On Our Own Terms: Discourses, Politics, and Feminisms

20 Arab American Feminisms: Mobilizing the Politics of Invisibility Amira Jarmakani 227

21 Class Equality, Gender Justice, and Living in Harmony with Mother Earth: An Interview Joe Kadi Nadine Naber 242

22 Personal and Political: The Dynamics of Arab American Feminism Susan Muaddi Darraj 248

23 Teaching Scriptural Texts in the Classroom: The Question of Gender Moulouk Berry 261

24 The Light in My House Imani Yatouma 270

25 Guidelines Lisa Suhair Majaj 274

26 Reflections of a Genderqueer Palestinian American Lesbian Mother Huda Jadallah 276

Part 5 Home and Homelands: Memories, Exile, and Belonging

27 The Memory of Your Hands Is a Rainbow Amal Hassan Fadlalla Khaled Mattawa 283

28 You Are a 14-Year-Old Arab Chick Who Just Moved to Texas Randa Jarrar 288

29 The Long Road Home Sherene Seikaly 292

30 The Legacy of Exile: An Excerpt Emanne Bayoumi 302

31 Stealth Muslim Evelyn Alsultany 307

32 Where Is Home? Fragmented Lives, Borders Crossings, and the Politics of Exile Rabab Abdulhadi 315

Notes 331

Bibliography 361

Index 383

Editorial Reviews

A dynamic and multifaceted as well as intimate narrative of the 'pattern of rising xenophobia against Arabs and Muslims in the post-September 11, 2001, United States.'

Choice

While several chapters feel crucial to current discussions of transnational feminist solidarity-Mohja Kahf's 'Pity Committee and the Careful Reader' and an interview with Ella Shohat-the book's approach and value is perhaps most visible in one of its more striking essays, Amal Amireh's 'Palestinian Women's Disappearing Act: The Suicide Bomber Through Western Feminist Eyes.'

Women's Studies Quarterly

A dynamic and multifaceted as well as intimate narrative of the 'pattern of rising xenophobia against Arabs and Muslims in the post-September 11, 2001, United States.'-- "Choice"

While several chapters feel crucial to current discussions of transnational feminist solidarity--Mohja Kahf's 'Pity Committee and the Careful Reader' and an interview with Ella Shohat--the book's approach and value is perhaps most visible in one of its more striking essays, Amal Amireh's 'Palestinian Women's Disappearing Act: The Suicide Bomber Through Western Feminist Eyes.'-- "Women's Studies Quarterly"

From the Publisher