CCAS Newsletter Winter Spring 2013

CCAS Center for Contemporary Arab Studies

Inside

2 News from the Director 3 Board Member Interview: David Jackson 4 Faculty and Staff News: Recent Faculty and Staff publications, news, and awards

Publications: New Occasional Paper published

5 MAAS News: MAAS students and alumni respond to the ongoing crisis in Syria 6 Feature Article: Dr. Fida Adely on love, courtship, and marriage patterns in Jordan (continued from cover) 8 Faculty Showcase: SFS-Q Assistant Director Zahra Babar on the kafa¯ la in the Gulf 10 Public Events: Commemorating Algeria's independence, Tunisia's Arab Spring, and other events 13 Educational Outreach: Summer and Fall 2012 workshops and activities 16 Faculty Feature: Dr. Fida Adely on recent research

newsletter

Georgetown University

ccas.georgetown.edu

Winter - Spring 2013

FEATURE article

Making Marriages

Family, Labor, and Gendered Transformations in Jordan By Fida J. Adely

Arab world over the past decade, religious leaders and social scientists have voiced concerns about a crisis of growing proportions—what they call a “marriage crisis.” Amidst the recent and ongoing political turmoil of the “Arab Spring,” the inability of young men to gain the financial independence they need to get married has frequently been cited as a popular grievance that has contributed to the growing frustrations that have precipitated these political events.1 This “marriage crisis” is generally framed as an economic one linked to the difficulties of establishing a separate household and the high cost of marriage celebrations and dowries. However, other factors are also at play: migration, additional years of education for men and women that delay marriage, and shifts in expectations regarding the gendered division hroughout the

1 For example, see Laryssa Chomiak and

John Entelis, “The Making of North Africa’s Intifadas,” Middle East Report 259 (2011).

of labor that has come with more women entering the labor force. In 2011, with the support of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant from the American Center for Oriental Research, I began field research on the nature of the so-called “marriage crisis” in Jordan. I in-

terviewed 45 adult men and women, most of whom were middle-class urbanites and unmarried (though some were engaged). I asked them about their perspectives on marriage, the existence of a marriage crisis, and their experiences trying to get married. I also delved into issues of dating, courting and/or arranging marriages, as continued on page 6

‫ﻣﺮﻛﺰ اﻟﺪراﺳﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ اﳌﻌﺎﺻﺮة‬

News from the Director: Osama Abi-Mershed

Al-Sabah Chair at CCAS Renewed

he Center for Contemporary Arab Studies is pleased to announce the signing of an agreement with the government of Kuwait to supplement its existing Shaykh Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah Chair, first established in 1980. On Sunday, October 7, 2012, School of Foreign Service (SFS) Dean Carol Lancaster and CCAS Director Osama Abi-Mershed traveled to Kuwait City, where they finalized the agreement with His Excellency, Minister of Education, and Minister of Higher Education Dr. Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf. On November 27, SFS Dean Lancaster hosted a formal reception for HE Ambassador Al-Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Dr. AbdulAzeez Al-Omar, Cultural Counselor and Director of the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Kuwait, and President John J. DeGioia. She was joined by faculty, students, and staff of the CCAS in thanking the State of Kuwait for its generous support of Arab studies at Georgetown University. The Al-Sabah chair supports a distinguished scholar and expert in the political economy of the Gulf. CCAS hopes to fill the chair in the shortest time possible. ď ś

CCAS

newsletter

CCAS Newsletter is published twice a year by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, a component of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Executive Commitee Osama W. Abi-Mershed Associate Professor; History-Middle East and North Africa Director; Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Fida J. Adely

Assistant Professor;

Holder of the Clovis and Hala Salaam Maksoud Chair in Arab Studies Elliott Colla

Associate Professor; Chair; Arabic and Islamic Studies Department Rochelle A. Davis

Associate Professor

Yvonne Y. Haddad

Professor; Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding Joseph Sassoon

Visiting Professor

Samer S. Shehata

Assistant Professor of Arab Politics Judith Tucker

Professor of History; Osama Abi-Mershed

Director; Master of Arts in Arab Studies Program Brenda Bickett

Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Bibliographer

Phil Humnicky/Georgetown University

Above, Dean Carol Lancaster signs the Sabah chair agreement with Dr. Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf. Below, Georgetown's President John J. DeGioia shakes hands with Kuwaiti ambassador Al-Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Staff Rania Kiblawi

Associate Director Zeina Azzam

Director of Educational Outreach Steven Gertz

Multimedia and Publications Editor Kelli Harris

Academic Program Coordinator Nicholas Hilgeman

Office Manager

Marina Krikorian

Public Affairs Coordinator Liliane Salimi

Development Coordinator Courtney Smith

Grant Administrator

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Newsletter design by DesignCordero.

BOARD MEMBER INTERVIEW

“Wealth, Work, and Wisdom” New Chairman of the CCAS Board of Advisors, David Jackson, outlines his goals for the Board, and how he sees it best assisting the Center’s mission and operations.

September 2012, the Executive Committee of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies invited Mr. David Jackson to serve as the Center’s new Chairman of the Board. Jackson is no newcomer to CCAS, having served on the Board since 2006, as well as being a MAAS alumnus (’83). In the Fall 2010 newsletter, CCAS interviewed Jackson about his background, his years as a student at CCAS, and what he has done since he graduated. In this interview, we ask him about his vision for the Board as its new Chairman. n

What would you say is your primary role or job as the new Chairman of CCAS’s Board?

Our Board is purely advisory; it is really CCAS Director Osama Abi-Mershed and various committees of faculty that are responsible for making decisions and setting the strategic direction for the Center. That said, I do see the Board as being able to contribute three things to the Center in particular: wealth, work, and wisdom. It was actually another board member, Alexander Ercklentz, who first articulated this idea at CCAS, but I subscribe to it enthusiastically.

CCAS

Tell us what you mean by these three things, i.e. wealth, work, and wisdom. What do they entail?

By wealth, I mean making a financial contribution to the institution. One probably wouldn’t be asked to be on a board like this unless he or she had some resources to offer the institution as well as having an attachment to it and to its objectives. As for work and wisdom, some of us may not have a lot of money to give, but we have a specific or

specialized skill set to offer the institution, or can provide faculty and administrators with strategic contacts. Are there any steps you are thinking about taking to change the way the Board interacts with CCAS?

CCAS has a big board, and we do not meet very often. Up until now, we have been meeting just once a year, and that really does not give members enough time to do more than get caught up on what the Center has been doing the past year and provide some advice on strategic questions. I think that may be one thing we could consider changing going forward. What tasks do you think the Board should concentrate on for this coming year?

First and foremost, we need to help the Center develop reliable sources of adequate funding for its operations. Like other universities, Georgetown University’s endowment took a hit in 2008, and that means budgets in subsequent years have been and will be tighter for all departments. CCAS is reasonably well funded, but we want to be doing more, and there is a cost involved for every new initiative or improvement. I would also say that we need to be very aggressive in finding money to fund more scholarships at the Center. I graduated with a fully funded master’s degree in Arab studies at the Center in 1983, but it was a different environment back then for Middle East studies. The Center was at that time unique; when I was in the Peace Corps working in a little village in Morocco and looking for graduate programs in the contemporary Arab world, I

did not really have any alternatives to CCAS. Today, there are a lot of Middle East studies programs that were not in existence in 1983, some of which are aimed at the contemporary Arab world. A lot of them are very good, and some are well funded. If we want to attract the top students, we need to be able to offer them adequate funding. How does being an alumnus of the Center impact your vision for the Board?

On a personal level, my experience at the Center was central to what came after—my training in law at Georgetown really built on what I had done at the Center. So I feel a debt of gratitude to the Center, and this is why I am willing to roll up my sleeves and get involved. On a professional level, my time at the Center means that I have a good understanding of what the Center trains its students to do, and then what we actually go out and do after graduation. This, in turn, increases my sensitivity to what students need. One thing we are looking into as a Board is building a platform for members to serve as a resource to students and recent alumni, i.e., helping them explore different career options while they are still at the Center and expanding their networks of contacts as they begin looking for work. We have a lot of people on the Board who have had illustrious careers at the highest level in government service, diplomacy, business, finance, and foreign governments, and I am confident that they would enjoy having this kind of advisory relationship with students. The highlight of every annual Board meeting is when students come and give presentations about what they are working on; the students at the Center are all 

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

continued from page 3

so impressive and dynamic, and they are doing such interesting things. The final thing I would mention is that one of my goals for the Center is to establish and nurture the development of an alumni organization for the MAAS program. We have hundreds of graduates out there now, and I would love to develop an organization that would get them back together periodically. I think an effective alumni organization would also be a resource to current students, and it would act as a financial resource as well, giving alumni who had a positive experience at the Center the opportunity to give at least modest financial support on a regular basis. I would like to take this opportunity to say to alumni that we are now planning a large-scale, allclasses reunion at Georgetown in May, 2013. We hope to see as many of you as can make it there! 

PUBLICATIONs

Announcing Publication of New Occasional Paper

CAS is pleased to publish Sebastian Günther's Averroes and Thomas Aquinas on Education. In an impressive work of original scholarship, Günther, Chair and Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Göttingen, explores the ideas of two medieval philosophers on the methods and purpose of teaching. He argues that their ideas "are significant for us today when dealing with contemporary issues in humanistic education.”

on Education Sebastian Günther

Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Georgetown University

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies

‫ﻣﺮﻛﺰ اﻟﺪراﺳﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ اﳌﻌﺎﺻﺮة‬

CCAS is selling Averroes and Thomas Aquinas on Education at $5 per copy. To purchase, go to ccas.georgetown.edu/publications/publicationsrequest, and click on “Request Publications” to order your copy.

Faculty NEWS

staff NEWS

Assistant Professor Fida Adely published “The Emergence of a New Labor Movement in Jordan” in the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) 42 (Fall 2012).

Director of Educational Outreach Zeina Azzam published “The Palestinians in Lebanon: Remembering the Sabra-Shatila Massacre” on the websites of CCAS (http://ccas.georgetown.edu/story/1242688998940. html) and Jadaliyya (http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/ index/7665/the-palestinians-in-lebanon_rememberingthe-sabra-). A photo which she took at Shatila has been chosen to be included in the exhibit “Commemorations and Remembrances” to be held at the University of Arizona's Middle East Center.

Visiting Assistant Professor Hannes Baumann contributed a chapter “The ‘new contractor bourgeoisie’ in Lebanese politics: Hariri, Miqati, and Faris” to A. Knudsen and M. Kerr, Lebanon: After the Cedar Revolution (Hurst: London, 2012). Assistant Professor Rochelle Davis received tenure at Georgetown University and a promotion to Associate Professor in 2012. She also published two articles on the Syrian refugee crisis on August 14, 2012, and October 26, 2012, on Jadaliyya.com, and a public policy article on Syrian refugees that she published with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and with CCAS. She also published a report on urban refugees in Jordan that the Institute for the Study of International Migration and CCAS published.

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Multimedia and Publications Editor Steven Gertz published “Permission to Stay in Enemy Territory?: Ḥanbalī juristic thinking on whether Muslims must emigrate from non-Muslim lands” in The Muslim World 103:1 (January 2013). Associate Director Rania Kiblawi was out on maternity leave for the Fall 2012 semester after giving birth to a baby girl, Sophia, born on September 7, 2012.

Rania Kiblawi

In October 2012, Adjunct Assistant Professor Noura Erakat participated as a legal committee member of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine’s New York Session, which discussed US and UN complicity and responsibility in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She also received the Freedman Teaching Fellowship at Temple Law School for 2012-2014, and made several media appearances to discuss the most recent Gaza offensive.

Averroes and Thomas Aquinas

MAAS NEWS

On the Borders of Syria MAAS students and alumni respond to the ongoing crisis in Syria. By Kelli Harris

Top: George Newcomb; Bottom: Sarah Harvey

arah Harvey, a first-year Master of Arts in Arab Studies (MAAS) student, traveled to Irbil, Iraq, during the winter break to help the Syrian Kurdish refugees living there. She distributed food, school supplies, and other necessities to more than 100 refugee families living in the Birkota area. Prior to her trip, she organized a bake sale with the help of several MAAS students, raising $234 in just a few hours. Using this money and the more than $3,500 that she and others have raised to date, Harvey and her husband, Nabil Ali, who lives in Irbil, bought food in bulk, sorted it into 40 bags at a time, and then either brought the bags to the UNHCR headquarters for distribution or, with the help of a UNHCR representative, delivered them directly to homes. They have also received donations of winter coats and blankets, which they distributed to families in need. Line Zouhour Adi, a second-year MAAS student, continues to raise awareness for the situation in Syria. She organized a candlelight vigil on campus to honor the victims of those killed at Aleppo University in January 2013. In conjunction with CCAS, Adi also spearheaded two film screenings and a panel on political art in Syria, and she served as a volunteer translator for Syrian journalist and activist Samar Yazbek when she spoke at the United States Institute of Peace about her experiences with the Syrian uprisings. Also, two recent graduates of CCAS’s MAAS program, Priscilla Yoon and Schadi Semnani (both 2012), are currently in the Middle East engaging in different ways with the ongoing crisis in Syria. Priscilla Yoon served as Program Development Officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where she helped coordinate IOM’s humanitarian response in Syria and the neighboring countries affected by the crisis–Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq. In early January 2013, Yoon began her new post as Project Assistant in the Syria Crisis Emergency Education unit of UNESCO’s office in Amman, where she supports efforts to provide emergency education for Syrian refugee children in Jordan. Schadi Semnani has been monitoring and collecting data on the armed conflict in Syria through the Syria Conflict Monitor (SCM), a group of researchers who created a database aggregating videos of the armed opposition’s activities. Through the collection, coding, and analysis of YouTube videos depicting rebel unit formations, military defections, and rebel communiqués, SCM’s empirical research offers up-to-date quantitative and qualitative analysis of the armed opposition. After having worked on data collection for six months from Washington DC, Semnani moved to Istanbul to follow up her research with fieldwork. For updates on Sarah Harvey’s outreach in Iraq, please visit the Syrian Refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan Relief Project’s Facebook group.  Kelli Harris is Academic Program Coordinator at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Above, MAAS students Nada Soudy, Claire Anderson, and Isabella Snyder (left to right) participate in a vigil at Georgetown remembering Aleppo University's massacred students, while below, MAAS students Line Zouhour and Sarah Harvey (left to right) sell baked goods to raise funds for Syrian refugees in Iraq.

What’s new with you? CCAS would like to know! If you have any news or updates, please email Kelli Harris at maas@georgetown.edu.

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

feature ARTICLE Marriages continued from cover

well as the costs associated with getting married. In addition, I interviewed older married adults (men and women between 50 and 70 years of age) about their own “marriage stories” (how they met or chose their marriage partner, the terms of the marriage negotiation, and the nature of marriage ceremonies and Singulate mean age celebrations when they married). at first marriage – 2010 I asked these older adults what, in Men 29.5 their estimation, had changed in the expectations surrounding marriage. Women 25.9 Finally, I gathered data at the Department of Statistics about marriage Age of marriage in 2010 trends and from the local press about for Women and Men dating, divorce, and “spinsterhood.”

Women 15-19

26%

20-24

41%

25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49

Men

18-19

Marrying for Love? Shifting Gender Roles

I have only just begun my analysis of the data, but I would like 21% 25-29 41% to discuss some interesting issues 6% 30-34 19% emerging from my research. First, my research points to the ways in 3% 35-39 7% which shifting gender roles and 2% 40-44 4% expectations may be contributing to a dissonance between men and 1% 45-49 2% women as expectations for marJordan Department of Statistics riage have changed from an earlier generation as a result of more education, mobility, employment experiences, and the current economic situation. For example, as more women become financially self-sufficient, their expectations for a marriage partner can shift, as some place less importance on the male’s bread-winning role and pay more attention to other conditions for a desirable marriage partner. As a 26-year-old woman named Ibtisam told me: 20-24

23%

I am taking care of myself financially. I am independent. I live in Amman and work. I help my family. He [the suitor] has to offer me something. I am not going to marry just to marry if it does not improve my life. Nevertheless, as concerns about “spinsterhood” grow in the public discourse, some younger women are anxious about getting married and at times weigh decisions about pursuing graduate-level degrees and/or demanding careers against their marriage prospects. At the same time, the perception that divorce rates are on the rise affects such calculations in different ways. Most men I interviewed spoke of the need for two wage-earning families in the current economic context,

and they expressed a desire to marry women who are working. Nevertheless, national statistics still show that many women drop out of the work force once they marry. At the same time, I have observed a pattern of female internal migration with young women moving to the capital for purposes of paid employment. This increase in female mobility, with the support and sometimes encouragement of families, is an important development in and of itself given that women rarely live apart from their families before marrying, except to attend university. In future research, I will examine the push-and-pull factors for such women and their relatives and the relationship to marriage choices, opportunities, and desires.

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

The second focus of my research is the actual process of “making marriages,” otherwise known as courtship and the arranging of marriages. Much of the recent literature on courtship and marriage has been concerned with online dating and matchmaking services. In Jordan, although most marriages are “arranged” through families, I discovered a range of practices related to finding

In most societies, love, romance, and passion have been separated from the practical endeavor of making marriages. marriage partners along what I call an “arranged/dating continuum.” With increased urbanization and a variety of new spaces in which men and women can interact, men and women have many more opportunities to initiate a relationship outside the confines of family. In my research, I found universities, coffee shops, and the workplace to be the most significant of such places. Although the use of dating services by those I interviewed was limited, the Internet and especially Facebook provide online forums for courtship that have only become accessible in recent years. These developments in courtship are also closely linked to the issues of shifting gendered expectations discussed above, as many young men and women use the period of courtship to explicitly discuss and debate issues of gendered division of labor before informing the family about a potential marriage partner. Most of the men and women I interviewed expressed a desire to choose their own partners who would be compatible, and some desired an emotional connection with a potential partner before involving their family members.

These new opportunities for courtship have also increased my interest in the emotional dimensions of courtship and marriage. The link between romantic love and marriage is a relatively new one in human history. In most societies, love, romance, and passion have been separated from the practical endeavor of making marriages. In the Arab world, public debate and reflection on the proper basis for marriage emerged as early as the nineteenth century, with social reformers or “modernizers” arguing that companionship was the proper basis for marriage. In my ethnographic research in Jordan, I found these debates to be alive and well. Girls in a high school I studied debated how marriage making should proceed, with some arguing that they would only marry for love and others insisting that this was a faulty basis for marriage.2 In my discussions with single men and women about their views on marriage and desirable partners, the notion of insijām (compatibility) was regularly cited as a necessary basis for marriage. However, most of those interviewed were more ambivalent about whether love was a sound basis for marriage. Yet tales of “love marriage” abounded. Everyone knew someone who had married for love, and much of the media and popular culture viewed by these young people present romantic love as a basis for marriage. At the same time, stories of failed marriages based on love were often referenced as instructive tales of the dangers of marrying for love. In my research, I am examining the views of men and women about the desired qualities in a marriage partner, and the ways in which love and compatibility are intertwined in their discourses about marriage. I consider the multiple ways in which my interlocutors articulate what love is, and examine how this is shaped by gender segregation, alongside relatively new access to public spaces accessible to both men and women. I am also exploring the links between talk of ḥubb (love) and recurrent references to the need for insijām (compatibility), and I am drawing on a broader literature that argues that not only has marriage been redefined historically but so have notions of love. Barriers to Marriage

Finally, my research has led me to analyze the economic barriers to marriage in its gendered and class dimensions. Although, my data analysis is still preliminary here, two themes have emerged. First, I problematize the prevailing

Percent of Women Ever Married 1990 1997 2002 2007

2009

Age 35-39

(Never married)

Age 40-44

(Never married)

Age 45-49

(Never married)

Jordan Population & Health Survey 2009

notion that men incur most if not all of the costs related to marriage celebrations and establishing a separate household. Women and their families can in some cases bear considerable expense, and this is most evident when one considers that the debt incurred by males for marriage becomes the debt of the new couple. Women’s wages then become critical for paying off such debt. Also, although women’s families and women themselves may directly finance marriage-related expenses, this is often done discreetely so as to preserve the image of the male as the financier and provider. Second, my work considers the class dimensions of this crisis, as they index other socio-economic tensions in the region, which in recent years have taken on an increasingly political tenor. Financial barriers to marriage are particularly acute for the middle class, or more precisely, those seeking an increasingly unattainable middle-class lifestyle and the consumption patterns associated with such a lifestyle. Marriage celebrations, homes, furnishings, and the like are the arena in which one’s middleclass status is displayed publicly. Increased conspicuous consumption in the past two decades, fueled in part by largely male labor migration to the Arab Gulf countries, has put increasing pressure on the upwardly mobile. These pressures and unmet expectations are key factors in the popular grievances in the Arab world today. As I move forward with my research on marriage in Jordan, I shall consider the links between the material conditions for marriage, gendered socio-economic transformations, and the hopes, emotions, and desires young men and women attach to marriage in an era of “marriage crisis.” 

Fida Adely, Gendered Paradoxes: Educating Women in Nation, Faith, and Progress (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

Fida J. Adely is Assistant Professor and holder of the Clovis and Hala Salaam Maksoud Chair in Arab Studies.

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

faculty showcase

Confronting the Kafāla Gulf countries urgently need to reform a system that particulary abuses foreign female domestic workers.

By Zahra Babar

he kafāla (or employer-sponsorship system) is the region-wide mechanism governing the migration of workers into the six

states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This system binds a foreign worker’s visa and legal status directly to a kafīl (or sponsor) who maintains control over a worker’s mobility for the duration of his or her stay in the host country. Migrant workers cannot change their place of employment without obtaining prior approval from their employer-sponsor, nor can they exit the country without the authorization of their sponsor. The kafāla takes its strength from the contractual agreements drawn up between foreign

workers are weak, and the limited capacity of the state and the inability of many migrants to successfully navigate the judicial channels mean that justice is often not achieved. While the sponsorship system raises questions about rights and protections for all foreign workers resident within the GCC, it holds particular significance for female domestic workers. There are currently three million domestic workers employed across the GCC, the bulk of whom are women coming from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Domestic workers are not covered by national labor laws, and this absence of legislative protection when combined with the inequities of the kafāla system places these women in

“Absence of legislative protection when combined with the inequities of the kafa¯ la system places [migrant] women in a particularly vulnerable position.” workers and their sponsors. These contracts usually allow for a two-year period of employment and residency, but may be renewed or extended. Upon the completion of the contracted period of employment, sponsors are responsible for ensuring that workers are immediately repatriated to their country of origin. While for several decades this system has been the means by which GCC governments have regulated the flow of labor migrants into the region, it has in essence devolved responsibility for migration management to employers, leading to a problematic “privatization of regional migration.” Scholars examining the lived experiences of migrant workers in the GCC have pointed out that the structural inequality created by the kafāla in terms of defining the relationship between employer and employee heightens the risk for potential worker exploitation. Additionally, region-wide governance structures for ensuring the rights and protections of migrant

a particularly vulnerable position. The sole legal mechanism that they have to rely on in terms of securing their rights and determining their obligations are the contractual agreements they sign with their employer-sponsors. Unfortunately, these contracts themselves are frequently flawed and do not provide migrant women with adequate information regarding their working environment and performance expectations, or establish a secure basis for ensuring their minimum rights. Recruitment agencies and placement bureaus, which connect GCC-based employers to domestic workers, may not provide potential hires with a contract that contains all the necessary information they require for making a sound decision regarding their employment. Contracts often do not specify the nature of the work to be undertaken, do not delineate expectations of the number of working hours, and do not mention paid leave benefits or sick leave entitlements. Salary amounts may be ab-

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

sent entirely, or even if written in, may not be adhered to in practice. Additionally, recruiting agents have been known to provide one set of contracts to women during the hiring process in their country of origin, and then substitute different contracts to them upon arrival in the Gulf. Among the range of exploitative practices faced by domestic workers across the region that are regularly reported are: excessive daily and weekly work hours, no time off or leave days, non-payment or late payment of wages, no pay for overtime work, no paid sick leave, restrictions on personal mobility (such as not being allowed to leave the home), and the withholding of passports. There are also more extreme reports of psychological, verbal, and physical abuse inflicted on domestic workers by their employers. The invisible nature of domestic work in the GCC, taking place as it does behind the closed doors of people’s homes and excluded as it is from labor law, means that protecting women who occupy these jobs poses a great challenge. Sending countries’ embassies based in the GCC are inundated with requests from “absconding house-maids” who come seeking assistance from the representatives of their national governments. Overwhelmed by the task of mediating disputes between employers and their nationals, several sending country governments have either imposed blanket bans prohibiting women from seeking domestic work in the Persian Gulf, or else have imposed modified bans that restrict such employment to certain categories of women. The most common form of modified ban prevents younger women from applying for domestic work positions in the GCC, but allows women above the age of 30 or 35 to do so. Other sending country governments have insisted on only approving the exit of women who have had their GCC work contracts vetted by appropriate authorities. Sending countries may implement policies that insist that

AP Photo/Grace Kassab

Migrant women are beginning to publicly protest the abuses of the kafā la. This woman's sign reads: On [this] International Day of Women, we support the rights of foreign domestic workers.

contracts specify a minimum wage amount, mention a mandatory day off per week, and pay annual leave. Such sending country policies are not, however, considered to be effective in addressing the root problem, which is the absence of protective legislation for domestic workers in the GCC. GCC states are attempting to draft separate regulations for the domestic work sector. In addition to assorted bilateral agreements with sending countries aimed at ensuring greater protection for domestic workers, a few of the GCC states have attempted to standardize employment contracts. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates have recently implemented unified standard con-

tracts for domestic workers to reduce the role of agencies and employers in crafting such contracts. These unified standard contracts do provide provisions for an eight-hour work day, mandatory payment for over-time, mandatory days off, and penalties for late payment of wages. However, while this is certainly an improvement in defining protections and obligations for domestic workers, questions remain as to how effective the unified standard contracts are in practice. The principal problem is that the state lacks a mechanism for monitoring an employer’s compliance with his or her contractual obligations, given that the work is taking place within a home. Until there are serious attempts made to bring

domestic workers within the fold of national labor law and to radically revise the kafāla system, all such measures will continue to fall short of the principles of international labor protections. 

Zahra Babar is Assistant Director of Research at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar. She presented a paper on the kafāla at a conference CCAS hosted at Georgetown University in October 2012 titled “China, the US, and the Arab World: Historical and Contemporary Relations.”

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

PUBLIC EVENTS

Fall 2012 CCAS Public Events Remembering 50 years of Algerian independence, Julia Clancy-Smith speaks about Tunisia's Arab Spring, and other events. By Marina Krikorian Labor, Unions, and the Arab Spring September 12, 2012

The Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO and CCAS brought three Arab trade leaders together to discuss the changes unfolding across the Middle East and North Africa. The panel discussion – moderated by Dr. Samer Shehata – featured speakers Karim Radhi, Nassira Ghozlane, and Kamal Abou Aita as they examined how the conditions of labor and labor unions have either impeded or accelerated the movement toward democracy in their respective countries of Bahrain, Algeria, and Egypt. A Civilized Revolution: Aesthetics, Political Action, and Urban Space in Egypt September 14, 2012

Jessica Winegar, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University, presented a working paper on the relationship between middle-class aesthetics and politics in Egypt’s ongoing revolution as part of the 2012-2013 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Seminar, “History and Cultures of Revolutions in the Arab World.” This seminar series was cosponsored by the Georgetown Institute for Global History. Algeria at 50: Days of Glory (Indigenes) September 19, 2012

Fida Adely, holder of the Clovis and Hala Salaam Maksoud Chair in Arab Studies at CCAS, presented her new book, Gendered Paradoxes: Educating Jordainian Women in Nation, Faith, and Progress (Chigago). In the book, she takes readers into the halls of a Jordanian public school (al-Khatwa High School for Girls) to examine how the young women there are facing the social and economic challenges of contemporary Jordan. In her talk, Dr. Adely made use of her extensive fieldwork in Jordan to question assumptions about the relationship between development and education, and to examine what education really means for women in Jordan and throughout the Middle East. Man Without a Cellphone September 25, 2012

As part of the DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival, CCAS cosponsored the screening of Man Without a Cellphone, a humorous film about the social milieu of a Palestinian village inside Israel. The film was followed by a discussion about filmmaking with the director, Sameh Zoabi, and CCAS Adjunct Professor Adel Iskandar.

China, the US, and the Arab World: Historical and Contemporary Relations October 4-5, 2012

CCAS, the School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q), and Peking University (PKU) hosted a joint conference at Georgetown University to explore historical and current aspects of the broader triangular relations between China, the US, and the Arab World. Scholars from Georgetown University, Peking University, and Qatar University examined a range of topics, from Arabic literature, language, and teaching to the various political, sociocultural, intellectual and economic dimensions of the ongoing Arab revolutions. This conference built on the work of a previous conference hosted by PKU in December 2011 and will be followed by a third installation in Qatar in 2013. Algeria at 50: Outside the Law (Hors-La-Loi) October 17, 2012

In the second installment of the film series, “Algeria at 50,” CCAS presented Outside the Law, a 2010 film by Rachid Bouchareb that focuses on the lives of three Algerian brothers in France during the Algeria independence movement. The film screening was followed by a lively discussion, moderated by CCAS

Offshore Petroleum Exploration in Lebanon: Prospects and Opportunities October 2, 2012

His Excellency Gebran Bassil, Minister of Energy and Water for the Republic of Lebanon, gave a thorough presentation on exploration of petroleum resources off the Lebanese coast. He outlined the efforts that the Lebanese government is making to collect data, and also the legal and institutional frameworks and regional context they are working within to transform these resources into wealth.

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

CCAS Director Osama Abi-Mershed (right) stands alongide His Excellency Gebran Bassil, Lebanon's Minister of Energy and Water (center), and Lebanon's ambassador to the US, Mr. Antoine Chedid (left).

CCAS

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Algerian independence, CCAS organized “Algeria at 50,” a film series intended to address historical questions surrounding the social, economic, and historical consequences of French colonial rule in Algeria. Days of Glory, directed by Rachid Bouchareb, deals primarily with the discriminatory treatment of colonial North Africans by the white French. This issue led to a change in the French government’s policy 60 years later.

Gendered Paradoxes: Educating Jordanian Women in Nation, Faith, and Progress September 20, 2012

Director Osama Abi-Mershed, on questions surrounding the legitimacy of revolutionary violence, the cohesion of the Algerian nationalist front during the movement for independence, and issues surrounding the role of Algerians in contemporary French society. Justice Interrupted: The Buried History of Syria’s Ba‘th Party October 19, 2012

Elizabeth Thompson, Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia, presented a working chapter from her forthcoming book for the MENA Seminar, “History and Cultures of Revolutions in the Arab World.” The chapter from Justice Interrupted uses the memoirs of Akram al-Hourani (a leader of the Arab Socialist Party that merged with the Ba‘th in the mid-1950s) to examine how the Ba‘th Party in Syria transformed from a civilian party to a military and authoritarian one.

After Jews and Arabs: Twenty Years Later November 1-2, 2012

CCAS, Georgetown’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, and the Levant Foundation sponsored a conference to assess the impact of Ammiel Alcalay’s After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture 20 years after its publication. The conference, organized by Dr. Elliott Colla and Dr. Ted Swedenburg, brought together a diverse group of scholars from around the world that have used After Jews and Arabs in their own work. The conference opened with a keynote address by Alcalay, who discussed the important of creating one’s own spaces to work in, and explored his own biography to place After Jews and Arabs in a personal and historical context. Many of the other speakers also shared their biographies and traced how they were shaped by their first encounters with After Jews and Arabs. The conference concluded with a fruitful discussion about possible avenues for future research and collaboration.

Lisa Helfert

Memorial Service for Barbara Stowasser September 29, 2012 CCAS, the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the Office of the Dean of the School of Foreign Service hosted a memorial service in Dahlgren Chapel to honor and remember the life of Dr. Barbara Freyer Stowasser. Speakers included Dean Carol Lancaster, Father Leo J. O’Donovan, Imam Yahya Hendi, Dean Chester Gillis, Robert Gallucci, Suad Juffali, Ambassador Roscoe Suddarth, Brigitte Freyer Schauenburg, Michael Hudson, Karin Ryding, and John Voll. Written statements by Peter Krogh, Scott Redford, and Jane McAuliffe were also presented. The tributes especially praised Dr. Stowasser’s deep learning, quick wit, fierce loyalty, and generous spirit. The service was followed by a reception in which family (including sons Andy and Michael Stowasser), friends, and colleagues gathered informally to celebrate Dr. Stowasser’s legacy. Dr. Stowasser passed away on May 13, 2012. She taught at Georgetown University for 46 years (from 1966 to 2012).

The View from the GCC States: Moving from Allies to Partnership with the US November 8, 2012

CCAS welcomed Professor Abdullah AlShayji, Chairman of the Political Science Department at Kuwait University and a specialist in the Arabian Gulf and US politics. Professor Al-Shayji’s talk focused on current foreign relations between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the United States, and also delineated current measures by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to continue “solid” relations with the GCC countries. No Business Without Water! Khans and Factories in 19th-Century Istanbul November 14, 2012

Georgetown’s Institute of Turkish Studies, the Department of History, and CCAS hosted a talk by Ottoman historian Suraiya Faroqhi of Bilgi University, Istanbul, who traced the changes in water rights and uses that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century in 

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PUBLIC EVENTS continued from page 11

Istanbul and the complex set of transactions that emerged with the rise of factories in the area. The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims November 27, 2012

Nathan Lean, a second-year MAAS student and editor-in-chief of AslanMedia.com, presented his new book The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims (Pluto). His talk focused on the network of writers and activists who have played upon Western anxieties about Islam

particularly since the events of September 11, 2001. The event was cosponsored by CCAS and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Algeria at 50: Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri) November 28, 2012

In its last installment of “Algeria at 50,” CCAS screened the iconic film, Battle of Algiers, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. Battle of Algiers is a 1966 film based on certain episodes during the Algerian revolt against the

French government in North Africa from 1954 to 1962. It focuses on the National Liberation Front’s guerilla insurgency tactics and the colonial power’s attempts to suppress them. The screening was followed by a discussion about the aftermath of the Algerian War in both Algeria and France and how the film has been used by both by insurgent groups and states as an example of urban warfare. 

Marina Krikorian is Public Affairs Coordinator at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Julia Clancy-Smith Speaks on Tunisia’s Arab Spring for the Kareema Khoury Annual Distinguished Lecture By Steven Gertz

Smith then turned to the ascension of Ben Ali to the presidency in 1987. She discussed the increasingly powerful police state that the regime had put into place, which she said by 2000, had surpassed anything seen in the past. The December 2010 immolation of Muhammad Bouazizi detonated the revolution that would blossom into the Arab Spring, but Clancy-Smith observed that this was not the first suicide. Indeed, a culture of suicide had developed by 2000, and Ben Ali’s opportunistic visit with the dying man proved to be his undoing. In addition to providing a historical review of post-colonial Tunisia, Clancy-Smith gave considerable attention to the phenomenon of “coastalization” in Tunisia, during which coastal cities and populations have “turned their back” on the interior and its people. Moreover, global tourism in Tunisia, which centered upon Mediterranean holidays, brought material wealth but also fueled religious and cultural discontent. Tracing the symbolic significance of Mediterranean palaces and villas back in time, she argued that under Ben Ali in particular, these lavish seaside residences had become synonymous with the corruption and excesses of the regime. Clancy-Smith noted that protestors during the 2010-11 revolution burned many of these villas, and looted villas have subsequently become pilgrimage sites for people to celebrate and remember the revolution. Particularly in this sense, the Arab Spring has once again given voice to deeply rooted grievances, aspirations, and animosities that have incubated for well over a century. 

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

CCAS

n November 8, 2012, Dr. Julia Clancy-Smith, who holds two Georgetown degrees and is now a professor of history at the University of Arizona in Tucson, delivered the annual distinguished Kareema Khoury lecture in Riggs Library at Georgetown University. Clancy-Smith titled her lecture “From Sidi Bou Zid to Sidi Bou Sa‘id: A Longue Durée Approach to the Tunisian Revolutions,” in which she sought to construct a “long view” of the Arab Spring in the Maghrib. She addressed the idea that 2010-11 brought the first “modern” revolution to the Arab world, but in the end discarded this, arguing that many of the deep social, economic, and political causes for the Arab Spring are not new but, in some cases, have origins in colonial and even pre-colonial times. Clancy-Smith charted the evolution of mass civic action throughout the late twentieth century in particular, though she briefly analyzed its pre-1956 antecedants. She began her discussion of revolutions with “Black Thursday” in January 1978, when demonstrations broke out across class lines, and Tunisia’s president, Habib Bourguiba, initiated a bloody crackdown. She proceeded to take her audience through the 1980s: from the drop in oil windfalls to the austerity measures of 1981 to the stoning of Bourguiba’s car in 1984, which demonstrated the frustration of the people and the breakdown of the nationalist social pact in Tunisia. She also spoke on the rise of the “Islamic tendency movements” and Islamist resistance to women entering the workplace. Having finished her analysis of the Bourguiba years, Clancy-

Educational OUTREACH

Thinking Outside the Box: Innovative Topics Covered in CCAS Teacher Workshop By Zeina Azzam

Top photo: CCAS; Bottom photo: Lena Seikaly

CAS held its fourteenth annual summer workshop for educators June 25-29, 2012, at Georgetown. This year, 27 educators from public and private secondary schools and community colleges in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia attended the program. One teacher came all the way from the American School of Doha in Qatar.

Titled “Approaches to Teaching the Middle East,” the workshop featured a diverse group of scholars and practitioners. One of the highlights of the program was a culinary adventure with acclaimed chef Ray Risho, who talked about “The Global Kitchen and the Middle East.” Exploring what he called the “global pantry,” Risho discussed the flavorings—spices, herbs, vinegars, oils—as well as the historical, social, and geographic factors, such as climate, trade, immigration, and conquest, that have influenced the contents of this “pantry.” He also cooked a North African dish for the group, “Chermoula,” with fish and onions and a myriad spices. The groups enjoyed the demonstration, the smells, and tastes of Risho’s culinary creation. Two sessions addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in novel ways. Suhad Babaa and Nadav Greenberg, both of the organization Just Vision, presented on “Changing the Conversation: Tools for Talking about Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolence Efforts with Your Students.” After giving a brief history of Jerusalem, they showed the new film “My Neighborhood,” about a Palestinian boy struggling, alongside Palestinian and Israeli activists, against Jewish settlers who are taking over his home in East Jerusalem. A second session on this subject, cosponsored by CCAS and Georgetown’s Program for Jewish Civilization, featured Israeli-American storyteller Noa Baum, who performed parts of her famous one-woman show, “A Land Twice Promised.” Baum also

Why Study Arab Culture? On November 28, 2012, Outreach Director Zeina Azzam was a guest speaker to approximately 50 undergraduate students at the University of the District of Columbia. Titled, “Why Study the Arab World? Why Study Arabic?,” her presentation offered a large amount of information about Arab culture and the Arabic language, speaking about the importance of studying this region of the world to American and global priorities. She incorporated YouTube clips and images and posed questions that challenged assumptions and stereotypes. The interactive format also encouraged a lively discussion.

Chef Ray Risho demonstrates how to cook a Middle Eastern dish as DC-area schoolteachers watch.

conducted group exercises in telling personal stories and asked attendees to envision themselves in the role of “the other.” Other workshop speakers also addressed Middle East politics and current events. Trita Parsi, of the National Iranian American Council, explored “Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran.” He said that at first President Obama reached out to the Iranians and offered a Nowruz message in 2009 that spoke of diplomacy and inclusion. However, the Iranian people were looking for a real change in policy, not merely in language. The challenges over Iran’s enriched uranium and developing nuclear capability brought sanctions that have now decimated the Iranian 

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Educational OUTREACH continued from page 13

middle class, according to Parsi, with the US position shifting closer to Israel’s in regard to Iran’s nuclear weapons. Bassam Haddad, of George Mason University, explained the basics of Syria’s uprising. He suggested that although the local and external opposition movement represents a legitimate effort to counter several decades of dictatorship in Syria, its high ground has been diminished and many countries that support it have themselves been guilty of human rights violations. He urged understanding of the situation in its historical, political, and societal contexts. Kristin Smith Diwan, of American University, spoke on “Oil, Islam, and Politics in the Arab Gulf States.” As a “tri-continental hub,” she noted, the strategically located Persian Gulf contains about 75 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves. She countered many of the myths and stereotypes about the countries of Arabia regarding wealth, religion, and lifestyles and described the types of state policies in the region in terms of oil production and income distribution—noting one description of them as “petro-welfare states.” This year’s program also covered the western part of the Arab world. Osama Abi-Mershed, director of CCAS, explored the history of colonialism and nationalism in

Kristen Smith Diwan uses a map of the Middle East to help orient teachers to the region.

nance of France and its historical “civilizing mission,” as well the role of Orientalism and imperial ideologies, have contributed a great deal toward shaping the modern history of North Africa. Abi-Mershed then led a discussion of the novel by Driss Chraibi, Mother Comes of Age, of which the teacher group had received copies beforehand. The novel is a story about Moroccan nationalism, the costs of liberation, modernity, and the true meaning of freedom. Irene Jillson, of Georgetown’s School of Nursing and Health Studies, spoke about youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where—as of 2010—there are more than 100 million people between the ages of 15 and 29. This bulge in population brings challenges in education, employment, health care and social services, and gender imbalances in access to opportunities. To effect change, Jillson said, youth in MENA need to be engaged as citizens and push their governments to be accountable. Their role in the Arab uprisings has been profound, including organizing popular neighborhood committees, participating in demonstrations, raising awareness, establishing new NGOs, and engaging with social media. Hussein Amery, of the Colorado School of Mines, addressed water scarcity, desertification, pollution, consumption, and governmental policies. He noted that the top ten water-stressed countries in the world are all Arab; in addition, fresh groundwater resources are also lowest in the MENA region. Amery explained the reasons for water shortages as resulting from geography and nature, increasing population, rising quality of life, mismanagement and pollution, and lack of

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Zeina Azzam is Director of Educational Outreach at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Both photos: CCAS

North Africa—a region, he mentioned, that receives little attention because it is often regarded as the periphery of the Arab world. “What has been the true legacy of colonialism in North Africa?” he asked. The domi-

Teachers absorb Trita Parsi's presentation.

cooperation between countries. An exciting session on Islamic art brought Maryam Ekhtiar, from the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who offered a virtual tour of the Met’s new galleries for the art of the “Arab lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia.” She explained that Islam is presented in the galleries as a binding thread and not as a dominating force. She also described the Islamic world as historically global and interconnected, and viewed the art and culture of this region as part of one shared heritage and an integral part of world history. Another fascinating lecture, by Master Herbalist Donna Evans, explored “Natural Remedies of the Middle East.” She offered information on a vast catalog of herbs and spices used in the region to manage a variety of health issues such as relieving pain, reducing symptoms of illness, sharpening memory, encouraging healing, killing germs, and treating skin conditions. Evans showed many photographs from her travels in the Arab world and brought many items to touch and smell, including essential oils. The attendees enjoyed a Middle Eastern lunch each day and a received a binder full of resources as well as a DVD and several books. One, a ninth-grade teacher, wrote the following in her evaluation of the program: “The Middle East and North Africa is an often misunderstood and overlooked region of the world. As a world history teacher, I am often frustrated by students’ lack of knowledge and information about these regions. After taking this workshop, I have a renewed energy and confidence in teaching students about MENA with exciting methods, stories, and readings, and can’t wait to broaden their knowledge (as I know I have my own).” 

Middle East 101: An Introduction to the People, Society, History, and Environment By Gregor Nazarian

he Educational Outreach Program hosted a workshop on November 14, 2012, designed to provide a basic foundation for teachers with little knowledge of the Middle East. It proved to be one of the most popular workshops CCAS has offered, bringing 80 attendees from DC, Maryland, and Virginia. The numbers required a move from the CCAS boardroom to the larger Lohrfink Auditorium at the Rafik B. Hariri Building housing the business school.

The workshop featured three speakers: Osama Abi-Mershed, Karen Culcasi, and Susan Douglass. After Educational Outreach Director Zeina Azzam’s brief introduction, Dr. Osama Abi-Mershed, Associate Professor of History and Director of CCAS, gave a presentation titled “The Great War and the Making of the Modern Middle East.” He provided insights on the political and military history of the region from the advent of the “Eastern Question” to the years following World War I. Tracing the modern boundaries of the Middle East back well before the Treaty of Lausanne, he argued that they reflect imperial designs that began to take shape in the late eighteenth century. His presentation also stressed the centrality of the region in the Great War (World War I) and the political maneuvers of the British and French to secure various conflicting interests.

The final presentation was by Susan Douglass, a doctoral candidate at George Mason University and experienced educator on Islam and history. Her talk was titled “Introduction to Teaching about Islam:

Karen Culcasi used some innovative media to support her points.

Basic Beliefs, Historical Issues, and Global Populations.” She asked the audience questions about the role of Adam, Abraham, and Jesus in Islam in order to highlight the overlap between Islam and the other Abrahamic faiths. She distinguished among beliefs, principles, and acts of worship, reflecting on each, and discussed the injunctions in Islam against terrorism. The full-day workshop included lively question-and-answer sessions with each speaker. Those who attended received a CD with a wide variety of materials including the speakers’ PowerPoint presentations, CCAS teaching modules, and teaching resources on the Middle East and Islam.  Gregor Nazarian is a second-year MAAS student at CCAS.

CCAS

Karen Culcasi, Assistant Professor of Geography at West Virginia

University, spoke on “Placing the Middle East,” a multifaceted exploration of the physical and human geography of the Middle East. She began by engaging the audience, encouraging them to volunteer what sprang to mind when they thought of the “Middle East,” “Arabs,” or “Muslims.” She used this as a launching point for a discussion of how Westerners tend to imagine the Middle East, explaining Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism through the lens of Disney’s Aladdin and TV coverage of the Oklahoma City Bombing. She highlighted the geographical ambiguity of what we call “the Middle East” with a map exercise and reflections on how atlases in the Arab and Western world have defined the region differently.

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

Faculty Feature Interview with fida

J. adely

Can you tell us a bit about your research in graduate school, and how you came to CCAS?

I came to Georgetown after studying for my PhD in education and anthropology at Columbia University. In the years after September 11, 2001, policy makers and researchers showed concern about and interest in religious education in the Arab world. But I felt that very few scholars were really doing any research in schools; for the most part, they were drawing on textbooks or looking at state policy, and I felt that was an inadequate way to understand the significance of schools. At Columbia, I was especially interested in questions of gender and development, and early in my doctoral research, I found a trend showing that most girls in Jordan were graduating from high school (a relatively new development in some parts of the country). That got me interested in what is happening in schools socially and culturally. I first did a twomonth pilot study in a high school, which I found so amazingly rich and intriguing that I chose another school to study and spent an academic year there. I was not only interested in what was going on in the school, but also in what young women and their families thought education would provide them with, and how this education impacted other areas of life, such as marriage and work.

I think necessity is the stronger factor. In-

Let’s talk about marriage in Jordan, as that has increasingly become a focus of research for you. Do you think it is accurate to say that more young women are marrying for love, especially as new spaces become available to them in which they can meet men?

I would not say that young women are increasingly marrying for love. Love may or may not be a part of their deliberation. In fact, there is a whole narrative among the older generation in Jordan about love not being the proper basis for marriage—that “love marriages” are doomed to fail. But at the same time, everyone knows someone who “fought for love.” The younger generation, or at least those of the educated middle class, has the opportunity to find some middle ground between those extremes. What I would say is that both the men and women I talked with are increasingly expressing their desire to get to know their partners before they marry them, and thereby to find who is compatible. Describe to us what you mean by insija¯m (compatibility). Do you mean economic and educational parity, similar personalities, equally respected family reputations, shared religion,

or something else altogether? What do youth typically put at the top of their compatibility lists?

I would say there are two considerations that are equally important. On the one hand, both men and women place great importance on finding someone with a similar level of education or someone in the same class. A crucial related question is whether the couple’s families are compatible. Young people are concerned that even if they are comfortable with each other, their families may not be. For example, one woman told me she had been getting to know a Jordanian man through an online dating service, but when she met his mother, the woman looked down on her, and the young woman knew his parents would never respect hers. On the other hand, compatibility is also about chemistry. Most young people insist that there has to be some basic level of physical attraction. They also want to know if they feel comfortable with this person. Both men and women might ask if this is going to be a person who supports them emotionally. Women with successful careers talked about the need for a man who would respect her accomplishments. Some men were concerned that women respect them as heads of the household. These are things one might encounter anywhere, but because Jordanian men and women typically have only a few meetings to get to know one another, they are under pressure to determine whether they are compatible (in multiple dimensions) in a short time. For the unmarried young adults I interviewed who were at the age of marriage, or even past the age of marriageability by some measures, these meetings are serious business (unlike relationships at the university). For the most part, they are not just getting together for the sake of it but to see if that meeting could be the basis for a marriage. 

An online version of this newsletter is available on CCAS’s website: http://ccas.georgetown.edu/

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Laurie King

In your September 2012 interview with CCAS about your book Gendered Paradoxes, you talk (among other things) about how women in Jordan are not necessarily using their education to find work. Do you have any sense of whether most women in the workplace in Jordan are working out of economic necessity or out of choice?

deed, almost everyone I spoke with during my research claimed that men wanted to marry working women because the economic realities demanded two wages. But there is another dynamic at work here; some of the women I interviewed worried that men wishing to marry them – potential suitors – might really be interested in their salaries. I have had some young women tell me that they pretend that they do not want to work after they get married to see what the man will say. Others, though, are much more up-front about wanting to work, and if he says “no,” the relationship does not move forward.