Gender, Governance and Islam

Deniz Kandiyoti is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at SOAS, University of London. She pioneered new research into comparative perspectives on patriarchy and on the implications of global governance, Islam and state policies for the politics of gender in Turkey, post-Soviet Central Asia and Afghanistan. 2011-2015 she monitored the effects of the Arab uprisings (as guest editor for 50.50 Open Democracy) analysing new forms of gender-based violence and grass-roots mobilization.

Analyses the links between gender and governance in contemporary Muslim majority countries and diaspora contexts
Following a period of rapid political change, both globally and in relation to the Middle East and South Asia, this collection sets new terms of reference for an analysis of the intersections between global, state, non-state and popular actors and their contradictory effects on the politics of gender.

The volume charts the shifts in academic discourse and global development practice that shape our understanding of gender both as an object of policy and as a terrain for activism. Nine individual case studies systematically explore how struggles for political control and legitimacy determine both the ways in which dominant gender orders are safeguarded and the diverse forms of resistance against them.

Key Features

¿ Highlights the centrality of gender politics in understanding political changes and new forms of governance in Muslim majority contexts
¿ Explores gender politics in Muslim majority countries as well as Muslim diasporas in Europe and the US
¿ Critically discusses the transformations of the role of religion in intersecting layers of local, national and transnational governance
¿ Presents nine case studies: Egypt; Iran; Turkey; Saudi Arabia; Afghanistan; Palestine; Iraq; Pakistan; and diasporic communities in Europe and North America

Deniz Kandiyoti is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. Nadje Al-Ali is Robert Family Professor of Middle East Studies at Brown University. Kathryn Spellman Poots is Visiting Professor at the Middle East Institute at Columbia University and Associate Professor at the Aga Khan University's Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations.

Preface; 1. Introduction: Beyond Women, Islam and the State: Situating the Politics of Gender in a New Century, Deniz Kandiyoti, Nadje Al-Ali and Kathryn Spellman Poots; 2. Protest, Resistance and Shifting Gender Orders in Egypt: Crossing Red Lines? Heba El Kholy and Nadia Taher; 3. Manufacturing Consent in Iran: From Moral Subjects to (Un)Healthy Citizens, Nazanin Shahrokni; 4. Saudi Women: Between Family, Religion and State, Madawi Al-Rasheed; 5. Against all Odds: The Resilience and Fragility of Women's Gender Activism in Turkey, Deniz Kandiyoti; 6. Discrete Moves and Parallel Tracks: Gender Politics in post-2001 Afghanistan, Torunn Wimpelmann; 7. Palestine: Gender in an Imagined Fragmented Sovereignty, Islah Jad; 8. Iraq: Gendering Violence, Sectarianisms and Authoritarianism, Nadje Al-Ali; 9. Defiance not Subservience: New Directions in the Pakistani Women's Movement, Afiya Shehrbano Zia; 10. Muslim Diasporas in Transition: Islam, Gender and New Regimes of Governance, Kathryn Spellman Poots; Epilogue: Locating Gender in Contentious Politics, Deniz Kandiyoti; Bibliography; Index.