Kulturen/Cultures: Feminism(s) in the Arab-Mediterranean Space

Learning objectives

Students should be able to:

• understand the feminist constellation in MENA space: State feminism, leftist feminism, postcolonial feminism, Muslim feminism, etc.;
• understand the main notions upon which those feminisms are based on: essentialism, orientalism, universalism, etc.;
• understand how to mix the historical and analytic line so that they can have a meaningful panorama of what feminism in that area looks like;
• have a clear idea of some important figures of feminism in MENA: Nawal Saadawi, Tahar Haddad, Fatema Mernissi, etc.;
• understand to what extend Western feminism is linked to the feminist constellation in the MENA region.

Course content

The course is built to be right at the crossroads of the social and human sciences, so it borrows perspectives, tools, approaches
and methodological grids from a constellation of academic disciplines. For instance, studying feminism by focusing on a
historical approach when talking about colonialism is also a way to understand how international relations has to do with
feminism in a double sense; it shows first that feminism can’t be considered a pure local brand, and second, it helps understand
to what extent feminism should be seen as a tool and not merely as an end in itself. Feminism is then a way to interrogate the
relationship between the local and the global. Another example one can give is state feminism. State Feminism can clearly be
seen as a managerial approach to feminism: it is a top-bottom one thought to emancipate women in a way that is supposed to
promote the 'startup nation’ that just gained its independence. The last example is this of methodology. The course, as shown
below, takes deconstruction/decolonization seriously. Learning how to deconstrue concepts, notions and clichés is nowadays
an absolute necessity if one really wants to understand the world we live in. It is not a coincidence if management, for instance,
works on decolonizing itself through decolonial management theorizing.

The course is organised around a double line: historical (description) and critical (deconstruction – prospection). The historical
one goes from colonization to the Arab Spring (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt from the early 1950’s until now) and can
be divided into three parts: colonization, postcolonial State and Arab Spring. Inside this framework, we will confront several
feminisms: liberal, Muslim, Islamist, Black, and Berber, shedding light on the constellation they shape altogether. The critical
line lies in three main elements or tools and is considered an investigation. This approach is pedagogically very interesting
because it gives students materials they can use freely to build their own conception of gendered relationships.

• Deconstruction: dismissing all the clichés against feminism regarding its nature (whose/which feminism), its aim (for what), and its tools (how, in both the academic sphere and militancy, i.e., conceptually and pragmatically speaking).
• Prospection (1): proposing new concepts (border, compass, rotation, anchorage, incommensurability, etc.), replacing the ones we deconstructed (symmetry, overlap, commonalities and trying to avoid both essentialism and exclusion.
• Prospection (2): Which feminism could fit the Mediterranean?

Course structure and indications of the learning and teaching design

• Part I: State Feminism and Alternatives
  • 1. State Feminism: historical and theoretical background of feminism in the Arab world
  • 2. Alternatives to state feminism: secular, leftist, and postcolonial feminisms.
  • 3. The Arab Spring and New Approaches to Feminism
  • 4. Beyond the Arab Spring: Critical Approaches to Arab Feminism
• Part II: Arab Feminism and Contemporary Debates (with students' presentations), such as
  • 1. Arab Feminism and Gender Equality
  • 2. Arab Feminism and Human Rights
  • 3. Arab Feminism and Business Ethics
  • 4. Arab Feminism and Globalization
  • 5. Arab Feminism and Climate Change
  • 6. Arab Feminism and Migration

Contextual Studies are considered part of Contact Learning; thus, taking part properly implies regular attendance. It is the
students' own responsibility to ensure that there is no timetable clash between the courses they have chosen. A detailed course
outline and all relevant documents will be made available on StudyNet. Only the current timetable as published online in
Courses applies.