Gender, Islam, and Politics.

ISLAM & gender; ISLAM & politics; RELIGION & politics; SOCIAL conditions of women; WOMEN'S rights

This article offers a look at the issues regarding gender, Islam and politics in the Middle East. Islam and gender is a controversial problem for scholars and analysts of the Middle East. Unfortunately, the debate on this issue has at times become highly acrimonious and not always placed in its proper historical or sociological contexts. From one point of view, Islam is praised for its historically liberating role for women in Arabia and elsewhere. Broadly speaking, two related gender issues exacerbate the problem: one is attitudinal and based on beliefs and values, the other relates to legal doctrines. The attitudinal component concerns the prevalence in much of the Middle East of certain patriarchal values, learned through the socialization experience, on women and gender roles. The legal dimension pertains to the essentially discriminatory nature of Islamic personal status laws and the criminal code when applied to women.