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Notes
1 CitationJudith E. Tucker, ‘Introduction,’ in Judith E. Tucker (Ed.) Arab Women: Old Boundaries, New Frontiers (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), p. x.
2 For the purposes of this article, the term ‘Islamization’ is understood as the broad trend toward an increasing use and visibility of Islam and Islamic vocabulary, symbols and practices in all spheres of society—social, economic and cultural, as well as the political. However, it is by no means a coherent or fixed movement, but includes such widely differing phenomena as the increased use of Islamic terms in everyday language and the support of extremist and militant Islamist organizations and movements.
3 Women wearing the modern Islamic headscarf, the hijab.
4 See further CitationSuzanne Stiver Lie & Kari Vogt, Gender, Education and Ideology: The Case of Syria, Report No. 5 (Oslo: University of Oslo, 2002).
5 See, for example, CitationBeth Baron, Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender and Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005); CitationSuad Joseph (Ed.), Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2000); CitationLila Abu-Lughod (Ed.), Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998); CitationValentine Moghadam, Gender and National Identity (London: Zed Books, 1994); and CitationDeniz Kandiyoti (Ed.), Women, Islam and the State (London: Macmillan, 1991).
6 CitationMervat F. Hatem, ‘Modernization, the state, and the family in Middle East women's studies,’ in: M. L. Meriwether & J. E. Tucker (Eds) Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), p. 63.
7 CitationNira Yuval-Davis, Gender & Nation (London: Sage, 1997), p. 67.
8 CitationCarsten Wieland, Syria at Bay: Secularism, Islamism and ‘Pax Americana’ (London: Hurst, 2006).
9 See, for example, CitationDavid Roberts, The Ba'th and the Creation of Modern Syria (London: Croom Helm, 1987); CitationNicholas van Dam, The Struggle for Power in Syria (London: Croom Helm, 1979).
10 I understand the term ‘discourse’ as a more or less institutionalized way of understanding and talking about reality. It is a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic, and it delivers the vocabulary, expressions, and style that are needed to communicate. Rhetoric, policies, symbols, and spectacles can be seen as concrete and practical manifestations of discourses. A discourse is always an interpretation, and as such it is never unambiguous and fixed. A society therefore will always be characterized by conflicts and negotiations both between and within discourses.
11 The distinction between the discourse of Islam and the discourse of secular nationalism is not necessarily understood as a distinction between two mutually exclusive categories; often, actors use elements from both discourses. Furthermore, Syrian society is not secular in the European sense of the word (see Wieland, Syria at Bay, p. 77). Religion, and in particular Islam, in many contexts works as an important frame of reference, whether or not one is secular.
12 Furthermore, Christians comprise 10 percent of the population, while Druze and other Muslim groups comprise 4 percent; see further CitationCIA, World Fact Book, 2006.
13 CitationAlan George, Syria: Neither Bread nor Freedom (London: Zed Books, 2003); CitationJørgen Bæk Simonsen, ‘Osmannerigets arvetagere: nation, stat og religion i Syrien,’ The Jutlandic Historian, 110 (2005), p. 27; Wieland, Syria at Bay.
14 Lie & Vogt, Gender, Education and Ideology, p. 8.
15 CitationRaymond Hinnebusch, ‘Syria: the politics of economic liberalization,’ Third World Quarterly, 18(2) (1997), p. 260.
16 CitationVolker Perthes, The Political Economy of Syria under Asad (London: I. B. Tauris, 1995), p. 104; CitationRaymond Hinnebusch, Syria: Revolution from Above (London: Routledge), p. 260; and Lie & Vogt, Gender, Education and Ideology, pp. 8–11.
17 CitationGeorge, Syria, p. 143.
18 CitationDale F. Eickelman, ‘Mass higher education and the religious imagination in contemporary Arab societies,’ American Ethnologist, 19(4) (1992), pp. 643–655.
19 Figures from Statistical Abstracts 2004, Central Bureau of Statistics, Office of Prime Minister, Syrian Arab Republic (2005).
20 CitationLisa Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), p. 49; Hinnebusch, Syria, pp. 260–261. The “Corrective Movement,” the term by which Hafez al-Asad's 1970 coup is known, initiated reforms that, among other things, moderated the Ba'th Party's relations with the Sunni bourgeoisie by relaxing restrictions on the private sector and making rapid economic growth the main objective of economic and development policies; see further Wedeen, Ambiguities, p. 8; and Perthes, The Political Economy, p. 3.
21 Wedeen, Ambiguities; and Simonsen, ‘Osmannerigets,’ p. 19.
22 CitationAnnika Rabo, ‘The value of education in Jordan and Syria,’ in: G. Dahl & A. Rabo (Eds) Kam-ap or Take-off: local notions of development (Uppsala: Stockholm Studies of Social Anthropology, 1992), p. 105.
23 Wedeen, Ambiguities, pp. 68, 161.
24 CitationGeorge, Syria, pp. 144–150.
25 CitationAnnika Rabo, ‘Gender, state and civil society in Jordan and Syria,’ in: C. Hann & E. Dunn (Eds) Civil Society: Challenging Western Models (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 162.
26 CitationGeorge, Syria, pp. 6–7.
28 Extract from the Syrian Constitution cited in CitationUnited Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Evaluating the Status of Syrian Women in the Light of the Beijing Platform for Action (Amman: Arab States Regional Office, 2003).
27 Rabo, ‘Gender,’ p. 159.
29 Wieland, Syria at Bay, p. 71.
30 Compared to other Third World countries, the share of women employed outside the home is still low. The same tendency is found in the rest of the Arab world. Women in Syria constitute only 17–19 percent of the total number of employed people, whereas the average for all Third World countries is 35 percent. In the Arab world, salaried work is still primarily a male activity; see further CitationValentine Moghadam, Modernizing Women: Gender and Change in the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003), p. 49; UNIFEM, Evaluating the Status, p. 9.
31 CitationMervat F. Hatem, ‘Economic and political liberation in Egypt and the demise of state feminism,’ International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 24(2) (1992), pp. 231–251.
32 Rabo, ‘Gender,’ pp. 162–165; Hatem, ‘Modernization,’ pp. 77–79.
33 Rabo, ‘Gender,’ pp. 165–166. This way of presenting women was inspired primarily by socialist regimes in Eastern Europe and Egypt under Nasser; see further Wedeen, Ambiguities, p. 192; and Hatem, ‘Economic and political liberation.’
34 Rabo, ‘Gender,’ pp. 162–163.
35 Hatem, ‘Economic and political liberation,’ p. 231.
36 Hatem, ‘Economic and political liberation,’ p. 231
37 UNIFEM, Evaluating the Status, p. 7.
38 Rabo, ‘Gender,’ p. 161.
39 The Labour Law gives women particular rights in relation to their health and reproductive issues. For example, all women have the right to fully waged maternity leave for 75 days, employers are forbidden to dismiss women during their pregnancy and maternity leaves, and departments employing mothers are required to provide day-care services; see further UNIFEM, Evaluating the Status, p. 9. According to the Labour Law, these rules must apply to both private and public workplaces. However, according to the women in my study, the rules are not respected in most private companies.
40 Rabo, ‘Gender,’ p. 165.
41 CitationMordechai Kedar, Asad in Search for Legitimacy: Message and Rhetoric in the Syrian Press under Hafiz and Bashar (Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2005), p. 42.
42 CitationVolker Perthes, Syria under Bashar al-Asad: Modernisation and the Limits of Change (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 29.
43 Wieland, Syria at Bay, p. 55.
44 Moghadam, Modernizing Women, p. 130.
45 Lie & Vogt, Gender, Education and Ideology, p. 5; and Wieland, Syria at Bay, p. 72.
46 CitationSaid Ramadan al-Buti, Women: Between the Tyranny of the Western System and the Mercy of the Islamic Law (Damascus: Dar al Fikr, 2003), pp. 31, 43; emphasis added.
47 Moghadam, Gender and National Identity, p. 18.
48 Hinnebusch, Syria, p. 250.
49 The most serious threat came from the Muslim Brotherhood. Supported mainly by traditional urban circles, but increasingly also the wider educated urban Sunni middle class, the Muslim Brotherhood spoke in favor of regime change, challenging the regime throughout the 1970s with an intensive campaign of sabotage and assassination of Alawi elites. By the early 1980s the government had decided to repress the Islamic opposition by force. As a reaction to uprisings and assassinations in the city of Hama in 1982, the military invaded the city using helicopter gunships, bulldozers and artillery bombardment, destroying the city center and killing thousands of people. The Muslim Brotherhood was prohibited, and the opposition faded away; see further Hinnebusch, Syria, pp. 89–103.
50 Hinnebusch, Syria, p. 263.
51 Lie & Vogt, Gender, Education and Ideology, p. 15.
52 CitationElizabeth Thompson, Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), p. 287.
53 Author interview, Damascus, 21 November 2006.
54 Hatem, ‘Economic and political liberation,’ pp. 235, 244–245.
55 CitationMervat Hatem, ‘Egyptian discourses on gender and political liberalization: do secularists’ and Islamists’ views differ?,’ The Middle East Journal, 48(4) (1994), pp. 661–676.
56 Hatem, ‘Economic and political liberation,’ pp. 233–234.
57 Author survey, Damascus University, May 2004.
58 However, not all the female students in the lecture room agreed with this presentation of women's roles. Eman, 21 years old, from a lower-middle-class background, often criticized the views and arguments of this particular teacher, who, she felt, contributed to maintaining Syrian women in certain roles. When topics related to gender roles and womanhood were discussed in the lecture room, heated debates often arose between Eman and other female students. Damascus University, March 2004.
59 Author interviews, Damascus, 26 February 2004 and 1 July 2004.
60 Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination, p. 3.
61 CitationAfsaneh Najmabadi, ‘Crafting an educated housewife in Iran,’ in: CitationL. Abu-Lughod (Ed.) Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Arab World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998); CitationOmnia Shakry, ‘Schooled mothers and structured play: child rearing in turn-of-the-century Egypt,’ in: CitationL. Abu-Lughod (Ed.) Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Arab World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
62 Najmabadi, ‘Crafting,’ p. 95.
63 Najmabadi, ‘Crafting,’, p. 102.
64 Rabo, ‘The value,’ p. 115.
65 Lie & Vogt, Gender, Education and Ideology.
66 Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination, p. 6.
67 Simonsen, ‘Osmannerigets,’ p. 22.
68 Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination, p. 32. I find Wedeen's observations of the importance of political rhetoric and spectacles relevant to my analysis. However, I do not completely agree with her that every citizen's use of the Ba'th Party's rhetoric reflects solely compliance with the regime. Although some women expressed a certain degree of irony and cynicism when talking about the regime, I often observed a somewhat emotional commitment to the state, the nation and the president.
69 Perthes, The Political Economy, p. 97.
70 Rabo, ‘Gender,’ p. 167.
71 Author interview, Damascus, 1 March 2004.
72 Damascus, 19 May 2004.
73 Perthes, The Political Economy, p. 161.
74 Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination, p. 51.
75 CitationDorothy Holland, William Lachicotte Jr., Debra Skinner & Carole Cain, Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), p. 218.
76 Yuval-Davis, Gender & Nation, p. 60; Moghadam, Gender and National Identity, p. 2.
77 Moghadam, Gender and National Identity, pp. 2–3.
78 Thompson, Colonial Citizens.
79 Rabo, ‘Gender.’
80 Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation, pp. 60–61; Joseph, Gender and Citizenship, p. 6.
81 Moghadam, Gender and National Identity, pp. 2–3.
82 In Syria, as in the rest of the Middle East, private Islamic charity organizations have started offering services to the poor. Furthermore, Islamic educational institutions, such as the Abou El-Noor Institute in Damascus, have gained considerable influence in Syrian society. The Abou El-Noor Institute represents the Syrian Naqshbandi order, which promotes a conservative Sunni interpretation of Islam; see further Lie & Vogt, Gender, Education and Ideology.
83 Lie & Vogt, Gender, Education and Ideology.
84 Hatem, ‘Economic and political liberation,’ p. 233.
85 See, for example, CitationFatima Sadiqi, ‘Morocco's veiled feminists.’ Project syndicate: an association of newspapers around the world, available at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sadiqi1, 2006; CitationConnie Carøe Christensen, ‘Self and social process in women's Islamic activism: claims for recognition,’ PhD thesis, University of Copenhagen (1999); CitationConnie Carøe Christensen, ‘Women's Islamic activism: between self-practices and social reform efforts,’ in: J. L. Esposito (Ed.) Modernizing Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in the Middle East and Europe (London: Hurst, 2003).
86 CitationInternational Crisis Group (ICG), Syria under Bashar (II): Domestic Policy Challenges, Middle East Report no. 24 (Amman and Brussels: ICG, 2004), p. 15.
87 The Syrian regime is well aware of this situation. In 2001 and again in 2002, public employees were given wage increases of 25 and 20 percent, respectively; see further Perthes, Syria under Bashar al-Asad, p. 34.
88 CitationGregory Starrett, Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998).
89 CitationGregory Starrett, Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998)
90 CitationRoger Owen, ‘The growth of state power in the Arab world: the single-party regimes,’ in: R. Owen (Ed.) State, Power and Politics in the Making of Modern Middle East (London: Routledge, 2000), p. 34.