Undergraduate Course: Reading Arab Feminist Texts: Key Debates on Women's Rights in the Arab World (IMES10093)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course provides a survey of key Arab feminist texts produced by writers, thinkers, and activists during the 20th and 21st centuries. As this is a language-based course, these texts will be read in the original Arabic alongside secondary sources that illuminate the central debates these texts engage with.
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| Course description |
This is a language-based discursive course designed to enable students to examine key Arab feminist texts and to consider these within broader social, cultural, and political contexts. It aims to historicise and explore the development of central debates on women's rights in the Arab world, including such issues as women's education, access to the public sphere, sexuality, the veil, and secular/religious feminisms. A selection of key texts by writers, thinkers, and activists from across the Arab world (such as Nawal El-Saadawi, Fatima Mernissi, and others) will be read and translated from the Arabic by students throughout the semester. These texts may be autobiographical, creative, documentary, or theoretical in nature. Alongside this translation exercise, students will read relevant secondary texts that both contextualise and illustrate the arguments of the primary texts. Some of the primary texts will also be available in English. The course draws on and develops students' linguistic abilities while simultaneously introducing important milestones and tensions in the struggle for women's rights in the Arab world.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This course is only open to students in Year 4 enrolled on a degree in Arabic. |
| Additional Costs | 0 |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 courses in a suitable subject area at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses.
Students will also have to contact the course organiser to check level of Arabic language ability before being admitted to the course. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 25 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
Summative Assessment Hours 3,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
171 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
60 %,
Coursework
40 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Participation: 10% of total mark (engagement with weekly prompts)
Translations: 3 assignments x 10% (30% of total mark)
On campus Exam: 60% of total mark |
| Feedback |
Ongoing feedback in online and in-person class discussions.
Summative feedback for participation, coursework, and final exam.
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| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 3:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Read and translate Arabic feminist texts into English.
- Critically engage with a variety of Arab feminist texts by situating them within their broader cultural, political, and historical contexts.
- Synthesise primary and secondary texts to map the development of key debates on women's rights in the Arab world.
- Evaluate current discussions of women's rights in the Arab world and continued feminist struggles in light of these earlier developments.
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Reading List
Preliminary reading list:
Badran, Margot and Cooke, Miriam (eds.), Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writing, (1990), Virago Press: London.
Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Jean Said Makdishi, Noha Bayoumi, and Rafif Rida (eds.), Arab Feminisms: Gender and Equality in the Middle East. I.B. Tauris: London and New York.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will benefit from the development of several applied skills and generic cognitive skills at the SCQF level 10 such as being able to critically identify, define, conceptualise and analyse complex problems and issues related to women's rights and gender equality in the Arab world, as well as critically reviewing and consolidating knowledge and skills as applied to the texts under study within this course. Students' communication skills will also develop through oral presentations and written assessment. These skills are transferable to professional settings. Due to the interdisciplinary composition of this course, students will also cultivate subject-specific skills, as outlined in the Area Studies subject benchmark statement. Specifically, students will develop their skills in a language other than English (Arabic in this case) and an ability to deploy these language skills, at an appropriate level, within a research context.
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| Keywords | Arab women,feminism,Arabic,women¿s rights,gender equality |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Ebtihal Mahadeen
Tel: (0131 6)50 4463
Email: Ebtihal.Mahadeen@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lina Gordyshevskaya
Tel:
Email: pgordysh@ed.ac.uk |
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