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Return to topThe American public has become eager to learn more about Muslim women of the Middle East since the terrorist attacks nearly two months ago. Are these women veiled, cowed and subservient? Or feminists who lead roles in business, education and politics?
The latter is more accurate, says Minoo Moallem, associate professor and chair of women studies. She has studied Muslim feminist movements in the Middle East and issues of gender and fundamentalism for more than 10 years.
"Muslim women are active agents leading social movements in their societies," says Moallem.
Her latest book, Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Cultural Politics of Patriarchy (University of California Press), will be published soon. The book will explore the construction of gender, race and ethnicity in Iran - an Islamic patriarchy - following the country's revolution in the late 1970s.
Moallem believes ignorant views of Muslim women represent a form of "sexualized racism" that has been perpetuated throughout modern history. However, feminist movements in the Middle East are as old as the contemporary world, she says.
For example, an early-20th century writing titled "Sultana's Dream," written by a Bengali Muslim woman named Rokeya Hossein and published in the Indian Ladies' Magazine, describes a utopian world in which women exercise power over men. A book written by Muslim men in the late 19th century titled Disciplining Women gives advice on training women to be "good wives." Vices of Men, written in response by a woman named Bibi khanum Asrtarabadi, lashes back satirically.
Moallem says in recent years, women in the Middle East are making their voices heard from national politics and law to business and neighborhood activism. Women's rights groups exist even in the strictest Islamic republics. Saudi Arabia, where men and women cannot mix, is the home of many women-owned and operated banks and hospitals that exclusively serve women.
In Iran - where Moallem was born and raised - women negotiated with the government to gain the right to become judges. In 1997, she says eight women ran for president in Iran.
Moallem was raised in a Muslim family that instilled the importance of education. She became interested in gender issues as a teenager and aspired to become a scholar in this area.
"Coming out of socialist movements in Iran and Third World countries, it's extremely important to me to have a space to engage, reflect and intervene in political life," she says. "Universities provide this space."
After earning her master's degree in sociology from the University of Tehran, Moallem left Iran because the revolution brought to power an Islamic fundamentalist patriarchy, resulting in fewer civil liberties for women. She moved to France and later to Canada, where she earned a doctorate in sociology from the University of Montreal.
In 1990 Moallem moved to Berkeley, where she still lives, to pursue post-doctoral work at UC Berkeley. She met SFSU women studies Professor Inderpal Grewal at the Beatrice M. Bain Research Group on Gender on campus in the mid-1990s. They were delighted to continue their mutual research interests when Moallem joined SFSU in 1997.
"Her work on Iran lets us know details on how Islamic fundamentalism emerged and how fundamentalists use gender as tools for political issues," Grewal said. "Since Sept. 11, she has helped us understand how fundamentalism functions in the modern world - like what technologies (fundamentalists) use, what media they use.
"She is such a treasure to have at San Francisco State," Grewal added.
In turn, Moallem enjoys teaching at SFSU and loves the campus' diversity.
"You go to class and see a community of various histories," she says. "It's like magic every time. You teach, but you learn a lot."
Given world events, Moallem's research and expertise have become timely. She has lent her expertise to recent teach-ins at UC Berkeley and UC Davis. She has also received calls from reporters as close as San Francisco and far away as Australia, asking her to comment on Muslim women.
Moallem, who describes herself as a secular Muslim, says she believes people should research - through books, classes, lectures and other people - the facts beyond media reports to learn about women in the Middle East.
"Women are fighting on many different facets; it's such an arrogant thing to think they're all the same," says Moallem, adding that the Middle East is not limited to Muslims, and Islam itself is composed of many different branches.
"We have to stop being arrogant about others and make an effort to understand particular histories and the context of the global world we live in," she says.
-Matt Itelson
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