Women in the Mediterranean have helped constitute new meanings of knowledge whilst simultaneously providing a wealth of material that is now part of the knowledge archive of the area. The inception of types of knowledge that differ from the conventional necessitates a re-definition of the concept of ‘knowledge,’ an issue which is addressed in this volume.
Employing a range of theories and methodologies, this book explores four main domains in which women’s knowledge is attested: women and written knowledge; women and oral knowledge; women and legal, religious, and economic knowledge; and women and media knowledge. By presenting untapped women’s expressions of knowledge in these domains, this book opens new avenues of research in fields such as sociology, history and literature, amongst others.
This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of the Middle East, Women and Gender studies and Mediterranean Studies.
Introduction Fatima Sadiqi Part I : Women and Written Knowledge 1. A Sceptical Cast of Mind Marjorie Lightman 2. Women and Knowledge in Italy and Venice During the Early Modern Period: Moderata Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella Paola Malpezzi 3. Seven Francophone Mediterranean Women Writers Speak Out Inside and Outside Evelyne Accad 4. Moroccan Women Authors of French Expression : Feminine Voices of La Littérature Monde in the Age of Globalization Valerie Orlando 5. The necessity of Having it Both Ways : Tradition, Modernity and Experience in the Works of Hele Beji Debbie Barnard Part II : Women and Oral Knowledge 6. Textual Orality and Knowledge of Illiterate Women : The Textual performance of Jewish Women in Morocco Joseph Chetrit 7. Berber Women’s Oral Knowledge Fatima Sadiqi Part III : Women, Legal, Religious and Economic Knowledge 8. Morocco’s 2004 Family Code Moudawana : Improving Access to Justice for Women Leila Hanafi and Christine Pratt 9. Women’s Access to Legal Knowledge : The Case of Palestinian Women’s NGOs in Israel Liat Kozma 10. Women and Religious Knowledge : Focus on Muslim Women Preachers Moha Ennaji 11. Women and Reproductive Knowledge in the Mediterranean Rachel Newcomb Part IV : Women and Media Knowledge 12. Contextualising the Gender Representation in Cyprus Television Mary Koutselini and Sofia Agathangelou 13. Gender and Political Engagement : A Role for the Media in the Malta Carmen Sammut 14. Stepping Out : Women Bloggers in Their Discontents Marilyn Tadros
Biography
Fatima Sadiqi is Senior Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies and recipient of a Harvard Fellowship. Her main research interests are language, culture, and women’s and gender issues in North Africa. She is currently writing a book with the provisional title A Feminism of One’s Own: Women’s Empowerment in Morocco – Going Beyond Islam.
