1. Team 1: How do patriarchal beliefs and practices relate to our study of the "other" in the last two weeks? This question is not so much about what men and women do to constrain women and privilege men, but rather why they do it. Does our study of alterity ("othering") suggest any answers? (reflection)


2. Team 2: Outline what the Christian passages say or assume about women's place. Do the same for the Qur'anic passages. Read Bible Babel pp. 184-6 closely and be able to describe what a "hermeneutics of suspicion" is and how feminist scholars (male and female ones) apply it to these scriptural texts. (interpretation of scripture)


3. Team 3: Read Bible Babel 88-90 closely, and compare the treatment of abortion in scripture to its place in our own social debates today. Be able to explain why the issue is almost never mentioned in the Bible, and to account for why some Christian groups are so invested in it given the lack of biblical reference. Does the biblical or the contemporary practice reflect each culture's view of the place of women? Sonbol argues in her article that shari'ah is often blamed for unequal gender relations, but that in fact shari'ah is being interpreted and applied differently today than at any other time in Muslim history. How is today's interpretation different and problematic? (historical comparison)


4. Team 4: Weigh the arguments in support of constraining women's behavior and those in support of allowing women the freedom to act on their own. Select examples from our reading, the slides above, or other contemporary events. On what basis do you judge one position more valid than the other? (ethical evaluation)

Assigned Readings

 

Primary: Romans 16; 1 Corinthians 11:2-16; 1 Timothy 2:8–3:13; surahs 2:222-242; 4:127-134

 

Secondary: Swenson, Bible Babel 75-7, 184-6; 88-90; Amira El-Azhary Sonbol, "Rethinking Women and Islam," in Daughters of Abraham: Feminist Thought in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (ed. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and John L. Esposito; Tallahassee: University Press of Florida, 2001) 108-46 (Camino)

 

 

Slides from Lecture

 

 

Further Reading

 

Adler, Rachel.  Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics.  New York: Jewish Publication Society, 1998.

 

Ahmed, Leila.  Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate.  New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1992.

 

Jeffreys, Sheila.  Man's Dominion: The Rise of Religion and the Eclipse of Women's Rights.  New York: Routledge, 2011.

 

Kahl, Brigitte and Heidemarie Salevsky.  "In Search of Hagar. A Biblical Story (Gen 16) within the Framework of the Jewish-Christian-Muslim Encounter – An Interdisciplinary Approach."  In Translation: Religion, Ideology, Politics (ed. Todd Burrell and Sean K. Kelly; Translation Perspectives 8; Binghamton, State University of New York, 1995) 10-25.

 

Nadell, Pamela.  Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination 1889-1985.   Boston: Beacon Press, 1998.

 

Macy, Gary.  The Hidden History of Women's Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

 

Madigan, Kevin and Carolyn Osiek ed.  Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History.  Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.

 

Mahmood, Saba.  Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject.  Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005.

 

Mernissi, Fátima.  Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society.  Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1987.

 

Plaskow, Judith.  Standing again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective.  New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

 

Rosenberger, Sieglinde and Birgit Sauer.  Politics, Religion and Gender: Framing and Regulating the Veil, Routledge Studies in Religion and Politics.  New York: Routledge, 2011.

 

Swidler, Leonard and Arlene Swidler, eds.  Women Priests: A Catholic Commentary on the Vatican Declaration.  New York: Paulist, 1977.

 

 

 

 

Links

• The Saudi Women Revolution Statement - published on the blog of journalist Mona Kareem in March of 2011, this statement describes some of the legal constraints on women in Saudi Arabia and demands remedies for them, including the right to drive.


• Saudi Women Get Behind the Wheel - a July 13, 2011 report by Jessica Mack for Foreign Policy in Focus that outlines the key events in the Saudi Women Revolution this past year, including the civil disobedience act on June 17 to drive and post videos of the illegal act on YouTube.


• "You are not alone!" - a paper by Tayse Pallaoro published on Re-Public: Re-imagining Democracy that examines (as its subtitle indicates) how the internet has been empowering women's activism in Egypt during this year's overthrow of the Mubarrak government. Translated from the original Greek.


• Catholic Church Documents on the Ordination of Women - a list and links to all the pertinent Roman Catholic Church documents prohibiting the ordination of women, maintained by advocacy group, Women Can Be Priests.


• Women's Ordination Conference - a website promoting the ordination of women in the Catholic Church, with news and resource links.


• A History of Women's Ordination as Rabbis - an article by Avi Hein posted on the Jewish Virtual Library, tracing the role of Jewish women in religious leadership positions particularly in the four major denominations of Judaism today: Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Orthodox.

 

 

Sources

Photographs:

• "The Four Gospels in Armenian: God Creating Eve," illumination from an Armenian gospel manuscript from Isfahan, Iran, 1587, MS Arm.20, f.9, John Rylands University, Manchester; reproduced on the page "Armenian Gospels," British Library: Learning, online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Saudi women with signs: Manal Al-Hazzaa. Posted on the blog of journalist Mona Kareem, "The Saudi Women Revolution Statement" (18 March 2011), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Victoria Rue, ordained Catholic priest and San Jose State University professor: Photo by Reuters just after her ordination on a boat in international waters on the St. Lawrence Seaway near Gananoque, Ontario, 25 July 2005. Reproduced in an article by Joeph Picard, "Vatican versus Women Priests," International Business Times US (16 July 2010), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Montage of influential Jewish rabbis in the U.S.: from an article by Gabrielle Birkner, "The Sisterhood 50: America's Influential Women Rabbis," The Jewish Daily Forward (21 July 2010), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Iranian Woman protesting denial of rights and corrupt election in 2009: FARS News Agency, posted at Setareh Sabety, "Women, Islam, Egypt, and Iran," PBS Frontline: Tehran Bureau (2 February 2011), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Women protesting at the Vatican (October 2008): Women's Ordination Conference, reproduced on the website of Women's Ordination Worldwide, online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to be ordained Bishop in the Anglican Communion worldwide, after her installation in November 2006: Ethan Miller / Getty Images, reproduced in an article by the Associated Press, "Episcopalians Install First Female Bishop," Life on MSNBC.com (4 November 2006), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Logo for the Women2Drive civil disobedience act, a "drive-in," in Saudi Arabia 17 June 2011, logo from the Twitter feed for the Women2Drive movement.


• Banner for the Women2Drive movement, downloaded from Jessica Mack, "Saudi Women Get Behind the Wheel," FPIF (Foreign Policy in Focus: Regions/Middle East & North Africa) (13 July 2011), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• French Muslim wearing flag face veil: Posted on blog, "Commenting on French Ban of Face Veil," Technology of the Heart (14 April 2011), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Alysa Stanton, first African American female rabbi: from an article by Affrodite, "The Nation Welcomes Its First African American Woman Rabbi, Alysa Stanton," Affrodite.net (8 June 2009), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Saba Mahmood, Feminist Anthropologist at UC Berkeley whose work focuses on the politics of religious freedom in the Middle East: "Saba Mahmood," CASBS at Stanford University (30 April 2010), online, accessed 12 November 2011.


• Alina Treiger, first woman ordained a rabbi in Germany since WWII: from an article "First Woman Rabbi Since WWII Ordained," The Local: Germany's News in English (4 November 2010), online, accessed 12 November 2011.