Seminars
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†ºApril 2000. Judith Tucker, Professor of History at Georgetown University in the United Stats, was invited to introduce her book In the House of Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine (1999). She presented some of the significant and amusing court cases and legal fatwas (legal opinions) documented in Ottoman shar’I court records, such as cases of divorce, kul’ and rape.
 
†ºMay 2000. Suad Joseph, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California-
Davis in the United States, was invited to introduce her book Intimate Selving in Arab
Families: Gender, Self, and Identity (1999). S. Joseph talked about the concept of the self in Arab Families in contrast to Western psychological theories which put strict boundaries around the self to make of it a unified and consistent but separate essence. These theories assumed a normal progressing of the self until it reaches individuation and autonomy through a sequence of stages. However, the notion of the self (especially in Arab families in Lebanon which Joseph studied) is a “relational” self, a characteristic that was often “feminized” in some previous studies. Yet she found out that within the wide circle of Arab family relations connectivity exists in both men and women and so this dichotomy is broken. Men in Arab Lebanese families interact socially as kinsmen, i.e. as husbands, brothers, uncles, cousins, and fathers… etc. “Connective selves” may be present in the West but is not valued, and is considered disfunctional. Hence, a new point is made concerning patriarchal connectivity and the relation between love and power. This is the motion of “mirroring” in the network of relations among the various selves, meaning the sense of the self existing in the other, as when a subordinate self sees itself in the other. Some of these ideas elicited questions from the audience on east-west polarization and on possible reactions from feminist theorists, who might see in this a justification or a rationalization of kinsmenship and customs, hegemony over society and over women.
 
 
†ºOctober 2000. Hala Kamal, a founding member of WMF, gave a talk entitled,
“Contemporary Trends in Women’s Studies”, in which she presented an overview of the different fields of study and their controversial aspects. The point was made that women’s studies differ from feminism in that the former depend on the element of advocacy and education. Women’s studies began in the sixties with the purpose of consciousness-raising within academic and research circles. Hala Kamal attempted a survey of numerous theories and offshoot branches in the field of women’s studies. The idea that became clear to everyone present was that women’s studies is not one monolithic entity, but a variety of ideas, themes, schools, and methods that make room for diverse choices.
 
 
†ºNovember 2000. Heba Helmi, Assistant Lecturer and holder of MA degree in art history, School of Arts, Helwan University, Egypt – gave an interesting talk on November 25th, entitled, “Images of Women in European Painting in the Second Half of the 19th Century”. The talk was accompanied by showing and analyzing images of paintings. Heba Helmi discussed reasons for the spread of nude paintings of women in this period despite the conservative Victorian culture of England at that time. One important reason is the economic or commercial reason, that is, marketing the art work and making large profits. This encouraged artists to draw more nude women for quick sales and profits. This factor, in turn, led to the phenomenon of marketing the nude female body itself. Heba Helmi also mentioned the role of the development of photography in demystifying the female body, while emphasizing the realistic or sensual side in painting women. Emphasizing this sensuality represents the “male gaze” and the voyeuristic enjoyment of the female body. Some paintings even make female painted figures share the “male gaze” of the assumed viewer outwards to exchange looks and thus acknowledging the fact that she is being viewed. This leads to further “objectifying” the woman and her body on more than one level. Furthermore, the marginalization of women artists within the European art movement in general was noted.
 
 
†ºSeminar on Leaves of the Narcissus by Somaya Ramadan. The evening was held in Cairo Library on May 30th, 2001. Three discussants were invited to discuss the novel: Mohammad Al-Beriri, Professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Beni Soueif in Egypt and the American University in Cairo; Dr. Samia Mehrez, Professor of Arabic Literature at the American University in Cairo; Sahar El-Mougy, a writer, novelist, and Lecturer of English Literature at Cairo University. The novel was later awarded the American University Naguib Mahfuz Novel Prize for the year 2001.

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