Carine Allaf | Times Higher Education
“Time and time again, media outlets conjure images of Arab women who need saving and empowering via the education and development initiatives of the Western world and international organisations such as the World Bank and the United Nations. Fida Adely's close-focus examination of the education of young women in the Middle East moves away from such generalisations and stereotypes, and instead thoughtfully analyses the nuances and complexities of the everyday lives of a group of young women at al-Khatwa Secondary School for Girls in Bawadi al-Naseem, Jordan. The result is a breath of fresh air in an area dominated by sweeping terminology and homogeneity in descriptions of women in the Arab world. I found Gendered Paradoxes an exciting addition to a limited body of literature and one that is sure to shift perceptions of women's schooling in the region.”
Hervé Varenne, Columbia University
“In Gendered Paradoxes, Fida Adely develops brilliantly the work of a new generation of scholars on women in the Middle East. Her concern with adolescent girls in school is original and most timely. Adely gives us a unique glimpse at the girls struggling intellectually and emotionally with their conditions, and particularly with all the possibilities and constraints Islam gives them. This work should put to rest the notion that people in the Middle East, and particularly women, are homogeneous or uncritical in their allegiances. Policy makers should pay attention.”
Sally Bland | Jordan Times
“Gendered Paradoxes critiques misconceptions of Jordanian (and, by extension, Arab and Muslim) women as being overwhelmingly held back by their families and culture. While not denying the persistence of patriarchal structures, Adely’s research clearly refutes the notion that girls typically see their families or future marriage as obstacles to fulfillment, or that they are discouraged from higher education by their kin. On the contrary, the book presents many examples of families scraping together their meager resources to send their daughters to university, and a number of instances of husbands doing the same for their young wives. . . . Gendered Paradoxes is written in an engaging, very readable style, giving a tangible sense of the changes and diversity in Jordanian society and culture which are readily apparent, even in a provincial town. It marks a refreshing departure from the usual lenses for viewing the country either from Amman’s modernity or based on the Bedouin past. Arguably, this also means that its findings are more representative.”
Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University
“Gendered Paradoxes is a path-breaking study that challenges orthodoxies about women, education, and development in the Arab world (and elsewhere). Unique in the balance it strikes between sophisticated analysis and engaging ethnography, it opens our eyes both to the complexity of real girls’ experiences of schooling in Jordan and the flaws in standard theories about why education matters. By far the best analysis of contemporary Jordanian society and culture I have read—taking on sensitive issues of family, nationalism, religion, and morality—this lucid book will become a classic. One can hope that it will also transform debates about gender and development.”
Mya Guarnieri | Los Angeles Review of Books
“Energetic, highly readable exploration of identity politics in a young nation. . . . While Gendered Paradoxes offers a revealing look at the lives of Jordanian girls and women, it also forces us ‘Western’ women to hold the mirror up to ourselves. The book serves as a reminder that the so-called culture clash between the ‘Occident’ and ‘Orient’ is less about meaningful differences and more about the constructs that prevent us from acknowledging our similarities.”
Farha Ghannam, Swarthmore College
“Focusing on the understudied country of Jordan and the infrequently addressed issue of the education of youth in the Middle East, Gendered Paradoxes explores schools as sites for competing visions, expectations, dreams, and aspirations related to the meaning of womanhood, marriage, love, respectability, and morality. Fida Adely forcefully takes us beyond the view of the Arab woman as a ‘passive’ and ‘oppressed’ victim, sharing with us the words and experiences of a strong and vibrant group of young women who are actively working with and against contradictory and ambiguous norms that define notions of success, respectability, progress, and happiness.”
Acknowledgments
Introduction A Day in the Life of Nada
One Ambiguous Times and Spaces
Two Jordan and the al-Khatwa Secondary School for Girls: People, Place, and Time
Three Performing Patriotism: Rituals and Moral Authority in a Jordanian High School
Four Who Is a Good Muslim? Making Proper Faith in a Girls’ High School
Five Making Girls into Respectable Women
Six Education for What? Women, Work, and Development in Jordan
Seven Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
