Session 2: Transitions, Values
and Women's Writings
Chair: Thomas Hey
Timothy Walters
- Transitional Women II: A Case Study of Values of University-age
Women in the Context of an Arabic/Islamic Society
College of Communication and Media Studies, Zayed University, Dubai,
United Arab Emirates
This paper is the second in a series of studies designed
to examine: 1) Rokeach’s terminal and instrumental values in the
context of a non-Western culture, specifically Arab/Islam of the United
Arab Emirates; 2) whether there are emerging (perhaps transitional)
family and female typologies based on these value sets; 3) and the relationship
between outside forces (the economy and public policy for example) and
the family. It is also meant 4) to gather questions for future study.
The paper is based on a survey of students at the all-female Zayed University
in Dubai. The results suggested differences between groups of students
with respect to Rokeach’s Terminal and Instrumental Values. Environmental
factors that seem to influence these differences included religion,
education, urbanization, and the changing role of women in society.
Findings suggest that Rokeach’s values system must rephrased,
gathering terms bound to Arabic/Islamic Society.
In a world increasingly focused on the Middle East, it is critical to
know whether a new value system is emerging in the region, where that
value system is coming from, and how to study the values that are generated.
First, though, the old value system must be known.
Determining these benchmarks has begun with a focus group of senior
level students at Zayed University.
Nawar Golley
- Arab Women Writings in the 1990's; The Challenges after September
11th
Department of English, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Change in the Arab world, regarding women, has been
accelerating over the last decade. One could write books on women in
modern Arab countries in the 1990s alone. I can refer here to evidence
of such change in what I see on the shelves of bookshops.
1 - In the 1980’s, the number of books by Arab women was so limited;
not any more. Not only has the number of Arabic bookshops increased
around the world, but so too has the number of books by Arab women.
Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian women have been known as writers for decades.
But women writers from the Gulf countries were rarely found. Now, there
are books by women from Bahrain, the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
2 - The other encouraging issue is the number of new Arab publishers.
Apart from the known publishers in Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo, there
are now many new publishers in Bahrain, Kuwait, the Emirates and even
Riyadh.
3 - Ghada al-Samman has published a book that many consider as a brave
beginning of a new genre in Arabic literature: literary letters. The
book is called Ghassan Kanafani's Letters to Ghada al-Samman (Beirut:
Dar al-Taliya, 1992) reprinted in 1993.
4 - There are also many new biographical titles.
5 - The mid-1990’s also witnessed the birth of the first-of-its
kind monthly cultural review, Al-Katiba, meaning the female-writer,
which is in itself a very promising and pioneering feminist adventure.
II- The Challenges after the Sept 11.