Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East

Including North Africa in her study, Moghadan (women's studies and sociology, Illinois State U.) looks at the impact of social change on women's legal status, their social positions, and constructions of gender from a sociological perspective. She insists that, contrary to many superficial accounts, women's lives are not solely determined by religion, but are also heavily impacted by economic development, the state, class location, patriarchy, and the world system. The bulk of the work looks at the Middle East and North Africa, but a couple of individual chapters are devoted to Afghanistan and Iran. This new edition has been updated to take into account events of the past 10 years. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR