Books by Mounira Maya Charrad
Fall 2016 · Vol 28 · No 1 ...this became a party to which Max Weber, E.P. Thompson, Pierre Bourdi... more Fall 2016 · Vol 28 · No 1 ...this became a party to which Max Weber, E.P. Thompson, Pierre Bourdieu, and I would add, Gayatri Spivak, were all warmly invited...one of my ambitions in Making Morocco was to use field theory as a means to bring together Weberian and subaltern approaches to carry out something that falls on the disciplinary line between sociological history and historical sociology.
States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco
At a time when the situation of women in the Islamic world is of global interest, here is a study... more At a time when the situation of women in the Islamic world is of global interest, here is a study that unlocks the mystery of why women's fates vary so greatly from one country to another. Mounira M. Charrad analyzes the distinctive nature of Islamic legal codes by placing them in the larger context of state power in various societies.
Charrad argues that many analysts miss what is going on in Islamic societies because they fail to recognize the logic of the kin-based model of social and political life, which she contrasts with the Western class-centered model. In a skillful synthesis, she shows how the logic of Islamic legal codes and kin-based political power affect the position of women. These provide the key to Charrad's empirical puzzle: why, after colonial rule, women in Tunisia gained broad legal rights (even in the absence of a feminist protest movement) while, despite similarities in culture and religion, women remained subordinated in post-independence Morocco and Algeria. Charrad's elegant theory, crisp writing, and solid scholarship make a unique contribution in developing a state-building paradigm to discuss women's rights.
This book will interest readers in the fields of sociology, politics, law, women's studies, postcolonial studies, Middle Eastern studies, Middle Eastern history, French history, and Maghrib studies.
Patrimonial Capitalism and Empire
There is today a new interest in empires past and present. Scholars seek fresh ways of understand... more There is today a new interest in empires past and present. Scholars seek fresh ways of understanding a form of power far older than the modern nation state. Others see empire, not long ago assumed to be a mode of governance on the way out, as having a surprising new lease on life, and want to better understand the reasons why. This volume focuses on the interconnected formations of patrimonialism, colonialism/empire and capitalism. Leading scholars analyze patrimonial politics in empires in regions throughout the world, including the United States, Latin America, China, South Africa, North Africa, West Africa, India, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The articles show that patrimonial practices, which often form the backbone of empire, are present throughout history, including in global capitalist modernity. This volume will appeal to students of politics, and to a multidisciplinary scholarly audience in political sociology; historical social science; history; social theory, and area studies.
Patrimonial Power in the Modern World
During the 2011 uprisings in the Arab world, protesters demanded the ouster of authoritarian form... more During the 2011 uprisings in the Arab world, protesters demanded the ouster of authoritarian forms of rule and an end to the influence of ruling families on politics, society, and the economy. These upheavals revealed that patrimonial power in its diverse forms is still a dynamic force in global politics, able to shape world events. This volume brings the study of patrimonialism back to center stage and presents the concept as a useful tool to analyze how nations, global developments, and international relations are influenced and transformed. Leading scholars show that patrimonial practices, present throughout history, are important features of global capitalist modernity. The authors analyze patrimonial politics in regions throughout the world, including in the United States, Tunisia, Chile, France, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Poland, and Russia. This volume will appeal to students of politics and policy and to a multidisciplinary scholarly audience in political sociology, historical social science, history, and social theory.
Women’s Agency: Silences and Voices
The authors in this special issue discuss how women's voices are excluded, silenced and marginali... more The authors in this special issue discuss how women's voices are excluded, silenced and marginalized in settings and processes such as war, displacement, democratization, labor market, judicial system, state bureaucracy, nonprofit organizations and national debates on citizenship. They also discover how women found their voices, channeled them, modified them, and gained a measure of empowerment. They examine women's agency across cultures by focusing on countries as diverse as Turkey, Portugal, Lebanon, Mexico and the US. Each article is concerned with particular transformations in social, economic and political systems that in turn shape women's social, economic and political ability or lack thereof to make their voices heard. All articles are engaged with identifying structural problems that limit women's personal, social and political capacity to maneuver for their own interests. Then again, each piece analyzes a particular form of women's agency or efforts to change their circumstances according to their interests and concerns.
Femmes, Culture et Société au Maghreb
2 vols. Volume I: Culture, Femmes et Famille. Volume II: Femmes, Pouvoir Politique et Develop... more 2 vols. Volume I: Culture, Femmes et Famille. Volume II: Femmes, Pouvoir Politique et Developpement.
Co-edited with R. Bourqia
Article by Mounira Maya Charrad
Limits of Empire: The French Colonial State Local Patrimonialism
Progressive Family Law: How It Came About in Tunisia
Living History Interview: Mounira Maya Charrad
Introduction: Patrimonialism, Past and Present
Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2011
Julia Adams is a professor of sociology and in international and area studies at Yale University,... more Julia Adams is a professor of sociology and in international and area studies at Yale University, where she also chairs the sociology department and is Joseph C. Fox Director of the Fox International Fellowship Program. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of state formation; gender and family; social theory; and early modern European politics, colonialism, and empire. She is currently studying large-scale forms of patriarchal politics and the historical sociology of principal-agent relations.
Central and Local Patrimonialism: State-Building in Kin-Based Societies
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2011
How useful is the concept of patrimonialism to analyze state formation and political dynamics in ... more How useful is the concept of patrimonialism to analyze state formation and political dynamics in postcolonial nation-states? Using Tunisia, Morocco, and Iraq during critical periods of state-building following the end of colonial rule, the author considers this question. The purpose of the article is to build on Max Weber by exploring how patrimonialism operates in kin-based social contexts where power on the basis of kinship ties is exerted not only by a central authority but also by leaders of local communities organized along lines of real or fictive kinship—as was the case in the three countries in the period under examination. Suggesting that Weber undertheorized the way in which central authority relates to local collectivities in his analysis of patrimonialism, the author identifies three patterns in the strategies used by central power toward local patrimonial networks: marginalization, integration, and shifts between marginalization and integration. The article argues that central patrimonialism can be accommodated with all three strategies directed toward local patrimonialism.
Gender in the Middle East: Islam, State, Agency
Annual Review of Sociology, 2011
... Spellberg (1994) studies the life and political legacy of A'isha bint Abi Ba... more ... Spellberg (1994) studies the life and political legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, perhaps the most prominent wife of the Prophet, and ... every aspect of their daily lives, including work, family, and community politics (see also Zuhur 1992, Saktanber 2002, Deeb 2006, Mahmood 2005). ...
Contexts, Concepts and Contentions: Gender Legislation as Politics in the Middle East
Hawwa, 2007
Kinship, Islam, or Oil: Culprits of Gender Inequality?
Politics & Gender, 2009
... New York: Doubleday. Khadar, Asma. 1996. ... Labidi, Lilia. 2007. The Nature of Transnationa... more ... New York: Doubleday. Khadar, Asma. 1996. ... Labidi, Lilia. 2007. The Nature of Transnational Alliances in Women's Associations in the Maghreb: The Case of AFTURD and ATFD. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 3 (1): 634. Mernissi, Fatima. 1991. ...
Equal or complementary? Women in the new Tunisian Constitution after the Arab Spring
The Journal of North African Studies, 2014
ABSTRACT
Women’s agency across cultures: Conceptualizing strengths and boundaries
Women's Studies International Forum, 2010
... 5572. Charrad, 2009 Mounira M. Charrad, Kinship, Islam or oil: culprits of gender inequality... more ... 5572. Charrad, 2009 Mounira M. Charrad, Kinship, Islam or oil: culprits of gender inequality?. Politics and Gender, 5 4 (2009), pp. ... 137159. Mahmood, 2001 Saba Mahmood, Feminist theory, embodiment, and the docile agent: some reflections on the Egyptian Islamic revival. ...
FAMILY LAW REFORMS IN THE ARAB WORLD: TUNISIA and MOROCCO
Starting in the 1950s and ever since, Tunisia has implemented gender legislation expanding women'... more Starting in the 1950s and ever since, Tunisia has implemented gender legislation expanding women's rights in family law. The ground breaking phase occurred with the promulgation of the Code of Personal Status in the mid-1950s during the formation of a national state in the aftermath of independencefrom French colonial rule. Another major phase occurred in the 1990s with citizenship law reforms as embodied in the Tunisian Code ofNationality. As a result ofthese two majorphases, Tunisia has been at theforefront of"womanfriendly" legislative changes in the Arab-Muslim world and is widely recognized as such. At a time when issues of women's rights are not only highly debated, but sometimes violently contested in Muslim countries, the Tunisian case requires examination. This Article documents the two major phases of reforms in favor of women's rights in Tunisia and outlines the conditions that permitted or encouraged the continuity over the last halfcentury. The first wave of reforms in the 1950s transformed the legal construction ofgender roles within the family. The second wave in the 1990s redefined the conditions for the transmission of Tunisian citizenship. In painting social change in broad strokes, I analyze the initial and pioneering phase of the 1950s as a reform resulting from the actions ofa newlyformed national state interested in building a new society at the end of colonial rule. By contrast, the role of women's agency came into play in Tunisia
Sustained Reforms of Islamic Family Law: Tunisia under Authoritarian Regimes, 1950s to 2010
forthcoming
Constructing Citizenship: Gender and Changing Discourses in Tunisia.
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Books by Mounira Maya Charrad
Charrad argues that many analysts miss what is going on in Islamic societies because they fail to recognize the logic of the kin-based model of social and political life, which she contrasts with the Western class-centered model. In a skillful synthesis, she shows how the logic of Islamic legal codes and kin-based political power affect the position of women. These provide the key to Charrad's empirical puzzle: why, after colonial rule, women in Tunisia gained broad legal rights (even in the absence of a feminist protest movement) while, despite similarities in culture and religion, women remained subordinated in post-independence Morocco and Algeria. Charrad's elegant theory, crisp writing, and solid scholarship make a unique contribution in developing a state-building paradigm to discuss women's rights.
This book will interest readers in the fields of sociology, politics, law, women's studies, postcolonial studies, Middle Eastern studies, Middle Eastern history, French history, and Maghrib studies.
Co-edited with R. Bourqia
Article by Mounira Maya Charrad