Gender and Violence in the Middle East argues that violence is fundamental to the functioning of the patriarchal gender structure that governs daily life in Middle Eastern societies. In this societal sense, men as well as women may be said to be victims of the structural violence inherent in Middle Eastern gender relations. Ghanim shows that the varieties of physical violence against women for which the Middle East is notorious--honor killings, obligatory beatings, female genital mutilation--are merely eruptions of the ethos of psychological violence and the threat of physical violence that pervades gender relations in the Middle East. Ghanim analyzes the complementary roles of both sexes in sustaining the system of violence and oppressive control that regulates gender relations in Middle Eastern societies. The role that the mother-in-law plays vis-a-vis her daughter-in-law and son supports the patriarchal structure of violence and stokes triangular tensions that are released by ritualistic violence. The author applies his deep analysis of gender and violence in the Middle East to illuminate the motivational profiles of male political suicidalists from the Middle East and the martyrological adulation that they are accorded in Middle Eastern societies.

Ghanim contends that institutionalized violence in gender relations is fundamental to the systems of patriarchal domestic control, authoritarian state control, and political violence in Middle Eastern societies.

Gender and Violence in the Middle East argues that violence is fundamental to the functioning of the patriarchal gender structure that governs daily life in Middle Eastern societies. Ghanim contends that the inherent violence of gender relations in the Middle East feeds the authoritarianism and political violence that plague public life in the region. In this societal sense, men as well as women may be said to be victims of the structural violence inherent in Middle Eastern gender relations. The author shows that the varieties of physical violence against women for which the Middle East is notorious--honor killings, obligatory beatings, female genital mutilation--are merely eruptions of an ethos of psychological violence and the threat of physical violence that pervades gender relations in the Middle East.

Preface

One: Introduction: Internalizing Middle Eastern Violence

Part I: Modalities of Violence against Women

Two: Violence against Women in the Middle East

Three: Crime and Honor

Four: Islam, Gender and Violence

Five: Gender Alienation

Part II: Power, Violence, and Gender

Six: Gender and Power

Seven: Power and Price

Eight: Violence, Victimization and Conformity

Nine: Gender, Resistance and Subversion

Part III: Impacts of Female Power and Agency

Ten: Status and Victimization

Eleven: Patriarchy and Agency

Part IV: Patriarchal Gender Structure and Authoritarianism

Twelve: Authoritarian Family Structure

Thirteen: Gender and Authoritarian Social Contract

Fourteen: Gender and Authoritarian Politics

Fifteen: Gender, Authoritarianism and Violence

Sixteen: Conclusion: Toward Gender Reconciliation

Notes

Bibliography