No abstract

This essay examines representations of Iraqi women in the works of poets, novelists, and public intellectuals during the Hashemite period. Defining the functions of women in modern Muslim societies, Iraqi intellectuals sought inspiration in the writings of Egyptian and Turkish writers. I demonstrate, however, that the discourse about women grew more Iraqi-centric in the 1940s and 50s. I also argue that the changes in the representations of women mirrored the radicalization of the Iraqi intelligentsia. While during the interwar period, the conversation about gender roles was mostly conducted among men who debated education, seclusion, and domesticity, after World War II, social democrats, communists, and radical pan-Arabists utilized the mistreatment of women as a way to criticize the Hashemite state. Women affiliated with these groups defined themselves as citizens, rather than national subjects, with equal rights. The discourse also had global aspects, as Iraqi intellectuals appropriated and hybridized colonial perceptions of Muslim women.

No abstract

This paper analyzes Iraqi national narratives in the years from 1958 to 1961 to consider how innovative definitions of Arab nationalisms were affected by worldwide processes of decolonization. It demonstrates how Pan-Arabism was transformed in Qasimite Iraq because of its hybridization with Iraqi patriotism and, concurrently, how various elements of Arabist discourses were integrated into local and patriotic perceptions of Iraqi nationalism. Examining cultural idioms shared by Iraqi intellectuals belonging to different political groups, especially the communists and the Ba -thists, destabilizes a typology that assumes each ideological camp subscribed to a rigidly defined set of well-known historical narratives. The Pan-Arabists in this period often cultivated the notion that Arab nationalism did not entail an ethnic origin but rather the ability to adopt the Arabic language, as well as Arab history and culture, as a marker of one's national and cultural identity. The attempts to adapt Pan-Arab discourses to the specificities of the Iraqi milieu and to build coalitions with as many of the nation's groups as possible meant that the sectarian, anti-Shi -i, and anti-Kurdish notions that colored Ba -thist discourses in later years were not as prominent in this period.The literature on Arab nationalism often posits that Pan-Arab national narratives, emphasizing Arab culture, language, and history, were formulated in the late 19th century by small educated elites in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. In the interwar period, such Pan-Arab narratives were in competition with particular-territorial forms of nationalisms, cultivated within specific nation-states. Pan-Arab nationalism is then seen as declining as a result of the 1967 war and the emerging predominance of political Islam in Middle Eastern politics.

No abstract