Deconstructing Western Feminism: Modern Eastern Women from an Arab Feminist Perspective

AL- A’bed, May Raad Hasoon (2017) Deconstructing Western Feminism: Modern Eastern Women from an Arab Feminist Perspective. Masters thesis, جامعة الشرق الاوسط.

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Abstract

This thesis includes an analytical and comparative study of Leila Aboulela‟s The Translator and Miral Al-Tahawy‟s Brooklyn Heights. It investigates the effort and work of elite Arab women in reshaping a suitable identity for women in their society, through deconstructing western feminist perspectives and attitudes towards Arab/Muslim women. Adopting the fundamental techniques of such schools, like deconstruction, post-colonialism, power relations, western and Islamic feminism, paved the way to explore the common concern between elite Arab thinkers in this field to improve their gender within a rethought Islam as a general trait of Arab societies. IX The thesis examines the struggle that female characters face to overcome their identity crisis, through exploring and analyzing how each novel applied the concept of Arab/Islamic feminism and how its application of Islamic feminism or obedience of western feminism has a positive or negative impact on the formation of their identities. Key words: Western feminism, Arab/Islamic feminism, Deconstruction, normalization, power relations, otherness, Orientalism.

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