Gendered Paradoxes

Educating Jordanian Women in Nation, Faith, and Progress

Fida J. Adely, Fida Adely

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780226006918, 9780226006901
• eBook ISBN: 9780226006925
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft

In 2005 the World Bank released a gender assessment of the nation of Jordan, a country that, like many in the Middle East, has undergone dramatic social and gender transformations, in part by encouraging equal access to education for men and women. The resulting demographic picture there—highly educated women who still largely stay at home as mothers and caregivers— prompted the World Bank to label Jordan a "gender paradox." In Gendered Paradoxes, Fida J. Adely shows that assessment to be a fallacy, taking readers into the rarely seen halls of a Jordanian public school—the al-Khatwa High School for Girls—and revealing the dynamic lives of its students, for whom such trends are far from paradoxical.

 

Through the lives of these students, Adely explores the critical issues young people in Jordan grapple with today: nationalism and national identity, faith and the requisites of pious living, appropriate and respectable gender roles, and progress. In the process she shows the important place of education in Jordan, one less tied to the economic ends of labor and employment that are so emphasized by the rest of the developed world. In showcasing alternative values and the highly capable young women who hold them, Adely raises fundamental questions about what constitutes development, progress, and empowerment—not just for Jordanians, but for the whole world.

 

INDEX

‘Abdalla, Shaykh, 106

Abdulhamid II, 181n14

Abdullah I, 58, 61

Abdullah II, 33, 53–54; “Amman Message,” 86–87, 186n31; “Jordan First” campaign, 63; pictures of, 58

academic performances, 113, 130, 138

academic tracks, 8, 37, 131, 181n18; humanities track, 3, 7–8, 88, 101, 131, 169, 189n13; information management track, 181n18, 196n37; science track, 3, 8, 37, 131; Shari‘a (Islamic law/jurisprudence), 189n9

accents, 184n15

adabi classes, 196n38

Adely, Fida, 28–29, 124, 192n3

admissions policies, 182n19

adolescence (murahaqa), 21–24

adolescent boys. See boys

adolescent girls, 16, 39–40. See also girls

affirmative action, 182n19

Ahbash, al-, 106

‘alaqat (relations), 192n4

Amal (student), 148–49, 151

ambitions, 154

American School (Amman), 189n8

Amina (student), 83, 95; as da‘iyya (preacher), 85–86, 102–5, 109; school-to-life transition, 171

Amir Abdullah, 31, 61

Amman, Jordan, 182n24, 186n32, 188n48, 200n7

“Amman Message” (Abdullah II), 86–87, 186n31

Anwar (student), 152–53, 154–55

Arab Human Development Report 2005: Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World (UNDP), 161

Arab Human Development Reports, 200n1

Arabic studies, 4

Arab Muslim women. See Muslim women

Arab Muslim youth. See Muslim youth

Arab Spring, 174, 178n5

“Arkhat ‘Amman jada’ilaha fauq al-katifayn Fahtaza al-majd wa qabbalaha bayn al-‘ainayn,” 188n48

Armed Services Day, 71, 72–73, 186n29

arranged marriage, 125, 194n26

art studies, 4

Asad, Hafiz al-, cult of, 185n24

Asad, Talal, 86

Aseel (student), 78–79

‘ashira (clan/kinsfolk/tribe), 182n21

assessments: religion in, 101; tawjihi exam, 2, 37–38, 198n22

Association of Islamic Philanthropic Projects, 106

attire. See dress

authenticity: polemics of, 26; religious, 87–88

awal thanawi ba (“first secondary humanities b”), 4

Awlad al Ali Bedouin, 188n47

‘awrah (private parts), 69, 185n25

...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• INTRODUCTION / A Day in the Life of Nada
• ONE / Ambiguous Times and Spaces
• TWO / Jordan and the al-Khatwa Secondary School for Girls: People, Place, and Time
• THREE / Performing Patriotism: Rituals and Moral Authority in a Jordanian High School
• FOUR / Who Is a Good Muslim? Making Proper Faith in a Girls’ High School
• FIVE / Making Girls into Respectable Women
• SIX /Education for What? Women, Work, and Development in Jordan
• SEVEN / Conclusion
• Notes
• References
• Index