This seminar explores the dynamic roles of women in contemporary Arab society and focuses on the challenges and achievements of Jordanian women leaders. From its internationally recognized Queen Rania, to the country’s on-going dilemma over how to deal with so-called crimes of honor, Jordan, and its vibrant capital Amman, provide a unique setting to ponder how Arab women-Muslim and Christian, religious and secular, modern and traditional, rich and poor-are defining and re-defining their place in society. While Western discourse on Arab women tends to focus on their victimization within the context of strongly patriarchal and religious structures, we often know far less about the varied and creative ways in which Arab women have sought and maintained agency for themselves, their families, communities, and nations.
Through lectures with prominent female academics; meetings with politicians, activists, artists, and business women; and site visits to different economic development projects and to social, professional, and political institutions, seminar participants have the opportunity to probe many of the interesting paradoxes defining women's lives in modern Jordan. The seminar will hope to promote awareness about the challenges and achievements of Jordanian women and to challenge and complicated Western assumptions about the nature of women’s lives in the Arab world.
This six-day seminar begins and ends in Amman, Jordan.
