Week 8 Reading

This week's readings were an in depth look at the ways in which women are allegedly manipulated to further nationalistic causes in Islamic nations. I found it interesting that the concept of "vatan" as a female was given such in depth thought when so many inanimate concepts and objects are arbitrarily labeled in feminine terms. For example, ships are often referred to as "she," and people always refer to England or the United States as "she" as well, so it never struck me that a state would go to such lengths to establish their nation as a female entity. That said, I found the process they undertook to be fascinating. I thought it was interesting that people would specifically label Iran as the mother or beloved, as opposed to just a random woman to take care of.
The other readings for Monday were a bit less lighthearted in my opinion, but just as interesting, and still based on manipulating women. When the Kandiyoti reading began saying that "studies of women in Muslim societies have by and large neglected the role of the state and remained relatively untouched by the growing body of feminist scholarship on the subject," I was expecting her to go into an essay about how women in the East AREN'T actually repressed in modern states. However, she instead discussed the reasons for any oppression that is prevalent, and how the more feminist states also tend to be more authoritarian. I suppose that makes sense given what we read in Persepolis. Marji's family seemed to have more social freedom under the authoritarian/secular regime than under the theocracy that was put in place after the revolution. However, I never really recognized the paradoxical relationship between women's freedom and oppressive legal systems. Kandiyoti explicitly states that she believes that these two ideas aren't actually in contradiction with one another; they just coexist, but I can't help but wonder why it is that the less authoritarian a regime, the less secular and feminist it must also be. Why is it that separation of church and state seems to be such a conflict in this region?