The Chaim Herzog Center mounted an international symposium entitled Cultural Expression / Nationalism /Gender on May 22nd, 2002 that dealt with the intersections of the nation-state, issues of gender, and the arts and literature. The first panel presenters, Sasson Somekh (Tel Aviv University) and Ruth Roded (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)reflected on the importance of gender in the works of two Egyptian literateurs; Somekh considering the meaning of sex in a particular short story of Yusuf Idris and Roded, the significance of women and gender to the depiction of the life of the Prophet in a play by Tawfiq al-Hakim.
The second panel addressed other forms of popular culture in Egypt. Yoram Meital (BGU) described the revolutionary enthusiasm which pervaded the Nasser years, and produced patriotic songs including those of Abd al-Halim Hafez, while Marjorie Franken (UC Riverside's) paper (read by Salman Bashier) discussed the role played by Farida Fahmy and Mahmoud Reda whose folkloric ensemble projected a new image of Egyptians, proudly demonstrating their local heritage in that revolutionary era. Sherifa Zuhur, a visiting scholar at the Herzog Centr, examined most successful Oriental (belly-) dancers in Egypt from the 1970s to the 1990s to explain the contradictory process of modernization of the industry versus its individualistic and traditional features.
The third panel concerned musical production as a system conveying both nationalist values and gendered messages. John O'Connell (University of Limerick)spoke about (and demonstrated) two Turkish vocal genres, performed by a "macho" performer, Ibrahim Tatlises and the transsexual star, Bulent Ersoy The two genres are also identified respectively with the cultural labels of ala franga (modern, Kemalist) and ala Turca (pre-Ataturk, Ottoman) producing an interesting paradox within the official paradigms of modernity, progress and cultural expression. Batya Roded and Oren Yiftachel offered a presentation on popular songs extolling Israel as a nation and showed changes in their imagery and conceptualization of the other invisible residents of the land, the Arabs as displayed in their lyrics.
The fourth panel shifted from political culture, to political events and the importance of state iterated gender policies. Achim Rohde (Free University of Berlin) illustrated the Iraqi state's discourse on gender during the period of the Iran-Iraq war in cartoons and poster motifs. He argued that although the Ba'th party proclaimed itself to be a progressive force for women, the state's hypernationalism emphasized women's reproductive and familial functions rather than sex role expansion in symbols of those years. Amikam Nachmani (Bar Ilan University) contrasted women's participation in the first intifada with the rather sporadic involvement of women in non-traditional, and aggressive actions in the second, al-Aqsa intifada. Sam Kaplan (BGU) described the disjuncture between traditional, official and "practioner" attitudes regarding birth control in rural Turkey and how the ideology of modernity has influenced local inhabitants.
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Invitation to An International Symposium,
Cultural Expression, Nationalism and Gender
May 21, 2002, At Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, The Knasim A Hall
9:00 - 9:30 Greetings
Dror Ze`evi, Chairperson of the Chaim Herzog Center, BGU
Sherifa Zuhur, Visiting Senior Fellow, Chaim Herzog Center, BGU
9:30 - 10:45 "Nation", Gender, and Sex in Cultural Production in Egypt
Chair : Yoram Meital, Dept. of Middle East Studies, BGU
Ruth Roded, Islam and Middle Eastern History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Gender Images in Warfare and the Family: Tawfiq al-Hakim`s Drama 'Muhammad' (1936)
Sasson Somekh, Tel-Aviv University
House of Flesh; Society and Sex in the Fiction of Yusuf Idris
10:45 - 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 - 12:45 Images from Revolution to Infitah in Egypt
Chair : Salman Bashier, Fellow, Chaim Herzog Center, BGU
Yoram Meital, Dept. of Middle East Studies, BGU
Dressing Up for the Celebration of Egypt`s Revolution
Marjorie Franken, University of California, Riverside
Personifying Egypt; Old Images in New Genre
Sherifa Zuhur, Chaim Herzog Center, BGU
Sex, Popular Culture and National Image; "Oriental" Dance During the Infitah
12:45 - 14:15 Lunch
14:15 - 15:45 Memory and the Re-Construction of National Tropes
Chair: Sherifa Zuhur, Chaim Herzog Center, BGU
John O`Connell, Dept. of music, University of Limerick
In the Time of Alaturka; Engendering the Past in Turkish Vocal Performance
Oren Yiftachel and Batya Roded, Dept. of Geography, BGU
"To Become Your Prisoner of Love" The Ethnicization of Israel/Palestine in Hebrew Popular Music
15:45 - 16:15 Coffee Break
16:15 - 18:00 Cultural and National Production of Gender
Chair: Ruth Roded, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Achim Rohde, Institute Fuer Islam wissenschaft, Free University of Berlin
When the Land is Feminine, War is Love and the Nation is a Family; Cultural Production in Ba`thist Iraq in the 1980s
Amikam Nachmani, Political Studies Dept., Bar Ilan University
Women in national Struggles; Palestinian Uprising Compared
Sam Kaplan, Dept. of Middle East Studies, BGU
The Family Goes national; Fertility, Demography and Government In A Turkish Village
18:00 - 18:30 Concluding Remarks
The conference will not be accompanied by simultaneous translation
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The Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy of Ben Gurion University will convene a special symposium dealing with the intersection of the arts, nationalism(s) and gender in the broader Middle East from May 20 through May 21st, 2001.
Cultural production allows us to create and assess a very different presentation of Middle Eastern realities than that presented through the normal tropes of political or historical studies. Yet the notion of the development of "pure" art is but an ideal, for political and cultural factors are constantly interacting with each other. Inevitably, certain aspects of "nation" combine with the formation of local aesthetics, or their reformation.
Presentations may include:
· The meaning of gendered images in nationalist narratives in cinema, television, or contemporary theater.
· The influence of nationalist tropes, contemporary state structures on dance, folk dance, or other non-verbal forms of performance.
· The re-shaping or rehabilitation of "traditional: art forms as expressions of national cultural expression and the crafting of new aesthetics in response.
· The impact of national/nationalist iconography in visual arts such as painting, photography, design, sculpture, cartoons, and/or the gendering of such images.
· The messages of hybrid (Mediterranean, rai, arabesque, Arabo-rap, Arabo-Ottoman) or politicized forms of modern music in the region.
· The construction of masculinity or femininity in conjunction with cultural expressions of nationalism (or hybrid nationalism).
· The gendering of particular genres in the arts and their national referents such as comedy, farce, melodrama, Arabic music, horror films, etc.
· Questions of the consumption or market for regional art forms and how these have been influenced by globalization and/or gender concepts.
The meeting will be held in English. Scholars interested in participating, and scholars and students who wish to attend should contact:
Dr. Sherifa Zuhur, Department of Middle East Studies
Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105 Israel
shzuhur@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Tel. 972-8-647-7444 Fax 972-8-6472 952