I propose to present a chapter of my dissertation. My dissertation very broadly is about masculinities of the Turkish state. The chapter I intend to present focuses on hegemonic masculinity of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (the ex-prime minister of Turkey) and his political power and politics. At the turn of the millennium, one-man-rule seems to have emerged in some countries including but not limited to Russia and Turkey under officially democratic countries while ironically autocratic rules are being challenged by their publics in most of the Middle East. In democracies where the government turns out to be associated with a single political leader, it is crucial to explore implications of gendered charisma for democracy and statehood. In this paper (a chapter in my dissertation), by paying attention to hegemonic masculine charisma, I intend to analyze the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and democratization/authoritarianism. This discussion will also provide insights about the link between hegemonic masculinity and statehood. In order to explore these, I analyze how Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan utilizes shifting forms of hegemonic masculinity in his discourse and politics across a range of issues during different phases of his rule since his Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002. The data for this research draws from two case studies: Erdoğan’s relationship with the Turkish military elite and his response to the nationwide Gezi protests that broke out in the summer of 2013. By utilizing a conceptual framework both from critical masculinity studies and the ethnographic state literature, this paper asks if there is a relationship between hegemonic masculinity and authoritarianism/democratization. It also seeks to address what some of the implications of hegemonic masculinity for the paradoxical character of the state are. Findings of this research suggest hegemonic masculinity serves as an “ideology” a) to blur the boundary between democratization and authoritarianism, b) to blur the paradoxical character of the state which helps maintain and reproduce the state idea despite its contradictory practices. Keywords: gendered charisma; hegemonic masculinity; democratization; the political elite; Turkey

Abu-Lughod defines honor killing as “the killing of a woman by her relatives for violation of a sexual code in the name of restoring family honor.” Honor killing is often seen as a component of Arab/ Muslim/ tribal culture, however, the Arab/ Muslim/ tribal Gibali community in southern Oman does not practice honor killing. The author combines formal interviews with historical and anthropological research, as well as over nine years of observations, to investigate why daughters/ sisters are not seen as ‘property’ to be killed by their fathers/ brothers for sexual transgressions. Gibali informants frame the issue in two ways: confidence and self-respect. “Our parents,” one Gibali man said, “grow confidence.” Another informant stated, “If you are more confident, you can take things more relaxed.” Gibalis are taught that it is wise to avoid confrontation. A person who does not seek vengeance is seen as positively and deliberately deciding to behave well, not showing a lack of ability to protect her/himself. In most situations, if a person seems on the verge of losing their temper, others will step in to calm the situation. A fight means that someone lost “his control” and it is incumbent on close relatives and friends to work to repair the damage. “Self-respect” means that each person’s honor is within their own control, thus a woman who transgresses has hurt herself, not damaged her family to the point where only her death can ‘clean’ the family/ tribal honor. As Wikan states about Sohar, Oman “The person’s own honor... requires that she or he honor others.” The author finds a similar cultural framework in the Dhofar region of Oman. A man’s honor is not always irrevocably connected to the sexual behavior of his female relatives. Further, to be interested in other people’s sexual activities is seen as dishonorable and degrading, not a necessary element of ‘policing’ one’s family or tribe. Pre- or post-marriage sexual transgressions should be dealt with only by the people immediately concerned and “covered” if possible.

For centuries in the history of Iran, the confined female body set the norms for defining the ideals of womanhood for Iranian women in a patriarchal religious context. As the result, the representations of female body and sexuality in Iranian arts were also concealed through the abundant of “displaced allegories”. In recent years, however, a new Iranian female generation is redefining and renegotiating the notions of femininity, sexuality, and gender. Aligning with this revival of “gender consciousness” in Iran, Iranian cinema, as the site of Iran’s social and cultural showcase, has been the main venue for the representation of these new practices of gender and sexuality. In this paper, I argue that the emergence of young female filmmakers in Iran has not only brought about the transgression of constituted boundaries of gender in a social, cultural, and religious context, but also subverted the cinematic modesty codes imposed upon Iranian cinema after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in order to restrict the representations of female body on the screen. In particular, I examine the unprecedented cinematic work of Mania Akbari, "20 Fingers" (2004), in regard to redefining the notions of femininity and sexuality in Iran through a new portrayal of Iranian woman on the screen. Inspired by Abbas Kiarostami’s "Ten" (2002), "20 Fingers" puts the female body at the cinematic threshold of Iran’s contemporary culture and subverts the constituted notions of sexual differences and gender norms in Iranian society to challenge the gender disparities and segregations enforced upon Iranian women in the name of biological differences. My aim, therefore, is to highlight a less known (due to the lack of public distribution and screening as well as the censorship of Iran’s government), yet crucial, practice of feminist film making in Iranian post-revolutionary cinema and connect it to a broader socio-cultural context of gender and sexual transformations in contemporary Iran. By studying Mania Akbari’s "20 Fingers", I conclude that the novel sexual practices in Iranian society and cinema have invoked a new contingent value-system through which the boundaries of gender and sexuality are blurring. The transgression of carnal and gender boundaries by the young Iranian generation, especially women, is certainly a valiant act that sheds light on the determination and active agency of Iranian women in the society in order to bring about gender parities.

The increasing emphasis for the qabaday (tough man) to defend his honor by protecting a woman's sexuality and repressing her desire has been used by screenwriters to symbolize the vicious cycle of state violence toward its citizens. The more revolutionary trends of Syrian miniseries seek to demonstrate that it is only once man has shed himself of the role of protector of woman's sexuality that a truly egalitarian relationship can exist between them - metaphoric images of citizens attaining their dignity and rights from an authoritarian order. Indeed, for avant-garde contemporary drama creators, the sexual repression of women is symbolic of the political oppression of an entire population. This presentation commences with an examination of miniseries produced prior to 2011 and is followed by an analysis of several miniseries produced at the outset of the uprising. While they do not refer directly to the uprising, these miniseries are coded messages of equality, dignity, and freedom attained when relationships are based on sexual equality. In all the miniseries, however, we witness a problem that exists when a woman has engaged in sexual relations prior to the new relationship. In other words, none of these miniseries explored a current, openly sexual relationship prior to marriage. They were all a question of what was perceived as a woman's past "mistakes." Ramadan 2014 marked a turning point. In this presentation, based on fieldwork in Beirut, I provide in-depth analysis of two Ramadan 2014 miniseries, which manifest new directions as they analyze the politics of love and seduction against the background of ravaging war and destruction. The philosophy of each with respect to love and sexuality is related to political stances taken during the current Syrian war.

Harem Years: the Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist (1879-1924), Margot Badran’s translation of the Egyptian political activist and feminist Huda Sha’arawi’s Arabic memoirs Mudhakirati, appears into an already commodified representation of Arab women’s lives. One review of Badran’s translation reads Harem Years evidently, rather than critically, describing Sha’arawi heroicism: “a child and a woman in the household, she had to overcome the burden of the ordinary.” Another reviewer suggests that “nonspecialist” readers would need “further discussion of polygamy and concubinage… These are exotic notions to a Western reader. They were, however, the source of serious problems for Sha’arawi – who left her husband because of his attachment to a concubine – ….” (emphasis mine). An all too familiar theme threads these reviews: that which sees Egyptian women’s domestic life – here, specifically, represented in the harem -- as exotic, as a source of oppression, and, most significantly, as impervious to revolution and inhospitable to political agency. This paper proposes a reading of Harem Years as a mediated representation, rather than as a faithful translation, of Sha’arawi’s Mudhakirati. Through a mixture of historical and textual analysis that attends among other things to matters of genre, market, narrative strategy and reception, this paper reveals Sha’arawi’s memoirs to be a story of movement: linguistic, generic and temporal, as well as – most notably -- political. That is, this paper decodes how a text can be multiply worlded through a reading of the Arabic Mudhakirati (1981), alongside its English translation Harem Years (1986). I argue that Sha’arawi’s Mudhakirati takes up a position within the domestic sphere to emphasize the author’s intergenerational, elite, nationalist lineage both prior to and after the 1919 Revolution. Her descriptions of care-taking rituals affirm her elite socioeconomic status and validate her position as an international representative of Egypt. In stark contrast, the decisions made in the English translation insist on Orientalist depictions of the harem as both a space of frivolity and of oppression. This difference in translation, I contend, is emblematic of the analytical frames and descriptive tropes that persist in Western representations of Arab women.

This study is an examination of two classic coming-of-age novels by two women: The Open Door (al- Bab al-maftuh) by Latifa al-Zayyat and The Inner Courtyard (Angan) by Khadija Mastoor. Zayyat and Mastoor are pioneer authors for women’s issues in Egypt and Pakistan respectively. Their works are equally important and widely read, mostly by women, in their countries and beyond. The Open Door, published in 1960, was written in Arabic, whereas The Inner Courtyard, published in 1962 was written in Urdu. These works depict the national liberation struggles of both Egypt and Pakistan and their effects on both societies. Zayyat and Mastoor highlight feminist voices and represent women’s resistance against colonial and patriarchal oppression in their respective societies. This presentation will analyze these novels as case studies in order to examine the traditional, colonial, and post-colonial bondage in Egyptian and Pakistani society, and how this bondage held power over society and the lives of women. Zayyat and Mastoor bring light to the women’s consciousness and growth as strong members of their societies. Through their protagonists, Layla and Aaliya, they depict women’s appearances in public spaces as a challenge to the oppressive elements in society. They illustrate how in private spaces elders negatively follow the traditional norms and make life difficult for the younger generation Set in two geographically distant countries in the mid-twentieth century these novels have similarities and dissimilarities in depicting the lives of women during that time period. This paper is a historical analysis of both societies. Egyptian society, which was going through a revolutionary transition of the feminist struggle provided Zayyat the ground to further the cause for the emancipation of women. But Pakistani society, which in the novel had recently achieved its independence, was not as prepared as the Egyptian society. This is why a feminist like Mastoor sketched a character like Aaliya, who was not a fighter like Zayyat’s character Layla. Ultimately, this study proposes an alternative view of gender studies for both Egyptian and Pakistani societies.