Annelies Moors

• This site is updated irregularly! More up-to-date information is available at http://sites.google.com/site/anneliesmoors (click on my name below)
• Professor at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Amsterdam
• Programme Director of Research Group 'Muslim Cultural Politics' at the ASSR
• Honorary Visiting Professor at the London College of Fashion (London University of the Arts)

• Annelies Moors

Muslim Cultural Politics: Family Dynamics and Gender

Programme Director: Professor Annelies Moors

This research programme addresses the politics of culture in Muslim societies, including such sensitive topics as family law reform, women migrant domestic workers, and the body politics of representation. Intersecting and interacting with other forms of identification and political mobilization, such as those based on nationality, ethnicity, and class. Both the family and gender have been and still are crucial categories in such contestations and hence central in the sub-programmes. These all employ a similar approach. Starting with public debates, they deal with the junctures and disjuncture between these debates and the practical politics of everyday life. They also investigate how these debates have been mass-mediated, and the impact of particular forms and genres of mass-mediation on the issues debated. This includes an investigation of the processes of inclusion and exclusion that are at stake and an analysis of how patterns of authority are reproduced, modified, or transformed.

a. Debating Family Law and Everyday Life

This sub-programme focuses on debates on family law reform. These debates indicate the political and cultural sensitivity of family-related issues in large parts of the Muslim world. ISIM has brought together an international group of scholars which has engaged in comparative research on the history of debates on family law (the participants involved, their argumentative styles, and the media and forums used), and has analysed the shifting relations between the state, religious functionaries, human rights NGOs, women activists, and the Islamists under conditions of globalization in the 1990s (published as a special issue of Islamic Law and Society in 2004). For the next five years the focus of this sub-programme will shift to an investigation of how these debates relate to legal practices and everyday life (a field in which a number of Ph.D. students work), dealing with new and controversial forms of marriage and divorce in the Middle East and beyond. In 2003 a conference titled "What Happened": Telling Stories about Law in Muslim Societies was held jointly with CEDEJ in Cairo. Furthermore,this programme will continue the research programme initiated by the former ISIM director, Prof. Muhammad Khalid Masud, on thesocial construction of sharia. In the course of the next three years, two topics will beaddressed in collaboration with Prof. Léon Buskens and colleagues abroad: the colonial construction of sharia and Islamic law and customs.

b. Migrant Domestic Workers: Transnational Relations, Families and Identities

This sub-programme intends to trace the transnational migration patterns of women who are positioned differently with respect to religion, ethnicity, and nationality in order to analyse the relations between gendered family dynamics, transnational migration, and the production of new identities. Both the overt workings of "political religion" in public debates about migrant domestic work and the much more covert cultural-religious notions that are submerged in normative ideas about the family, labour, and domesticity are addressed as well as their impact on the intimate, personalized relations between employers and domestics where the public and the private merge. Moors was a founding partner in the collaborative SSRC-funded project on "Migrant domestic workers: becoming visible in the public sphere?" (working with colleagues in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and the UAE); WOTRO has funded one postdoctoral position on the cultural politics of migrant   domestic labour, starting in 2004.

c. The Body Politics of Representation: Fashion and Gold

This sub-programme focuses on the body politics of representation, departing from Muslim women's appearance/embodied practices. Broadening the notion of the public sphere to a moreall-encompassing "politics of presence" itallows for theinclusion of other forms of critical expression and non-verbal modes of communication, such as through bodily comportment, appearance, and dressing styles, including lifestyle and consumption. Both dressing styles and wearing gold relate to particular forms of Muslim cultural politics, albeit in different ways. Whereas debates about dress focus on textual interpretations and practices need to be located in the field of globalized fashion, access to gold is intimately linked to Muslim institutions such as the dower and inheritance. A major conference on Islam and fashion has been organized at the University of Amsterdam in 2005.

Booklength Publications

2008, (co-editors Baudouin Dupret and Barbara Drieskens), Narratives of Truth in Islamic Law . London: I.B. Taurus.

2007, guest-editor (co-editor Emma Tarlo) special double issue  'Mulsim Fashions' of Fashion Theory 11, 2 & 3.

2006, (co-editor Birgit Meyer), Religion, the Media and the Public Sphere Indiana University Press

2004, 'Muslim cultural politics.' What's Islam got to do with it? Amsterdam: Vossius Press. Inaugural lecture.

2003, guest editor, 'Public Debates on Family Law Reform. Participants, Positions, and Styles of Argumentation in the 1990s', Islamic Law and Society 10, 1.

1995, Women, property and Islam. Palestinian experiences, 1920-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1995, (co-editors: Toine van Teeffelen, Ilham Abu Ghazaleh and Sharif Kanaana), Discourse and Palestine: Power, Text and Context.Amsterdam:Het Spinhuis.

1995, (co-editors: Inge Boer and Toine van Teeffelen), 'Changing stories: Postmodernism and the Arab-Islamic world', Orientations 3. 

Contributions to Journals and Edited Volumes

forthcoming, (with Omnia El Shakry), 'Mass mediated public discourse: reconstructing the family and youth', in AFWG, ed., Framings: Rethinking Arab Families .

forthcoming, 'Families in Public Discourse,' in AFWG, ed., Framings: Rethinking Arab Families .

2008, 'Registering a token dower: The multiple meanings of a legal practice' in Baudouin Dupret, Barbara Drieskens and Annelies Moors, eds., 'Narratives of Truth in Islamic Law . London : IB Taurus.

forthcoming, 'Presenting People: The Cultural Politics of Picture Postcards of   Palestine/Israel', in David Prochaska, Postcards.

2007, 'Introduction', Fashion Theory 11, 2/3: 133-143 (with Emma Tarlo).

2007, 'Fashionable Muslims: Notions of Self, Religion and Society in San'a', Fashion Theory 11, 2/3: 319-347.

2007, '"Burka" in Parliament and on the Catwalk', ISIM-Review 19: 5.

2007, 'De islamfixatie', in Huub Evers en Carmelita Serkei, red., Naar een interculturele journalistiek. Beschouwingen over media en multiculturele samenleving . Amsterdam/Utrecht: Aksant/Mira Media. Pp. 74-83.

2007, ' Paid domestic labor. Central Arab States , Egypt and Yemen ', EWIC volume IV : 220-223.

2006, 'From Travelogue to Ethnography and Back Again? Hilma Granqvist's Writing and Photographs',in, Mieke Bal, Bregje van Eekelen and Patricia Spyer, eds., Inge Boer. Uncertain territories. Boundaries in cultural analysis . Amsterdam and New York : Rodopi. Pp. 219-239.

2006, 'Representing Family Law Debates in Palestine : Gender and the Politics of Presence', in Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors, eds.,   Media, Religion and the Public Sphere , Indiana University Press. Pp. 115-32.

2006,   (with Birgit Meyer), 'Media, Religion and the Public Sphere: Introduction', in Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors, eds., Media, Religion and the Public Sphere . Indiana University Press. Pp. 1-29.

2005, 'Submission', ISIM Review 15: 8-9.

2005, 'Framing "The Refugee Question": the National Geographic Magazine 1948- 1967' , in Stephanie Latte-Abdullah, ed., Images aux frontières. Représentations et constructions sociales et politiques . Palestine , Jordanie, 1948-2000. Beyrouth : IFPO. Pp. 43-59.

2004, 'Women, Gender,and Inheritance: Arab States'. Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Countries , volume 2. Leiden : Brill. Pp.

2004, 'Islam and Fashion in the Streets of San`a, Yemen ', Etnofoor 16, 2: 41-56.

2003 (with Linda Herrera), 'Banning the face-veil: The Boundaries of Liberal Education', ISIM-Newsletter 13: 16-17.

2003, 'Sources and methods: Palestine , Israel and Jordan , 1900- 2000' , Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Countries , volume I. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 217-221.

2003,   'From "Women's Lib." to "Palestinian Women": The Politics of PicturePostcards in Palestine/Israel', in David Crouch and Nina Lubbren, eds.,   Visual Culture and Tourism , Oxford and New York :Berg Publishers. Pp. 23-39.

2003, 'Public Debates onFamily Law Reform. Participants, Positions, and Styles of Argumentation in the 1990s', Islamic Law and Society 10, 1: 1-11.

2003, 'Migrant domestic labour: transnationalism, identity politics and family relations', Comparative Studies in Society and History 45, 2: 386-395.

2003, 'Women's gold: shifting styles in embodying family relations', in Beshara Doumani, ed., Family History in Middle Eastern Studies. Household, Property, and Gender . New York : SUNY Press. Pp. 101-119.

2003, 'Gendered globalization: the multiple meanings of gold', Nour (in Arabic). Pp. 58-64.

2002, 'Silver Jewellery from Oman and Yemen ', in Ethnic Jewellery from Africa, Asia andPacific Islands . Amsterdam and Singapore : The Pepin Press. Pp. 47-72.

2001, 'Visions of Palestine, Visualizing Women inPalestine : Hilma Granqvist's Published Photographs', in Catalogue to exhibit of Hilma Granqvist's photographs, Bethlehem .

2001, 'Presenting Palestine's Population: Premonitions of the Nakba', MIT-EJMES electronic journal 1, 1: 14-26.

2000, 'Embodying the Nation: Maha Saca's Post-Intifada Postcards, Ethnic and Racial Studies 23, 5: 871-887.

1999, 'Debating Islamic Family Law: Legal Texts and Social Practices', in Marlee Meriwether and Judith Tucker, eds., The Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East . Boulder : Westview Press. Pp. 141-177.

1998, 'Wearing Gold' in Patricia Spyer, ed., Borderfetishisms . London: Routledge. Pp. 208-223.

1997, 'Een aanzienlijke som geld of slechts een symbolisch bedrag', Geld en goed. Jaarboek voor vrouwengeschiedenis 17: 99-114.

1997, 'Over vrouwen en bezit: juridische documenten en mondelinge verhalen', in S.W.E. Rutten, red., Recht van de Islam 14, Maastricht: RIMO. Pp. 39-49.

1996,'On Appearance and Disappearance. Representations of Women in Palestine During the British Mandate', Thamyris 3, 2: 279-310.

1996, 'Gender Relations and Inheritance. Person, Power and Property', in Deniz Kandiyoti, ed., Gendering the Middle East . Emerging Perspectives, London and New York : IB Taurus Publishers, pp. 69-84.

1995, 'Introduction', in A. Moors, T. van Teeffelen, I. Abu Ghazaleh and S. Kanaana, (eds.), Discourse and Palestine: Power, Text and Context . Amsterdam : Het Spinhuis. Pp. 1-7 (with co-editors).

1995, 'Dealing with the Past, Creating a Presence: PicturePostcards of Palestine,' in A. Moors, T. van Teeffelen, I. Abu Ghazaleh and S. Kanaana (eds.), Discourse and Palestine: Power, Text and Context . Amsterdam : Het Spinhuis. Pp. 11-26   (with S. Wachlin ).

1995, 'Introduction. Changing stories: Postmodernism and the Arab-Islamic world', Orientations 3: 9-15 (with co-editor).

1995, 'Crossing Boundaries, Telling Stories: Palestinian Women Working in Israel and Poststructuralist Theory', Orientations 3: 17-36.

1994, 'Women and Dower Property in Twentieth-Century Palestine : The Case of Jabal Nablus ', Islamic Law and Society 1, 3: 301-331.

1994, 'Natie, klasse en sekse: een antropologische visie op het werk van Sahar Khalifa', in R. van Leeuwen en E. de Moor, red., De Arabische roman. Identiteit en sociale werkelijkheid. Muiderberg: Coutinho. Pp.95-106.

1991, 'Gender, Property and Power: Mahr and Marriage in a Palestinian Village ', in Davis , K., M. Leijenaar and J.Oldersma (eds.), The Gender of Power . London : Sage. Pp. 111-129.

1991, 'Womenand the Orient. A Note on Difference.' in Nencel, L. andP.Pels,(eds.), Constructing Knowledge. Authority and Critique in Social Sciences . London: Sage. Pp. 114-122.

1991, 'Vrouwen en geld: historische bronnen over de mahr' in Paul Aarts, red., Geld, goed en godsdienst in het Midden-Oosten . Muiderberg: Coutin-ho. Pp. 101-118.

1990, 'Gender Hierarchy in a Palestinian Village : The Case of Al-Balad.' In K. Glavanis and P. Glavanis, (Eds.), The Rural Midd-le East : Peasant Lives and Modes of Production . London : Zed Press. Pp. 195-210.

Conferences Organized

Workshop ' Negotiating in private, transforming the public: The dynamics of migrant domestic labour in Asia and the Middle East', ISIM/ASSR,9 september 2005 (with Marina de Regt).

International workshop, 'Muslim Fashions, Fashionable Muslims', ISIM-ASSR workshop, 13-15 April 2005.

Seminar 'migrant domestic workers to the Middle East', 21-23 December 2004, organized at Jokyakarta, Indonesia (with dr. Irwan Abdullah, Gadjah Mada University)

Session on "Muslim Cultural Politics in Europe and in the Middle East' organized at EASA conference in Vienna 10 September 2004 (with Ruba Salih).

Workshop 'What Happened' Telling Storiesabout Law in Muslim Societies', Cairo(with IFAO, CEDEJ, and NVIC),  24-26 October 2003.

Conference 'The anthropology of Islamic law', Leiden (with Leon Buskens, University Utrecht/Leiden), 13-15 March 2003.

Seminar 'Family Law and Activism', Berlin (with Lynn Welchman, SOAS, and Anna Wurth, AKMI), dd. 7-9 July 2002.

Conference Session'Migrant Domestic Labour from/in/to the Middle East, WOCMES, Mainz 10-13 September, 2002 (with Blandine Destremeau, CNRS/Urbama).

Conference Media, Religion and the Public Sphere, University of Amsterdam, 6-8December 2001 (with Birgit Meyer, Research Centre Religion and Society).

Workshop Women's Rights, Islam,Islamic Feminism: Making   Connections, Kontakt der Kontinenten, 9-11 November 2001 (with  Martin van Bruinessen, ISIM)

Conference 'DomesticService and Mobility: Labor, Livelihoods and Livestyles', CLARA/IISH/ISIM workshop Amsterdam 7-9 February, 2001 (with Ratna Saptari, IISH)

Ph.D. Thesis Completed

Marina de Regt : Pioneers or Pawns. Women Health Workers and the Politics of Development in Yemen. ASSR fellowship, with Sjaak van der Geest; d efended University of Amsterdam, March 2003

Nahda Shhada : The politics of family law reform and everyday life in Gaza. ISS - Nuffic fellowship, with Bas de Gaay-Fortman; defended at ISS, August 2005

Anouk de Koning : Global Dreams. Space, Class and Gender in Middle Class Cairo.  ASSR fellowship; defended University of Amsterdam, September 2005

Mareike Winkelmann:  From Behind the Curtain. A Study of a Girls' Madrasa in India. ISIM fellowship, 2001-2005; defended University of Amsterdam, December 2005

Samuli Schielke: Snacks and Saints. Mawlid Festivals and the Politics of Festivity, Piety and Modernity in Contemporary Egypt. ISIM fellowship 2001-2005, defended University of Amsterdam, 29 March 2006 ( cum laude )

Huong Nghiem: Privatization and Clothing Production in Vietnam. AS SR fellowship 2001-2005, with Marcel van der Linden, defended University of Amsterdam, 10 October 2006.

Miriyam Aouragh : Palestine in Cyberspace. W OTRO fellowship at ASSR, with Peter van der Veer, 2001-2006, defended University of Amsterdam, 7 April 2008.

Nadia Sonneveld : Khul` in Egypt: Legal reform, Public Debate and Everyday Life. ISIM fellowship, with Leon Buskens, 2003-2007, defended University of Amsterdam, 16 April 2009.

Current Ph.D. Thesis Supervision

Shifra Kish : Translating Deafness and/in a Bedouin Community in Israel. ASSR fellowship, with Anita Hardon, 2002-2006.  

Tanya Husain - Sheikh : Love Marriages in Pakistan: Legal Decision-Making, Public Debates, and the Family. ISIM fellowship, with Leon Buskens, 2003-2008.   

Yuniyanti Chuzaifah :Indonesian Domestic Workers in the Gulf. ISIM fellowship, 2004-2008.

Muhammed Waked : Mediating Global Development Models in Cairo, ASSR fellowship, with Mario Rutten, 2005-2009.

Loubna al-Mourabet : Muslim Student Organisations in Europe. NWO fellowship at ISIM, with Thijl Sunier, 2006-2010.

Arzu Unal : Islamic fashion and the Turkish Diaspora: transnational ties, class and generation. NWO fellowship at ISIM, 2008-2010.  

Previous and Current Post-docs

Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar: Idols of the Past:The construction of World Heritage and Islamic Intolerance. ISIM fellowship, 2002-2005.

Marina de Regt: Gendered Transnationalism: Women Migrants and Domestic Labour in Yemen . WOTRO fellowship at ASSR, 2003-2006.

Dorothea Schulz: Islamic Revival, Mass-Mediated Religiosity and the Moral Negotiation of Gender Relations in Urban Mali , 2005

Nahda Shhada : Transformations in Iraqi Family Law: Public Debatesand Everyday Practices. WOTRO fellowship at ISIM, 2006.

Jeannette Jouili : The Ethics of Islamic Arts: Normativity, Creativity and 'Fun' in the Muslim Diasporas in the West, ISIM fellowship 2006-7.

Jessica Carlisle : After the Enactment of the 2004 Moroccan family law: Public Debates, Legal Practices and Women's Strategies, WOTRO fellowship at ISIM, April 2007- August 2008.

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