Career
She received her M.A. degree from University of Tehran. [1] In 1991,she received her PhD in History and Near East studies from the University of Michigan,in Ann Arbor. [2] Afary is married to Kevin B. Anderson,a fellow professor at UCSB.
Her research fields includes politics of contemporary Iran and gender,sexuality in modern Middle East,constitutionalism,civil liberties,the public sphere in the Middle East,cinema and popular culture of the Middle East,global feminism,feminist theory,modern Transcaucasia &Central Asia:art and folklore. She is known for her writings and research on the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. Her articles have appeared in The Nation,the Guardian,and numerous scholarly journals and edited collections. [1] [3]
Afary is a professor of religious studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. [4] She previously taught at in the History Department and Women's Studies at Purdue University. [5] [6] [7] In the 1980s,she served as the coordinator for the Iranian Jewish Association of California. [8] She has served as president of the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS-MESA),the Association for Middle East Women's Studies (AMEWS-MESA),and the Coordinating Council for Women in History of the American Historical Association (CCWH-AHA). [1]
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppression; and the relationships between power and gender as they intersect with other identities and social locations such as race, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, and disability.
The history of feminism comprises the narratives of the movements and ideologies which have aimed at equal rights for women. While feminists around the world have differed in causes, goals, and intentions depending on time, culture, and country, most Western feminist historians assert that all movements that work to obtain women's rights should be considered feminist movements, even when they did not apply the term to themselves. Some other historians limit the term "feminist" to the modern feminist movement and its progeny, and use the label "protofeminist" to describe earlier movements.
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades, ending with the feminist sex wars in the early 1980s and being replaced by third-wave feminism in the early 1990s. It occurred throughout the Western world and aimed to increase women's equality by building on the feminist gains of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Postfeminism is a term popularized by the mass media to describe an alleged decrease in support for feminism from the 1990s onwards. It can be considered a critical way of understanding the changed relations between feminism, femininity and popular culture. The term is sometimes confused with subsequent feminisms such as fourth-wave feminism, postmodern feminism, and xenofeminism.
Intersectionality is a sociological analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, height, age, and weight. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing. However, little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the practical uses of intersectionality.
Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.
Ashraf Dehghani is an Iranian communist revolutionary, best known as the leader of the Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (IPFG). Exposed to progressive politics from an early age, along with her brother, Dehghani joined the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG), becoming the only woman on its central committee.
Madhu Purnima Kishwar is an Indian academic and a Hindutva commentator. She is currently employed as a chair Professor in the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Kishwar along with fellow-academic Ruth Vanita co-founded the journal Manushi.
Sediqeh Dowlatabadi was an Iranian feminist activist and journalist and one of the pioneering figures in the Persian women's movement.
Molla Nasraddin was an eight-page Azerbaijani satirical periodical published in Tiflis (1906–17), Tabriz and Baku (1922–33). From the second issue of 1931, the magazine was called Allahsyz in the Azerbaijani and occasionally Russian languages. The magazine was "read across the Muslim world from Morocco to East Asia". It was founded by Jalil Mammadguluzadeh (1869–1932) and Omar Faig Nemanzadeh (1872–1937), and named after Nasreddin, the legendary Sufi wise man-cum-fool of the Middle Ages. Columnists wrote articles that "boldly satirized politics, religion, colonialism, Westernization, and modernization, education, and the oppression of women".
Evan Siegel is a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science.
Afsaneh Najmabadi is an Iranian-born American historian, gender theorist, archivist, and educator. She is the Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University.
Feminism in China refers to the collection of historical movements and ideologies in time aimed at redefining the role and status of women in China. Feminism in China began in the 20th century in tandem with the Chinese Revolution. Feminism in modern China is closely linked with socialism and class issues. Some commentators believe that this close association is damaging to Chinese feminism and argue that the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are placed before those of women. Under the Xi Jinping administration, feminist groups have been subject to increased scrutiny by the country's system of mass surveillance.
Nayereh Esfahlani Tohidi is an Iranian-born American professor, researcher, and academic administrator. Tohidi is a professor emerita and former chair of gender and women’s studies, and the founding director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at California State University, Northridge.
Negar Mottahedeh is a cultural critic and film theorist specializing in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to the fields of Middle Eastern Studies and Film Studies.
Minoo Moallem is an Iranian-born American educator, author, and scholar. She is a Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Her academic specialties are transnational and postcolonial feminist studies, religious nationalism and transnationalism, consumer culture, immigration and diaspora studies, Middle Eastern Studies and Iranian films, cultural politics. She is best known for her work on Islamic nationalism and fundamentalism as byproducts of colonial modernity and modernization of patriarchies.
Zillah R. Eisenstein is an American political theorist and gender studies scholar and Emerita Professor of the Department of Politics at Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York. Specializing in political and feminist theory; class, sex, and race politics; and construction of gender, Eisenstein is the author of twelve books and editor of the 1978 collection Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, which published the Combahee River Collective statement.
The socio-political movements and ideologies of feminism have found expression in various media. These media include newspaper, literature, radio, television, social media, film, and video games. They have been essential to the success of many feminist movements.
