A collection of previously unpublished documents, essays, stories, life histories, poems, and reports - all constituting a progress report on the status of women and the family in the modern Middle East. The work presents more than forty texts, mostly from within the culture, as men and women articulate their problems and perceptions in their own terms, not those of the western journalist or development specialist. One of the main currents of thought and discourse in this collection indicates that the West is no longer seen as providing the best or unique solutions to the problems of developing and rapid social change. People are giving renewed attention to indigenous traditions : to the dominant religion, Islam; and to their own forms of independence. A second theme is the continued emphasis on women and men as elements of a group, rather than as individuals. Unlike western women, Middle Eastern women do not see the existing problems as exclusive to themselves. Again and again they say that their condition cannot be separated from that of men, of the family, and of the wider society. Self-identity, while important, is necessarily embedded in other sets of relationships. These documents voice anxiety, optimism, real hope and bitterness, but their authors persistently strive to improve not only their own situation but that of their societies as a whole. Ten countries - Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya - are represented in the collection, and two contributions deal with the Palestinians. For many of the writers presented here, this collection marks their first appearance in English.

Preface --Poem / Salma Khadra Jayyusi -- Part I. Introduction -- Algerian women discuss the need for change / Fatiha akeb and Malika Abdelaziz -- Part II. The family -- The Arab family and the challenge of social transformation / Halim Barakat -- The charm (short story) / Ilfat Idilbi -- New images, old reflections : Working middle-class women in Egypt / Safia K. Mohsen -- The ringing (short story)/ Fathiyyah 'Awada -- Fatima : A life history of an Egyptian woman from Bulaq / Evelyn Early -- Divorce (short story) / Leila Abouzeid -- Part III. Health and education -- Continuity and change in women's education in the Arab states / Nagat al-Sanabary -- Growing up female in Egypt (from Mudhakkirat tabiba) / Nawal al-Sa'dawi -- Ideology, value changes, and women's social position in Libyan society / Mustafa O. Attir -- Women and public health in Morocco : One family's experience / Donna Lee Bowen -- Women's education and its relation to fertility : Report from Baghdad / Ann Bragdon al-Kadhi -- The social and political implications of female circumcision : The case of the Sudan / Nahid F. Toubia -- Part IV. War, politics, and revolution -- Poems / Fadwa Tuqan -- The Kalashnikov generation / Maroun Baghdadi and Nayla de Freige -- Those memories (novel excerpt) / Emily Nasrallah -- Encounters with Palestinian women under occupation / Rosemary Sayigh -- The aunt of Rafiq (short story) / Daisy al-Amir -- Part V. Religion and law -- Revitalizing old ideas : Developments in Middle Eastern family law / Eric Mueller -- Recent amendments to Egypt's personal status law / Aziza Hussein -- An Islamic activist : Zaynab al-Ghazali / Valerie J. Hoffman -- The position of women in Shi'a Iran : Views of the 'Ulama / Shireen Mahdavi -- Part VI. Work -- Women and work : Strategies and choices in a lower-class quarter of Cairo / Andrea B. Rugh -- The shoes (short story) / Iqbal Barakah -- Cairo's factory women / Barbara Lethem Ibrahim -- Part VII. Identity -- I remember I was a point, I was a circle (poem) / Hoda al-Namani -- An interview with Hoda al-Namani / Amin al-Rihani -- Women's folk narratives and social change / Sabra Webber -- Conformity and confrontation : A comparison of two Iranian women poets / Farzaneh Milani -- Poems / Lami'a Abbas al-'Imarah -- Part VIII. Postscript -- A forbidden glimpse, a broken sound (from Women of Algiers in Their Apartment) / Assia Djebar -- Notes on the contributors.