Applying these ideas to the documentary, I found it intriguing that Hoda worked so hard to create a space for both piety/religiosity and pushing for the education and future of the girls at her school. In Western or white feminism, those two concepts are incompatible, as the equality of women is only achieved in a secular tradition. At the same time, it is not the goal of Islamic feminism contexts to achieve the so-called equality of gender, but more so to gain knowledge in order to question society’s expectations through a religious lens.

This is a significant piece of literature because it explores a number of themes indicative of the time period. It is a showcase of how previous mythological and cultural traditions were adopted and reinterpreted in terms of Islamic society. It also explores temptation, morality and considers the actions of its characters, giving an ultimate narrative judgement in the end.

It also explores the disconnect between popular conceptions and the stories of women popular during this time period. The literary history of this text is also enlightening in terms of exploring how the readings of this text changed depending on time period and societal norms.

It also demonstrates the political strength of Aisha, whose interpretations and judgements on the believers' movement was considered of higher standing than many of her contemporary male preachers.

The source is significant because it describes slave girls as having considerable amounts of power, and since the text is written like a warning, it also meant that the writer considered them a considerable threat. It describes the slave dynamics of a singing-slave girl, and paradoxically describes them as having features and instincts of the devil, while also complimenting them. It breaks from the usual narrative and gives an interesting account of how slave girls could have power in their relationships, while giving us insights on the practice of slavery in. such societies.

This is important as it includes a discussion on how the literary traditions of the late antique incorporate recitation and how it adds meaning to the work. It also includes discussions on how the intricacies of gendered language is lost during translations, which is a theme that we also explore further in the project

This source describes an extract from an Umayyad era poet, describing an instance where a well to do woman hides herself to make sure she isn't the subject of a famous poet. As such, the writer of the article reemphasizes the importance of literature where women are the subjects.

It is important as it is a modern retelling and recontextualizing of late antique texts which helps situates the themes of the course in modern discourse.

2_Steinberg_Reclaiming Women of Arabic Popular Epics

This next reading continues the theme of looking at the importance of the inclusion of female actors in historical texts, and also suggests that women were indeed included in the histories of various historians and chronicles, but that they had been erased in later scholarship. The source is important as it includes a critique and a study into the types of sources that we are looking at in this course, and encourages us to question not only the intentions and biases of the writers of said texts, but also to consider how the translation and retelling of these texts can differ from the originals