Spring 2026
Women’s Sexual and Political Revolutions: Middle East and South Asia
Dates: January 26, 2026 - May 11, 2026Day/Time: Monday 8:30 AM - 11:00 AM EDT
Level: 300-Level
Certificate: Civic Engagement, Global Studies
Instructor: Janaki Bakhle, Bard College
This course examines the role of politically organised women’s movements, individual pioneers, hashtag and virtual campaigns and the activism of grassroots and working-class movements in 20th Century Middle Eastern (ME) and South Asian (SA) contexts, with a focus on their political and sexual struggles, demands, and achievements. The course relates to both the Global Studies and Global Humanities certificates. The course is divided into two parts; it introduces a brief history of the nature and dynamics of women’s movements in the ME & SA regions. The second half of the course focuses on feminist documentation and debates around Muslim and Hindu women’s piety, sexuality and political representation in a broader interdisciplinary frame. The course will examine how religious sensibility intersects with sexual orientation, gender identity, violence, sex work, the military, and even fashion. It will study these intersections as reflected in Muslim women’s writings, desires, activism, demands for sexual freedoms or against sex crimes, in different countries and under different legal regimes and geographies.
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS