Reviews
"A compelling portrait of women working inside, outside, and against systems of power."—Foreign Affairs
"Pratt’s book has many strengths. The span of history it covers makes it an ambitious project, but Pratt deftly highlights the most analytically relevant features of each time period under consideration. . . . [And] leaves the reader simultaneously optimistic about the future of women’s activism in the region while also aware and wary of
the major challenges that women continue to face."—Middle East Journal
"Groundbreaking research."
—Arab Studies Quarterly
"With these women activists’ surprising narratives, Nicola Pratt gives us fresh analyses of the complex genderings undergirding nationalism, state building, and thus international politics. Especially eye-opening are her gritty accounts of women’s politicization in the wake of Arab states’ 1967 wartime defeat."—Cynthia Enloe, author of
The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy "This is an exceptional book that makes an important and original contribution to the study of the geopolitics of the MENA region. Effectively using the rich resource of activist women’s narratives, Nicola Pratt brings fresh, authoritative, and contextualized understandings of its gendered and spatialized power relations."—Charles Tripp, author of
The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East
"This is a much needed book by one of the most astute analysts of Middle Eastern women's politics. Richly textured, covering a broad historic sweep, and boasting a symphony of Arab women's voices, Pratt shows us the long arc of Arab women's activism over generations. The Arab women activists featured in this thought-provoking book are not only deeply aware of and critical towards the context of their own struggle but also of how their activism plays out in the geopolitical milieu that inevitably shapes Middle Eastern politics. By refusing to uncouple the domestic and the transnational, the local and the global, and by giving a sense of the genealogy and depth of feminisms in the region, Embodying Geopolitics provides deeply valuable insights into the lives and praxis of Arab women in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon."—Laleh Khalili, author of Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula
"Innovative, creative, authentic, and grounded in careful engagement with relevant critical and feminist interventions across anthropology, political science, and geography, this book is a tour de force and a joy to read—it is as insightful as it is important."—Laura J. Shepherd, editor of Gender Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations
"The rich fieldwork and analytical rigor with which Pratt contextualizes women activists make for an especially engaging read."—Sune Haugbølle, author of War and Memory in Lebanon
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