Interrogating the construction of gendered identity in the Syrian nationalist narrative: Al-Husari, Aflaq and al-Arsuzi

Abstract

In Interrogating the Construction of Gendered Identity in the Syrian Nationalist Narrative: Al-Husari, Aflaq and al-Arsuzi, Rahaf Aldoughli sheds an important light on how early Bathist theortricans planted the intellectual foundation for the way in which gender roles were to be understood and, subsequently, taught and applied in Baathist Syria. Using extensive quotes from original sources, Aldoughli documents the systematic masculinisation of conceptions of nationhood by Baathist theoreticians. Perhaps most significant was the “normalisation of militarism in the national narrative” which, resulted in perpetuating “a hierarchy that obstructs the elimination of the gender gap in the Syrian constitution and legislation.”