One cannot overemphasize the importance of cultivating the relationship between scholars interested in women and gender studies in the Middle East and women and gender studies programs in general. On a pragmatic level, in addition to being natural allies in struggles concerning curriculum transformation, women's studies programs have served as support systems for scholars working on women and gender issues in the Middle East and have been indispensable in several tenure battles of feminist scholars. On a theoretical level, it is imperative that we keep up with debates within feminist theory as well as with the expansive body of literature on women and gender studies in other parts of the world. On a political level, we should take advantage of the relative space that exists in most women's studies programs to raise critical and provocative questions concerning such issues as the representation of non-Western women and the cultural origins of certain gender practices. Since media representations of women and gender practices in the Middle East tend to be sensationalist and stereotypical, it is our task to counter these simplistic portrayals with more nuanced images and sophisticated analyses.
Similar initiatives are necessary within the field of Middle East studies.
Scholars who write on women and gender issues have been at the forefront of theoretical, methodological and political debates in the field and it is important that we not only continue to participate in these discussions but also that we play a more active role in defining the terms of such debates. This agenda would transform the field of Middle East studies so that women and gender issues become central rather than marginal. Toward this end, we must make explicit the gendered nature of the field and its theoretical, methodological and political underpinnings. On a more pragmatic level this project implies asking such questions as why only two women have been chosen since 1986 to be MESA's Annual Meeting Visiting Scholars and why the 1993 MESA conference was the only time in the past decade that women and gender issues were featured on special plenary sessions. These questions are not designed to spoil the celebration of the important gains we have made in a relatively short time but rather to point out that critical issues concerning the integration of women and gender studies within Middle East studies remain.