Fatema Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite. In an essay of four pages (double-

Fatema Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite.
In an essay of four pages (double-spaced, one thousand words), explain what makes Fatema Mernissi’s history of early Islam at odds with tradition. What is Mernissi’s argument and do you find it convincing?
You may consider the following questions for your analysis:
What compelled Mernissi to write such history? Why, according to Mernissi, do Muslim contemporaries disguise the past in order to dim our present (p. 11)? What is Mernissi’s understanding of Islam? What does it mean to be a Muslim? What kind of sources did she use in her interpretation of early Islam? How did she play one source against the other? What criteria did she use to scrutinize her source base? Do you find any inconsistencies in her use of sources? How is the Prophet portrayed? What, according to Mernissi, makes the Prophet an initiator of democracy and a defender of Islam? What went wrong with Islam? What role did Allah play in early Islamic history? Was He on the side of women? What role did women play in early Islamic history? Was their role passive or active? Has their role been recognized by traditional Islamic history?
Help and Tips
Crafting a good thesis is a difficult exercise. A thesis should be specific. A specific thesis is a statement that tells the reader exactly what your analysis of the text led you to conclude. Please note that your argument should be based exclusively on your reading of Mernissi.
In the case of this particular assignment, first you need to explain Mernissi’s argument and her view of early Islamic history in the introduction. Your thesis (also placed in the introduction, at the end of your introductory paragraph and typed in bold) should be based on your critique/evaluation of Mernissi. More importantly, if you do not find Mernissi’s argument convincing, your critique should be based on internal flaws or structural problems within the text. For instance: you might claim that Mernissi argues unconvincingly that …. but unless you explain the WHY in the same sentence, you DO NOT HAVE a “SPECIFIC thesis.”
In general, when you write a paper, never assume that your reader is knowledgeable about the material you write about. Always assume that your reader has never read Mernissi and knows nothing about Islam. Your reader (that is ME) is totally clueless. So make sure that I understand your argument.
Do not summarize the book! Please analyze. Analyzing implies checking whether the author accomplished his or her intentions or proved his/her points convincingly. It means looking at how the author uses evidence. It means understanding the context in which the argument was written, and comparing ideas and arguments.
Learn to use analytical, evaluative verbs like “Mernissi proved, persuaded, demonstrated, achieved, supported, convinced, contributed, failed, shifted, succeeded, transformed…” For instance, in your thesis, you may claim that Mernissi transformed the idea of…, but unless you detail the how of that transformation, your thesis remains unspecific, that is vague and too general. In other words, you do not have a thesis to argue for.
You may use descriiptive verbs such as writes, says, tells, maintains, reports, reminds, informs, argues, describes, claims, thinks, asserts, remarks, indicates, maintains, observes, and points out, BUT VERY CAUTIOUSLY, that is DO NOT USE THEM, unless they are followed with words like “un/effectively” or “un/convincingly” and with evidence that your claim is so.
Evidence should be drawn from the text, not from your personal experience or what your personal faith and philosophy of life lead you to believe. So, go over your paper draft and see how you used evaluative and descriiptive verbs. If you used too many descriiptive verbs without qualifying them and illustrating them with concrete evidence, it is a bad sign.
Another bad sign is when you use “it seems”. This is vague (= non-specific). If you brought sufficient evidence, there is no need for “it seems.”
Another bad sign is when you use the passive voice. It is vague. Always use the active form of a verb.
Please be formal in your writing. Do not let your passions take over. Again, do not refer to your personal experience. There should be no self-reference (I think, I guess…).
Finally realize that when I read your papers, I look at your introduction and conclusion FIRST. Then I read the body of the text. So make sure to state your thesis in bold in the introduction and to restate your thesis in the conclusion using different words. MORE IMPORTANTLY, please restate your main arguments in a systematic fashion.
Finally, at the beginning of your introduction and at the end of your conclusion, avoid general statements about religious life on earth or the state of women in any religion! Get straight to the point. I recommend that you rewrite your introduction and conclusion after you are done with the whole paper.
GRADING
1. Has the essay addressed the main question and attempted to answer it? Your introductory paragraph should introduce your explicit thesis the statement that you want to prove. This statement must directly address and answer the question.
What is a thesis?
– it is not the question you plan to answer.
– it is not the summary of what is in the texts you looked at.
– it is not the restatement of what others have said in the documents you examined. For instance, your thesis should not be the same as the thesis of one of the documents you consulted.
A THESIS IS the conclusion of your analysis.
PLEASE DO NOT FAIL TO TYPE YOUR THESIS STATEMENT IN BOLD AT THE BEGINNING OR END OF YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH. Your thesis should be one sentence long.
2. Is the paper analytical? Does it support each of its points with appropriate evidence drawn from the texts? Does the paper actually analyze that is compare, not simply quote or paraphrase the text? Remember, AVOID SUMMARIES!!
3. Does the paper use evidence in a valid and convincing way? If the writer of the paper twists or distorts evidence, the argument s/he advances is invalid. Likewise if s/he ignores evidence from the texts which clearly contradicts the argument of the paper, this oversight greatly weakens the essay. Does the writer avoid reading his/her thoughts back into the text? Does s/he adduce a variety of evidence to demonstrate the correctness of the thesis?
4. Is the paper well-written and well-organized? Does it have a clear structure, with an introduction, body, and conclusion? Does each paragraph have a clear topic sentence? Does the writer use complete sentences? Is the grammar correct? Is the spelling correct? Is each sentence clearly related to the main topic of the paper? Does each sentence advance the essay’s argument.
All papers should be addressed to a person who has a superficial familiarity with the texts you will be analyzing.