Drawing from data on Bahrain and Qatar, this dissertation is a study of
women’s lived experiences during the pearl trade era and the transition to an oil
economy. It explores how intersections in women’s identities influenced their
positionalities and opportunities for productive labor within different socioeconomic
institutions, namely: dress, education, marriage, and health. This
dissertation embeds its analysis of women’s lived experiences within the emic
concept of ‛ʿayb’ and the theoretical frameworks of postcolonial and feminist
historiography. ‛ʿayb’ is the emic label given to behavior that obstructs the fantasy
of a flawless society.
Overall, this dissertation draws information from 32 interviews with 30
interlocutors. To collect data for this research project, I conducted 17 interviews
with 18 interlocutors from Bahrain and Qatar. I also considered 29 interviews
conducted by Msheireb Museums and reproduced relevant excerpts for my data
from 15 interviews with 12 interlocutors. This dissertation’s research questions are:
1. How did women live in the past?
2. What economic and social roles did women in Bahrain and Qatar play
during the pearl trade and early oil eras?
3. How do the possibilities of production, through both waged and unwaged
labor, influence the parameters of Ężayb? Conversely, how do the
parameters of ʿayb influence women’s possibilities of production?
Intersections of my identities affected my positionality against the
interlocutors I interviewed and allowed me to synthesize data with the cultural
sensitivity required in postcolonial and gender studies. As a Sunni Muslim woman
from the Arabian littoral of the Gulf, I have a particular analytical insight into ʿayb’s
operation in rapidly changing, yet conservative, societies.