How the Gulf War Changed the AAUG's Discourse on Arab Nationalism and Gender Politics

Author(s): Mervat F. Hatem

Source: Middle East Journal, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Spring, 2001), pp. 277-296
Published by: Middle East Institute
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 How the Gulf War Changed the AAUG's
Discourse on Arab Nationalism and
Gender Politics

Mervat F. Hatem

The second Gulf War (1991) served as an indirect marker of the changes in the Arab
nationalist discourses of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates
(AAUG), and in their understanding of gender and politics. During the 1980s, the
AA UG subordinated gender and Arab American concerns to Arab nationalism. The
financial crisis of the 1990s contributed to the rise of women to leadership positions,
the development of a more balanced discussion of Arab and Arab American
agendas; and the critique of the US and Arab complicity in the reproduction of
gender inequality.

he second Gulf war (1991)1 left its imprint on the identities of many generations of
Arab Americans. The postwar period witnessed the publication of some studies which
examined how the participation of the US in the war helped to crystalize the gender

Mervat F. Hatem is a Professor of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, DC. This paper
was presented at the Middle East Studies Association meetings held in Chicago on December 4-7, 1998. I would
like to thank Dr. Hala Maksoud, Dr. Ghada Talhami and Ms. Nadia Hijab for sharing with me their perspectives
on the AAUG as well as their experiences in the institution. I also want to thank Dr. Michael Suleiman for
answering some questions about the AAUG and Ms. Randa Kayyali, the executive director of the AAUG, for
providing me with copies of the Newsletter.
1. The first Gulf War pitted the Islamic Republic of Iran against Iraq in a long regional conflict that
lasted eight years (1980-88). It ended without a clear victor or loser. During the war, most Arab Gulf states
financially backed Iraq. The debts that Iraq owed them was one of the issues that aggravated the tensions leading
to the second Gulf war.

MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL * VOLUME NO. 2, SPRING 2001

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278 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

identities of many Arab American women and their feminist discourses.2 The war
influenced Arab Americans in other indirect ways. It led to a new round of intense
reexamination of the complex relationships that tie them to their adopted (US) and original
(Arab) national communities. Arab American women were not only part of this debate,
but they emerged in the post Gulf war period as presidents of two very important
institutions: the Arab-American Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC), and the Associ-
ation of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG). The coincidence of having two
visible and important Arab American organizations electing women as presidents made
me interested in exploring the historical role that gender has played in the development
and operation of these institutions.
Up to 1990, men had monopolized the leadership of Arab American organizations
and had served as their only spokesmen. In fact, before Hala Maksoud became president
of ADC in 1996, the organization, which was established in 1980, had only one other
woman serve as president. She was Candace Lightener, the founder of Mothers against
Drunk Drivers (MADD). Her tenure as president was a short one, from 1994 to 1995. It
came after 14 continuous years of male leadership.3 AAUG had a slightly better
institutional record. Between 1967, when it was established, and 1990, it had elected two
women presidents. During this 23 year period, Elaine Hagopian was the first woman to be
elected as president, in 1976; Faith Ziady followed 12 years later, in 1988. Like ADC, the
AAUG has since 1990 elected three women presidents: Ghada Talhami in 1991, Hala
Maksoud in 1993 and Nadia Hijab in 1997.
What could explain this sudden interest and recruitment of women in leadership
positions in the 1990s by Arab American institutions? Initially, I hypothesized that these
developments represented a formalization of the assertiveness exhibited by women during
the Gulf War and in its aftermath. I also thought that this increased reliance on women
indicated a delayed but final institutional recognition of Arab American women and their
contributions.

These hypotheses were fully confirmed by the research done for this article. It
included an examination of the publications by AAUG from 1981 to 1998, coupled with
interviews with many women who occupied leadership positions during this period. It also
showed that the rise of Arab American women to leadership positions within that
organization in the 1990s was both a manifestation of, and a response to, the major
institutional crises that characterized the postwar period. The war coincided with a difficult
financial situation produced by risky investments made by the AAUG in the late 1980s.
The weakened economic position of the large and well established Palestinian commu-
nities in the Gulf states undermined their ability to support the AAUG during this difficult

2. Joanna Kadi, ed., Food for Our Grandmothers: Writings by Arab-American and Arab Canadian
Feminists (Boston: South End Press, 1994; Mervat F. Hatem, "The Invisible American Half: Arab American
Hybridity and Feminist Discourses in the 1990s," in Talking Visions, Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational
Age, ed. Ella Shohat (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999), pp.369-390.
3. Ray Hanania, "Lightener's departure from ADC: A Death Knell?" The Arab American News, 10, 4
(March 25-31, 1995), p. 5.

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION * 279

period.4 In addition, the AAUG's opposition to American military intervention in the

second Gulf War, which was interpreted by the Gulf state benefactors as de facto
acceptance of Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, contributed to the loss of another source of
income. The institutional consequences for the AAUG, the oldest and one of the most
visible Arab American organizations, were dramatic. AAUG came close to closing down
its offices in 1990-92.5
As part of the attempts to save and revive the institution, there was an agonizing
debate among its supporters regarding how to regroup and proceed. The reorganization
effort focused on support from Arab American communities across the country as an
important base of operation. The discussion of the election of Candace Lightner as
president of ADC in Arab American newspapers shed light on a possible explanation of
why women became appealing leaders of Arab American organizations. Some attributed
the election of Lightner to the fact that "her organization MADD was considered one of
the most successful role models for community level activity and organizing."6 Because
women in these institutions were often very active at the local levels, their election to
leadership positions was designed to appeal to these active elements in Arab American
communities and their resource base. It signalled a shift in their institutional mode of
operation.
In addition, the weakening of the AAUG took away the glamour and the power that
made its leadership positions attractive to some men in the 1980s. These positions now
required considerable investment of time and energy, which made them less appealing.
Because women in the 1980s had limited access to the leadership of these associations,
they continued to be interested in these positions. More importantly, many who took over
during the most difficult financial periods were explicitly committed to pulling the
association through.7
As a result, the AAUG emerged in the 1990s as a very different organization. Its
resources were more limited, but its representation of men and women on its board and
in the leadership of the organization was more or less equal. Most significantly, the
dominant Arab nationalist discourse that it had historically utilized in the justification of
its emphasis on international issues and concerns had changed. It developed a new hybrid
intellectual agenda that gave equal emphasis to Arab and Arab American concerns.
In the next two sections of this article, I want to test the above reading of the history
of the dominant Arab nationalist discourse and the gender politics of the AAUG. I will use
the publications of the organization to show that this discourse accommodated a fraternal
power structure in the 1980s. In addition, I will use interviews conducted with women
who were presidents of the organization in the 1990s, to develop a comparative
understanding of its changing power structure and its Arab nationalist discourse.
Methodologically, the cutoff dates for this study were determined by the availability o

4. Interview with Ghada Talhami on December 5, 1998 at the Hilton Towers Hotel in Chicago.
5. Telephone Conversation with Ghada Talhami, November 10, 1998.
6. Hanania, p. 5.
7. For example, Ghada Talhami for AAUG (interview on December 5, 1998) and Hala Maksoud for
AAUG and ADC (interview on September 1, 1998).

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280 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

issues of the AAUG Newsletter at the national headquarters, which I used as a main source
of data for my comparative study. In addition to providing material from which I
developed the AAUG's discursive profiles, the Newsletter provided membership data that
I used to construct the gendered politics of the institution. I will be arguing that the second
Gulf war served as a historical marker of the changing institutional and discursive
practices of the AAUG.

THE AAUG IN THE 1980S

The AAUG was established in the wake of the 1967 war when the "Arab nation,"
represented by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, suffered a major military defeat at the hands of
Israel. Its purpose was to "ward off the intense and often indiscriminate attacks against [the
community] and against its old homeland."8 A review of the limited literature produced
on and by the AAUG in the 1980s showed its embrace of an Arab nationalist discourse
that emphasized Arabness as a linguistic/cultural basis of communion among religiously
diverse groups, and their shared interest in the national and international politics of the
Arab region. Secondarily, it underlined the convergence between the struggles of the
Arabs in the US and the Arabs (and their states) in the Middle East against the hegemonic
policies of the US and its regional ally Israel. It characterized both of these struggles as
national, aimed at the defense of Arab culture and the Arab quest for the rights of
citizenship and self-determination. This national discourse on Arab and Arab American
politics did not recognize class and gender in the analysis of the different parties or their
issues. Arab Americans were part of the "Arab nation," which was defined in practice as
a populist horizontal fraternity. Their location in the US transformed them into a bilingual
community whose interests were defended by an articulate professional/intellectual class,
represented by the AAUG.
As the first Arab American organization, many mistakenly treated the AAUG as a
national organization that represented the diverse views of Arab Americans and their
communities. This was not an accurate description of the organization. The AAUG was
never a grassroots organization. It was a fairly middle class/professional organization
which represented the intellectual resources of the community in the form of its university
graduates. As the think tank of the community, as some like to describe it,9 it debated and
developed the general positions of Arab Americans on international, Arab, and national
issues.
During the 1980s, the organization addressed itself to many of the important Arab
issues and concerns that were carefully documented by its annual conventions. The
conventions represented the single most important activity of the organization. The task
of putting them together typically consumed the energy of the organization and its staff.
The conventions allowed the association to demonstrate its credentials as a think tank

8. Baha Abu-Laban and Michael Suleiman, "Introduction," Arab Americans: Continuity and Change,
eds. Baha Abu-Laban and Michael Suleiman (Belmont, Mass: Association of Arab-American University
Graduates, Inc., 1989), p. 6.
9. Interview with Hala Maksoud on September 1, 1998 at the ADC national office in Washington D.C.

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION * 281

through the presentation of the research done by Arab and Arab American university
graduates and academics on the issues of the day.
More significantly, the conventions brought together Arab and Arab American
intellectuals to debate current and future national concerns of the group. Because of the
privileged focus that they gave to the events and developments in the Arab world, they
produced an Arab nationalist definition of Arab American agendas. They also provided the
institutional bases for the production and the reproduction of intellectual and political
discourses that linked Arabs and Arab Americans as disparate member groups within an
"imagined" cross-national Arab nation.10 Through this annual ritual, the AAUG was able
to defend, to produce, and to reproduce this Arab nationalist definition of what it is to be
an Arab in the US.
Lest one think of the AAUG as a crude propaganda machine espousing a crude Arab
nationalism, let me make it clear here that the vibrant debates that took place in their
conventions disputed that view. Arab intellectuals located in the US and represented by
the AAUG defined a dual role for themselves: they were national defenders of the
misinterpretation of Arab culture and its people in the US and also critics of the flawed
policies of Arab states and their rulers.
In support of these claims, let me cite the themes selected for the conventions held
during the 1980s. They included: "The Arabs and Their Institutions: What Future?"
(1981); "The Israeli Invasion and Occupation of Lebanon" (1982); "The Arab World:
Human Rights, Political and Economic Challenges" (1983); "The Arab Nation: Fight for
Survival" (1984); "New Directions for the Arab World, Arab Americans and the Palestine
Issue" (1985); "Whither the Arab World?" (1986); "Arab Americans and the Arab World:
Challenges and Opportunities" (1987); "War and Peace in the Arab World" (1988); and
"The Arabs in a Changing World Order in the 1990s" (1989).
Because the Arab-Israeli and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts were recurring impor-
tant issues in these annual debates, they served as important political bases of communion
between the Arabs in the US and those in the Middle East. The AAUG position papers and
publications also focused on these issues as communal concerns. Finally, they served as
guides for correcting the very slanted discussion of these conflicts in the US and their use
in defining the status of Arab Americans.
In the conventions, a significant concession made to the North American setting of
these annual debates on Arab nationalism was the use of English as the language of
communication among the participants. This seems to support Benedict Anderson's
contention that the development of non-European "imagined national communities" in the
formerly colonized world was not diminished by their articulation in European languag-
es. II In this case, English and the North American location contributed critical insights to
Arab themes and issues.
In the above dominant Arab nationalist discourse, the Americanness of the Arab
American experience and its concerns occupied an ambiguous place. Throughout the

10. Benedict Anderson, "Exodus," Critical Inquiry (Winter 1994), pp. 314-315.
1 1. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991), chapter 8.

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282 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

1980s, the programs of these conventions struggled to define the connection between A
and Arab American experiences. Let me cite the title of the few panels and worksho
addressed these issues during some of its conventions. These included: "Arab-Americans
in a Changing Societal Context" (1981);12 "Arab Issues on the North American Scene:
Coordination and Political Participation" (1982);13 "Building Bridges Between Black
Americans and Arab-Americans;" "Coordinating Strategies for Arab-American Organi-
zations" (1985);14 "Confronting Anti-Arab Racism in the US" (1986);15 "Arab-Ameri-
cans: Looking Ahead"; "Arab-American Institutions and Their Achievements"; "Arab-
American Youth: a Generation Between;" "Discrimination Against Arab-Americans:
Legal and Social Pressures;" and "Arab-Americans in the Arts" (1987).16
The above suggests that the AAUG accepted the fact that Arab Americans were also
part of US society, with its unequal racial relations of power and distinct cultural
dilemmas. It was not clear how these were to be reconciled with the very dominant Arab
nationalist orientation of the organization. Other than the fact that these cultural and
political dilemmas affected a subgroup of Arabs and pitted them against the US and Israel
in another distinct way, the connections between Arab political and economic experiences
in the US and those of the Arabs in Arab states were not coherently developed. In fact, the
panels and workshops on Arab Americans and their preoccupations were generally not
well integrated in the Arab themes of the conventions. The only clear political
assumption that was made in the definition of the Arab American panels was that Arab
Americans should be instrumental in the representation of Arab cultural traditions and
interests in the US.
For example, it was not clear how the theme of the 1981 convention, which was "The
Arabs and Their Institutions: What Future?" was related to the panel on "Arab Americans
in a Changing Societal Context" which appeared in the program. Did both groups share
the same institutional dilemmas, or were Arab Americans moving ahead of other Arabs a
part of being in a changing societal context? In the 1986 convention, the theme was
"Whither the Arab World," and the Arab American panel was titled "Confronting
Anti-Arab Racism in the US." So, while the convention explored where the Arab world
was going, Arab Americans seemed to be stuck in the continued struggle against anti-Arab
racism. The theme in 1987 was "Arab Americans and the Arab World: Challenges and
Opportunities," but the Arab American panels seemed to assume that the challenge facing
Arabs and Arab Americans was that the former knew very little about the latter. So, some
of the titles of the panels attempted descriptively to introduce the dilemmas, the concems
and the achievements of the group to the large Arab audience, for example, "Arab
Americans Looking Ahead;" "Arab American Institutions and Their Achievements;"
"Arab American Youth: a Generation between;" "Discrimination against Arab Americans:
Legal and Social Pressures;" and "Arab Americans in the Arts."

12. The Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc. Newsletter, (March-April 1981), p. 4.
13. The AAUG, Newsletter, (August-September 1982), p. 3.
14. The AAUG, Newsletter, (April-June 1985), p. 1.
15. The AAUG, Newsletter, (May-July 1986), p. 1.
16. The AAUG, Newsletter, (March 1987), p. 2.

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION * 283

This crude instrumental view of Arab Americans as mere representatives of Arab

interests in the US was not questioned in the 1980s. The 1982 convention served as a good
example. Its theme was "The Israeli Invasion and Occupation of Lebanon." Its Arab
American workshop explored "Arab Issues on the North American Scene: Coordination
and Political Participation;" i.e., how to put American energies into the service of this
important issue. The same concern was pursued differently in the 1985 convention, whose
theme was "New Direction for the Arab World, Arab Americans and the Palestine issue."
Its Arab American panels discussed "Building Bridges Between Black Americans and
Arab Americans," and "Coordinating Strategies for Arab American Organizations as a
Means of Serving the Palestinian Cause." Let me be clear here that while the coalitions
between Arabs and Arab Americans in the service of important issues were worthwhile,
their instrumental definition of Arab Americans and their concerns in the 1980s were
problematic. This diminished the discussion of complex political and economic realities,
seeming to fear that if this discussion were developed, it would contribute to a false
opposition between the interests of Arabs and Arab Americans. There was no evidence of
the existence of such irreconcilable differences of interest or perspective among the two
groups.
In the period from 1981-1989, four conventions out of nine (1983, 1984, 1988 and
1989) had no panels that specifically discussed Arab Americans and their issues. The fact
that Arab American panels were sometimes absent, sometimes not creatively defined, and
reduced to one or two at the most in the different convention programs, reflected the
subordinate status of that agenda within the organization. The 1987 AAUG convention
was the exception that proved the point. As mentioned before, its theme was "Arab
Americans and the Arab World: Challenges and Opportunities." It had five panels and
workshops representing, for the first time, institutional commitment to a critical discussion
of Arab Americans, their institutions, problems and contributions. Paradoxically, the
Newsletter of the AAUG, which usually covered the important panels of the convention,
was silent on these panels in its reporting. Instead, the Newsletter's review of the
convention began by highlighting the closing down of the Palestine Information Office in
Washington DC, the harassment of a Palestinian American in the West Bank, and the legal
aspects of Israeli occupation.17 It then pointed to the address by the Reverend Jesse
Jackson, the only presidential candidate who agreed to appear at the convention, who
discussed his efforts to include Palestinian statehood in the platform of the Democratic
Party. This was followed by a summary of a paper on the misguided US and Israeli policy
agendas in the Middle East. Finally, the Newsletter highlighted the appearance of
congressman John Conyers (Democrat-Michigan) at the convention and his announce-
ment that his congressional committee would open hearings on the assassination of Alex
Odeh of the ADC office in California by suspects from the Jewish Defense League. A full
length article on the assassination of Odeh discussed the role that Israel plays in giving
refuge to those who engage in violent activities against Arab Americans.'8 In concluding,

17. AAUG, Newsletter, (January 1988), p. 1.

18. AAUG, Newsletter, p. 10.

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284 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

it emphasized that the Reverend Jackson "assured the audience that a practical solu
the Israeli-Palestinian issue was receiving the highest priority in his candidacy."'9
skewed coverage of a convention that attempted to put the Arab American communi
its accomplishments at the center, along with the familiar Arab-Israeli issues, prov
good example of the continuing tension between the Arab and Arab American conce
of the organization. It also underlined the way the dominant Arab nationalist orient
frequently undermined the ability of the institution to address both in a balanced
The above Arab nationalist discourse paid even less attention to women and their
general concerns. In 1981, the AAUG formed 11 committees to coordinate, plan, and
execute its national work. Among those committees, there was a women's issues
committee that was charged with "making specific proposals focusing on the status, need
and concerns of Arab American women as well as women in the Arab world."20 The
Newsletter never reported back on the proposals made by the committee.
The title of a few panels dealing with gender at some of the conventions suggested
how the dominant Arab nationalist discourse dealt with women and their concerns. For
example, the 1982 convention, whose theme was "Arab Dilemmas," had a panel titled
"The Dilemma of Liberating the Arab Woman."'2' The title was revealing in more than one
way. One could see the influence of American feminist discourse on the formulation of the
theme of the panel. During the 1980s, the use of the unitary category "woman" to
generalize about large groups of women was very popular. The title of the panel suggested
that the "Arab woman" was in need of liberation and that this was a particularly vexing
problem. Also implied in the title was that she could not liberate herself. This was a
familiar Arab and Western discursive assumption. Some Arabs believed that feminist men
and women were responsible for the liberation of women. Additionally, some Western
feminist women felt that they had an obligation to help Third World women. This last
assumption was supported by the title of a paper that a Canadian woman was to present
on the panel: "What Western Women Can and Cannot Do To Help Arab Women in Their
Struggle."22 Other papers on the panel had the following titles: "The Dilemma of
Democracy and the Liberation of Arab women;" "The Psychological Analysis of the
Liberation of Arab Women;" "The Family and the Changing Role of Women in the Arab
World," and "Imperialism and the Liberation of Arab Women: Egyptian Women Under
British Rule."23 The approach suggested by these titles focused on the discussion of the
conditions that impede or could contribute to change in the status of women. Because most
paper titles referred to "Arab women," the title of the panel was eventually changed to
"The Dilemma of Liberating Arab Women." Unfortunately, the panel never materialized.
In response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in July 1982, the theme of the 1982
convention was changed to "The Israeli Invasion and the Occupation of Lebanon" and the
originally planned panels, including the one on Arab women, were set aside.

19. AAUG., Newsletter, p. 5.

20. AAUG., Newsletter, (March-April 1981), p. 5.
21. AAUG., Newsletter, (March 1982), p. 1.
22. AAUG., Newsletter, (May 1982), p. 2.
23. AAUG., Newsletter..

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION * 285

Three years later, the Newsletter announced another panel on women in the 1985
convention, entitled "Critical Issues Facing Arab Women." Unfortunately, the review of
the convention published in the Newsletter made no mention of it.24
The AAUG's lack of interest in women's issues was noted in the responses of the
membership to a questionnaire that-was circulated in 1986, the purpose of which was to
assess the mission of the institution and its performance. The respondents indicated that
they wanted to see more discussion of women's issues.25 The fact that this issue was
mentioned in the discussion of the changing priorities of the institution was significant.
The fact that this issue appeared last in a long list of interests explained the limited
attention it continued to get. Palestine remained on top of that list, but there was great
interest in issues relating to the Arab American scene. Members wanted the AAUG to
cover workshops held in the US, the news of the different chapters, the Arab image in the
US, and Arab American visibility in the media. Other than Palestine, the other Arab issues
listed by the members included cultural activities, human rights in the region, and inter-
Arab relations.26
Up until then, the Newsletter had covered the resistance of Palestinian women against
the Israeli occupation, e.g; the strikes by Palestinian women in Israeli prisons.27 There was
also an article on the impact that the Israeli occupation and the intifada had on the work
and social roles of women in the West Bank and Gaza.28 Occasionally, gender popped up
in the discussion of the misrepresentation of Arab culture in the US media. For example,
one convention paper presented in 1983 discussed how Arab women, like Jehan Sadat,
were praised when they were perceived to break with the "Moslem male dominated" Arab
culture and/or to embrace modernization.29 In short, the Arab nationalist discourse used in
the AAUG' s Newsletter paid specific attention to discussion of the roles of women and/or
gender as an extension of the analysis of the nationalist struggles taking place in the region
and in the US. Here, women's issues derived their political and cultural legitimacy from
their service of nationalism.
Perhaps in response to the membership's request in the above questionnaire, the
Newsletter reviewed two papers that were presented in the 1989 convention. The title of
the panel was "Arab Women: Challenges in the 1990s." The first paper, titled "Gender
Relations," sought to examine the changes in women's political, cultural and social roles
in the occupied territories as they were depicted in women's literary works. Its author
suggested that while women had taken on very prominent roles in Palestinian society, this
did not contribute to changes in the definition of their status as women. The second paper
discussed the education and employment of Arab women as modern indicators of the
status of women in Arab societies. It suggested that despite improvements in those areas,

24. AAUG., Newsletter, (November-December 1985), pp. 3-5.

25. AAUG., Newsletter, (May-June 1986), p. 15.
26. AAUG., Newsletter, (May 1982).
27. AAUG., Newsletter, (July-August 1983), p. 26.
28. Kris Small, "The Changing Role of Palestinian Women," Newsletter, (August 1989), pp. 8, 10.
29. AAUG., Newsletter, (November-December 1983), p. 5.

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286 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

Arab women have yet to realize their full potential.30 The Newsletter's review of papers
that were critical of popular assumptions about the roles of women in contemporary Arab
societies was significant. It indicated that Arab women researchers were beginning to
influence the AAUG's views of the effects that nationalism and modernization had on
women in the region.
Let me now examine how the dual discursive emphasis on the international, coupled
with the very limited intellectual interest in women's issues, had implications for the roles
that men and women played in the AAUG. During the period under discussion (1982- 89),
the AAUG Newsletter published membership of local chapters for 1982, 1983, 1984,
1985, 1986 and 1987. There were no reports for 1988 or 1989. In August 1989, the
Newsletter suddenly reported that many local chapters were in decline and that attempts
were needed to revive them.
The reported membership data was not uniform. Sometimes the chapters only
reported their executive officers: the names of their President, Vice President, Treasurer
and Secretary. At other times, the local chapters reported a more expanded membership
of the Board, adding their at-large members and their ex officio members. The Newsletter
reported the membership list for New York, Texas, Illinois, Los Angeles, Detroit, New
England, North California, Quebec and San Francisco. While these chapters were clearly
active, the Newsletter did not provide membership lists for them for every year of the
period under discussion. It provided a total of 23 membership lists for the different
chapters from 1982 to 1987. This was not a large sample, but an adequate one. It allowed
one to characterize the gender of active membership at the local level and to trace the
changes in the positions that men and women occupied.
Based on this data, one can say that women's participation rates at the local level
were high. Out of figures reported for 23 membership lists, only seven had rates for
women's participation that were between 20-25%. Most of the remaining lists (14) had
rates of participation that ranged between 33% to 80%. Two chapters had the distinction
of representing the lowest and highest ends of the representation continuum. In 1982, the
New England chapter reported no women members on its board. In 1986, the San
Francisco chapter reported that all its five executive officers (including their ex-officio
officers) were women. It should be noted that the lowest rates of the representation of
women were more frequent in the early 1980s. They rose significantly in the middle and
late 1980s. A significant number of the lists (10 out of 23) showed rates of representation/
participation at the 50-75% mark.
What positions did women occupy in the power structure of the local chapters? The
most frequent executive position women occupied was that of the Secretary. They held
that position in 17 out of the 23 lists. Next, women were the Presidents of nine of these
lists. Their ascent to these leadership positions in seven out of these nine cases occurred
between 1984-1987. Next, women served as Vice Presidents in eight lists, Treasurers in
another eight and at-large members in yet another eight.

30. AAUG., "Convention Highlights," Newsletter, (December 1989), p. 4.

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION * 287

Some comment on the frequency with which women played the role of Secretary at
the local level seems appropriate here. While I have been able to get some clarity on what
was involved in this role at the national level in the 1980s (taking minutes and serving as
a communication center for the group),31 I am not sure what it entailed in the operation
of the local chapters. One could speculate that it involved the tedious, but institutionally
important work: taking minutes, arranging the place and time of meetings, preparing for
the meetings. This kind of work was needed to keep any organization going, even though
very little glory/prestige was associated with it. The same could be said about the role of
the Treasurer. It involved the management of the membership dues available to each
chapter and making sure that each operated within its means.
Women's interest in the Vice President position was more prevalent in the early
1980s, when the position of President seemed to be out of reach of active women. Starting
in 1985, there was less interest in that position. It coincided with women's increasing
success in assuming the position of President not only in a small chapter like that of
Illinois (one), but also in large ones like those in New York (two), Detroit (two), San
Francisco (two), North California (one) and Quebec (one). New York, Detroit and San
Francisco had the distinction of electing women Presidents twice in the 1980s.
Finally, women also served as at-large members on the boards of the local chapters.
This indicated that they had a certain degree of recognition within their own communities.
Membership of the board gave them a broad range of experience that they could use in
moving up the organization in the 1990s.
The membership lists for the National Board from 1982-89, also published in the
Newsletter, were not complete in the set I acquired from the national headquarters.
Membership of the 1983 and 1989 boards were not available. Based on the lists for the
remaining six years, there was a total of 13 women who were elected to the National
Board in the 1980s. Four of them were academic women occupying positions in
institutions of higher learning. Another seven came to the Board after an illustrious reco
of activism at the local level. Four of these members had served as Presidents and one as
Vice President at the local level. This gave them experience and visibility that accounted
for their election at the national level. Most became at-large Members of the Board.
Only five women occupied executive positions on the National Board. Four out of five
occupied the position of Secretary, and one (Faith Zeady) became President in 1989. As
mentioned before, the position of Secretary was a largely administrative one. This was clearly
a very labor-intensive position and local activists as well as academic women occupied it.32
During the six-year period from 1982 to 1989 for which membership lists were
available, there were usually two women on the available lists of the AAUG Board. The
only exceptions were the 1982 Board, which had three women, and that of 1986, which
only had one. Out of an eight member Board, this constituted a 25% participation rate.
This was higher than the participation rates for women in similar Arab or American
associations. The only figures available for the election of women in the US and Arab

31. Interview with Ghada Talhami on December 5, 1998.

32. Interview with Randa Kayyali, November 6, 1998.

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288 U MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

states to national positions were those that deal with political participation in parliamen-
tary institutions. They are cited here for suggestive purposes and not because they are
directly applicable to the election of Arab and Arab American women to the National
Board of the AAUG. In 1987, American women elected to Congress represented 5.3% of
its members.33 In the Arab states, the election rates for women in parliament for 1987
varied 0% in Morocco to a high of 13.2% in Iraq.34
These figures reflect positively on the 25% election rate for women on the AAUG's
Board in the 1980s. They could not be used to argue that the AAUG was unsympathetic
to women. On the contrary, it supported the view that the AAUG and Arab nationalism
had secular orientations that were committed to the goal of raising women's participation.
Their adequate representation of women on the National Boards during this period (two
out of eight) was very often used as a measure of the progressive credentials of its fraternal
power structure. This argument discounted the activism of middle class professional
women as an alternative explanation of why women made it to the Board. Many clearly
took advantage of existing opportunities within these institutions.
In contrast, most of the male members of the National Board had not spent some
years of service at the local level. Based on the review of many of the issues of the
Newsletter available for the period under discussion, only two male members of the
National Board were identified as having been active at the local level. The rest were
academics and professionals who were able to start at the top.
Some of the male members of the Board maintained strong overseas ties with the
Gulf states. Evidence of Gulf financial support took many forms. During this period, the
Newsletter carried many advertisements for teaching and other professional positions in
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Qatar. This particular source
of revenue aside, the Newsletter reported at least four trips the Board took to the Gulf
states in 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1986.35 Typically, they visited Kuwait and the UAE. In one
year, they also stopped in Qatar. In the wake of two of these trips, the Newsletter
announced expanded organizational activities. In the January 1982 Newsletter, news of the
trip to the Gulf coincided with the announcement that the Newsletter would be published
monthly instead of quarterly. Following the 1984 trip, AAUG announced that it would start
the publication of another monthly Newsletter, Middle East Focus, that would address current
issues in Middle East affairs as part of the Organization's outreach program.36
According to one source,37 AAUG received its financial support from the affluent
Palestinian communities, which were well established in those Gulf states, and not from
the governments. This might be true, but it was also clear from the advertisements in the
Newsletter and the different accounts of these visits that some kind of government support

33. United Nations, The World's Women 1970-1990, Trends and Statistics (New York: United Nations,
1991), p. 39.
34. United Nations, The World's Women 1970-1990, Trends and Statistics, pp. 39-42.
35. AAUG, Newsletter, (January 1982), p. 2; AAUG., Newsletter,, (January/February/March 1984),
1; AAUG, Newsletter,, (April 1985);AAUG., Newsletter, (May-July 1986), p. 3.
36. AAUG, Newsletter, (January/February/March 1984), p. 1; AAUG., Newsletter, (April, May, Jun
1984), p. 1.
37. Interview with Ghada Talhami on December 5, 1998 in Chicago.

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION * 289

was available. The Ruler of Al-Shara, one of the emirates that made up the UAE, was
clearly a very consistent supporter of the AAUG.
During this period, the Gulf states' perception of the AAUG and what it represented
changed. As already mentioned, Shaykh Sultan bin Muhammed al-Qasimi, the Ruler of
Al-Sharja, UAE, emerged as the highest Gulf official with the most interest in the visits
by the AAUG delegations. In reporting the 1982 trip, the welcoming of the AAUG
delegation was described as one given by Arabs to Americans. In other words, the AAUG
members were treated as Americans and not Arabs. In the next trip, Shaykh Sultan
emphasized to the delegation the centrality of the question of Palestine to the Arab
nation.38 Here, there seemed to be a switch in focus, in which Shaykh Sultan was
emphasizing the common interest that the AAUG and Al-Sharja, as representatives of
Arab nationalism, had in the Palestinian question. In the 1985 and 1986 trips, the AAUG
was increasingly treated as a reliable source of information about the US: its foreign,
commercial and industrial policies making the publications of the group increasingly in
demand.39 In 1986, the AAUG delegation conducted a joint seminar on water resources
in arid areas with the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, 40 presenting themselves as
skilled experts on important policy issues.
In many ways, the above described the complementary support that the AAUG and
some Gulf states gave to Arab nationalism in the 1980s. In exchange for their political
familiarity with US policies and technical expertise, the Gulf states were willing to help
in the funding of this association. By 1986, there was evidence that the first Gulf war
between Iran and Iraq (1980-88) which led to Gulf support of the Iraqi war effort was
diminishing their financial support of the AAUG.41 Gulf support of the AAUG began to
take the form of hosting US mayors, inviting other US figures to local conferences and
hosting Arab American youth delegations.42
In these visits to the Gulf region, all male AAUG delegations were the rule. Women
members did not participate, as the photographs and the accounts of these trips indicated.
If anything, the financial ties with the Gulf states worked against greater involvement of
women board members in what was clearly an important activity. Given the exclusively
fraternal power structures of the Gulf states and the limited public involvement of women
there, the AAUG Board did not hesitate to deny women members of the Board
participation in these trips and activities.
These ties with the Gulf states led the AAUG to adopt other exclusionary practices
from their Gulf patrons. Political scientists have argued that the "rentier" character of th
oil producing states explained their reluctance to develop systems of representation for
their citizens. State control of rent, the income from oil production, instead of internal

38. AAUG, Newsletter, (January/February/March 1984), p. 1.

39. AAUG, Newsletter, p. 16.
40. AAUG, Newsletter, (May-July 1986), p. 3.
41. AAUG., Newsletter, (April, May, June 1985), p. 16.
42. AAUG., Newsletter, (May-July 1986), p. 3.

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290 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

systems of taxation explained their authoritarian tendencies and their unwillingness to

offer their diverse citizens institutional means of representation.43
The availability of Gulf financial support gave the AAUG a "rentier" like character
in view of its emphasis on a largely Arab nationalist agenda that neglected the equal
representation of Arab American concerns of its membership, and excluded women
members from important positions and activities. The disaffection among the membership,
which the Newsletter reported in August 1989, represented a major challenge of the ability
of the institution to survive.

INSTITUTIONAL CRISIS, RESTRUCTURING AND A NEW HYBRID ARAB

NATIONALIST DISCOURSE IN THE 1990S

The first public indication of an unfolding institutional crisis went back to 1985.
President and Vice President of the AAUG, then, invited a number of former AAUG
Presidents from the New England area to meet and assess the "on-going activities of the
AAUG." There was no mention at this point of a financial crisis. Rather, the goal was to
evaluate the expansion of the AAUG's activities that occurred during the previous three
years.44 In the following year, 1986, a lengthy questionnaire was sent out to the members
to "assess the performance of the institution." One section of the questionnaire was
entitled "overcoming financial problems." It asked members for suggestions on fundrais-
ing, and asked if some would like to become sustaining members (with a membership fee
of $100).45 At this point, it seemed clear that the expansion of the previous years, fueled
by Gulf support in the early 1980s, was no longer sustainable. It was complicated by the
emergence of other Arab American organizations,46 such as the Arab-American Institute,
which was established in 1985 to increase Arab American participation in the political
process and appealed to Arab Americans interested in the US scene. The decline of
membership and low attendance (at least by former AAUG standards) at the annual
conventions was attributed to the fact that some of these new Arab American organiza-
tions siphoned support away from the AAUG as the oldest organization.47 The only
specific reference to the financial situation came in an internal memorandum that stated
that the AAUG's budget was to show a deficit of $150,000 for the year.48
The financial crisis exploded in 1990. Interviews with AAUG members who were
actively engaged in weathering this crisis pointed to two causes for it. One was
institutional and the other was political. The AAUG made some risky investment

43. Giacomo Luciani, "Resources, Revenues and Authoritarianism in the Arab World: Beyond the
Rentier State?", in Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab world, vol. 1, eds. Rex Brynen,
Bahgat Korany and Paul Noble (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995), pp. 211-227.
44. "Future Directions for the AAUG," internal memo, p.2.
45. Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc., "Letter to Members: An Assessment of
AAUG's Mission," Newsletter, (May-July 1986), p. 14.
46. Michael Suleiman, "A Position Paper on the Status and Future of AAUG," internal memo, p. 1.
47. E-mail communication with Dr. Michael Suleiman, who was involved in the institutional debate on
the status of the AAUG.
48. Michael Suleiman, "A Position Paper," p. 1.

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION * 291

decisions in the late 1980s which left the institution destitute in 1990. The onset of the
Second Gulf War and the political and economic instability it brought to the region
foreclosed any financial support from that part of the world. The AAUG's condemnation
of US military intervention was interpreted by the policy makers of the Gulf states as
unhelpful in rolling back Iraqi aggression.49 With external sources of support unavailable,
an easy and quick resolution for the internal financial crisis was ruled out.
In response, an open meeting was called in Michigan in the winter of 1990. Anyone
who could afford to pay his or her way to discuss the future of the institution was invited
to attend. While a minority of those attending thought that the dismal financial picture
justified closing down the AAUG, the majority of those attending voted to keep the
organization going. The 1991 President and National Board were given the responsibility
of figuring out how to manage the new painful financial reality.
A decision was made to move the AAUG's headquarters from the large building it
occupied in Belmont, Massachusetts to Illinois, where it occupied the basement office of
one of its active members.50 Instead of the usual hotel accommodation for the 1991
convention, it was held on the campus of Northwestern University. Only US-based
speakers were invited with active women in the Chicago area catering the event.5'
Jamil Jreisat made the first public reference to this crisis in his presidential address
to the 1992 convention. Jreisat informed the membership that the "AAUG is living
through uncertain times."52 Towards the end of this speech, he explained that the AAUG
was "enduring financial distress and shortfall of revenues. We have just weathered cutbacks,
downsizing, and the rest of belt tightening measures."53 He also admitted that the
organization "does not satisfy all our members, some of whom would like to see us move
forcefully or more conservatively."54 In short, the crisis was both financial and political.
As if to reinforce this sense of crisis, the Mideast Monitor (one of the periodic
publications of the AAUG) was issued together with a two- page Newsletter dated January
1993. What had been separate and substantial publications were combined into a skimpy
single publication whose goal was to communicate with the membership about the
changes taking place. On the first page of the Newsletter, the President, Jamil Jerisat,
declared 1992 a turning point in the history of the organization with the change of the
office location and a new institutional effort to attract new members to reverse the decline
in membership.55
In response to all of this, the association revised its mission statement and told its
members that it needed their feedback regarding the changes. The following is a
reproduction of this mission statement:

The AAUG is an independent educational, scientific and cultural organization of Arab-

49. Interview with Hala Maksoud on September 1, 1998.

50. AAUG., Newsletter, (January 1993), p. 1; AAUG., Inc., Newsletter, (November 1994), pp. 3, 9.
51. Interview with Ghada Talhami on December 5, 1998.
52. Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc., Mideast Monitor, 8,1 (Winter 1993), p. 1.
53. Mideast Monitor, Vol no. 8, p. 3.
54. Mideast Monitor, Vol 8.
55. AAUG, Newsletter, (January 1993), p. 1.

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292 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

American University graduates and others supporting the goals and objectives of the
association. Its central mission is to advance mutual understanding between the Arab and
American peoples by disseminating accurate and reliable information as well as scientific and
cultural exchange.

As an independent and educational association, the AAUG is not a partisan organization and
does not advocate or endorse any political ideology, party, movement or regime.

The specific objectives of the AAUG are:

1. To serve as a forum for free thinking, writing, discussion, exchange and publication about
critical issues affecting Arabs and Arab Americans;
2. To promote change in the Arab countries through the application of principles of science,
free speech, human rights and democracy;
3. To function as a link between educational, scientific and cultural institutions and their
counterparts in the United States and Canada; and
4. To encourage the development of social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural and
human service institutions in the Arab world.56

The repeated emphasis on the independence of the association, and that it was not an
advocate of any political ideology, party or regime was striking. It alluded to the breakdown
of friendly relations between the AAUG and the Gulf states over the organization's
opposition to US military intervention in the Second Gulf War. While the mission
statement denied that the association was a partisan of a particular ideology, this did not
signal a break with Arab nationalism. It was still committed to furthering understanding
between Arabs and Americans. It listed the debate, exchange and publication of critical
issues that were important to Arabs and Arab Americans as its first objective. This was a
major step towards equalizing its interest in Arab and Arab American concerns. Next, it
maintained its commitment to promoting change in Arab states through scientific and
democratic means. Thirdly, it declared its interest in working to further the cooperation
among Arab American organizations pursuing similar goals in the US and Canada.
The above statement indicated that the AAUG was redefining its discursive views of
what Arab nationalism stood for. According to the mission statement, an Arab orientation
was now defined as compatible with an equal emphasis on issues that affect Arab
Americans and the institutions they have developed in the US and Canada. This indicated
the movement towards a more hybrid Arab agenda, that took in the American context and
the contribution of Arab Americans to a complex formulation of the interests that the
AAUG served.
In the April 1993 Newsletter, Hala Maksoud, the new President, confirmed the above
reading. This was how she described the change in the association's mode of operation:

The main thrust of our activity is to service the American Arab community in a manner that
enables us to raise the level of consciousness in the United States about the Arabs, their
aspirations and their rights; and to empower us, as a community, to affect change in the
American body politics towards the issues which are uppermost in our minds. To achieve this

56. Newsletter, Jan 1993.

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION * 293

goal, we need to increase our membership and vitalize the AAUG chapters. Our membership
has been increasing steadily in the last year and the first chapter was revitalized in Chicago in
February. Many other chapters hopefully will be formed soon. Furthermore, unless we
revitalize our membership and our chapters we will never be able to achieve the financial
independence which is vital for the organization to keep its independent will.57

To suggest that the AAUG's activities were designed to service an "American Arab
community" represented a reversal of the order in Arab American discourse. American
Arabs were given a legitimate new space in a restructured Arab nationalist discourse.
While the AAUG was still committed to raising consciousness about the Arabs in the US,
there was a new emphasis on empowering the American Arab community through a
change in the attitudes of the American body politic. This formulation stressed the
combined and the hybrid character of the new Arab nationalism.
The themes of the AAUG conventions did not immediately reflect this change. In the
early 1990s, the themes continued to focus on the old definition of Arab nationalism and
its focus on the concerns of the Arab Middle East. For example, the 1992 theme was "The
Arabs: Preparing for the 21st Century." In 1993, it was the "Changing Realities in the
Arab World: Opportunities." In 1994, the convention examined the "Challenges and
Realities in the Arab World."
Beginning with 1995, a transition to a new discourse and institutional agenda began
to materialize. The theme for that year was "In Search of an Arab Renaissance: The Role
of Arabs at Home and Abroad." By naming and including the diaspora group referred to
as "Arabs abroad" in the discussion of the Arab renaissance, it was acknowledging them
as an equal part of the "Arab nation." It paid attention to the changes within that
community as contributing to the "Arab renaissance." The 1996 convention and its theme
"Issues in Arab America" represented a major turning point. The conference organizer,
described the issues under discussion as those "... which have received very little
attention. These included youth, gender, family issues and health (physical and mental),
and Arab American literature especially as it reflects Arab-American identity."58 The
attempt to place these issues at center stage had huge support. The Newsletter declared the
convention "a winner." It reported that there was also widespread agreement that it was
"one of the best conventions ever held by the Association."59
In response, the convention themes for 1997 and 1998 tried to capitalize on this huge
interest through the development of a discourse that balanced the discussion of the Arabs
"over there" and those "over here." The 1997 theme was "Arabs and Arab Americans and
the Global Community" and that of 1998 was on "Palestine After 60 Years of Occupation:
the Arabs and Arab-America Since 1948." This acceptance of double Arab and Arab
American perspectives on most themes emerged as a major change in the Arab nationalis
discourse in the 1990s. This set it apart from the discourse of the 1980s which emphasize
only Arab themes and concerns.

57. AAUG., Newsletter, (April 1993), p. 2.

58. AAUG., Newsletter, (March 1996), p. 6.
59. AAUG., Newsletter, (December 1996), p. 1.

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294 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

In another important attempt to connect the Arab American and the Arab preoccu-
pations of the organization, the AAUG began to hold conferences in the Arab world itself.
In this way, it sought to bring Arab American perspectives and expertise to the region with
which it was so intensely preoccupied. The first such conference was held at Birzeit
University in the West Bank in 1993, and its theme was "Palestine, the Arab World and
the World System." The second one was held in Amman, Jordan in 1994, and its theme
was the "Arab World Preparing for the 21st Century."
The discussion of gender issues benefitted from this last attempt to connect the Arab
with the Arab American concerns. During the first international conference, there was a
panel titled "Feminist Perspectives on the Future of Palestinian Society" that was part of
the program. It included an Arab Canadian academic with Palestinian academics at the
Women's Studies program at Birzeit. This discussion of feminist perspectives was a first
in an AAUG conference. The second international conference, held in Amman, had
another women's panel titled "Arab Women in the Emerging Civil Society." Two of the
papers presented on that panel and featured at length in Mideast Monitor made the
connection between American attacks on Arab societies and Arab women and the muted
criticism voiced by Arab women of how they have fared in those societies. They put
women in a defensive position that did not allow them to be critical of the disappointing
realities of Arab societies. Meeting on Arab soil, both offered frank assessments of the
reality of Arab women. The first paper, presented by the Palestinian writer and feminist
Sahr Khelifeh, attributed the continued subordination of Palestinian women to their
unequal access to resources, their exploitation by the nationalist and the Islamist
movements and the fragmentation of the women's movement.60 The second paper,
presented by Hala Maksoud, the former President of the AAUG, indicated that the quest
for the modernization and development of Arab societies which started at the beginning
of the twentieth century had failed to deliver its promise. Arab women lagged behind the
world's women in most areas.61 What was interesting about those two papers was that they
represented the convergence of Arab and Arab American women's perspectives on the
need to develop a double critique of the roles that the US and the different Arab societies
played in the reproduction of gender inequality in the region.
On American soil, the AAUG pursued a new organizational strategy to serve its
membership. It sought to revitalize its local chapters as a means of securing financial
autonomy. In exchange, it promised to protect the "independent will" of the community
and to serve its needs. In her presidential address, Maksoud shared with the audience that
"we paid a heavy price for refusing to be coopted and for insisting on our common
commitment, which is the raison d'e^tre of our organization." 62 This was an explicit
reference to the pressure put on the AAUG by its Gulf allies during and after the war. It
explained the organization's decision to turn inward in search of economic independence

60. Sahr Khelifeh, "Al-Mar'at Nahu Mujtama 'Insani; Demuqrati, Hadari, Mustanir (Woman towards
a Human Society that is Democratic, Cultural, Enlightened)," Mideast Monitor, (Fall 1994), pp. 2-5.
61. Hala Salam Maksoud, "Al-Mar'at wa Tahadiyyat al-Qarn al-Hadi, wa al-I'shrin (Woman and the
Challenges of the 21S't Century)," Mideast Monitor (Fall 1994), pp. 5-7.
62. Middle East Monitor, (Winter 1994), p. 1.

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 ARAB-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION U 295

as well as national support. It did not signal the abandonment of its international interests
and agendas, but simply represented a more balanced approach to the needs of its complex
constituencies.
Despite this talk of the revitalization of the local chapters, the Newsletter did not
report membership lists of the different chapters as it had in the 1980s. As a result, it was
difficult to speculate on the roles that men and women played in the local revitalization
process. Since the Newsletter continued to publish membership of its National Board, I
have used these lists as a basis for the discussion of change in leadership.
As in the 1980s, the 1990 Board had two women members, one of whom served as
Secretary. The following year, which was the most difficult financially speaking, the
number of women members increased to four. They occupied most of the executive
positions, including that of President, Secretary and Treasurer, with one at-large member.
In 1992, the number of women increased to five out of nine members, and they held on
to the positions of Secretary, and Treasurer, with the rest being at-large members. In 1993,
the number dropped to three, but they occupied the important positions of President,
Secretary and Treasurer. This number held for 1994, with women serving as Secretary and
Treasurer and an at-large member. From 1995-1998, women's membership on the
National Board stabilized to four out of nine, i.e, close to half (44%). This was still very
impressive by US and Arab standards. The United Nations Human Development Report
2000 offered figures for the election to parliament that in comparison were very modest.
In the US, women held 12.5% of the seats in Congress. The rates for Arab states varied
from 0.7% in Morocco to 11.5% in Tunisia.63
During this period, Arab and Arab American women also began to occupy all of the
major executive positions with a new degree of frequency. They were Presidents of the
organization for three years (1991, 1993, 1997). They were Vice Presidents for four years
(1995, 1996, 1997, 1998). They were Treasurers for five years (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994,
1995) and they were Secretaries for eight years from 1990-98. While the most taxing
administrative positions remained in the hands of women, the changing make up of the
Board, with its broad reliance on women for the other executive positions like those of
President, Vice President and Treasurer, especially in the lean years (1991-95), showed the
commitment of active women to nurturing the institution back to financial and organizational
health. Managing tight budgets and appealing to local membership for support were the
organizational strategies used by women to get the organization back on its feet.
The results were encouraging. The national offices were moved to Washington DC,
from the basement of a house that belonged to one of its active members in Normal,
Illinois. The emerging organization was both lean and independent. It appears to be more
responsive to the diverse needs of its community. Its Arab nationalist discourse
transcended the old false opposition between Arab and Arab American interests and
concerns. It made a successful transition from Arabism as restricted to a fixed geographic
location and category to a more dynamic Arabism that sought to reconcile the parallel and

63. United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 2000 (Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2000), pp. 165, 167.

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296 * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL

competing agendas of the Arab and Arab American segments of its complex community.
Finally, it began the critical exploration of Arab and Arab-American complicity in
producing a muted feminist-national discourse on gender inequality in the Arab world.

CONCLUSION

The second Gulf War has often been touted as sounding the death knell of Arab
nationalism. It revealed the existence of serious divisions among the Arab nations and laid
to rest the romantic emphasis on common cultural and political bonds as sufficient basis
for unity. The study of how the AAUG dealt with this painful realization is instructive to
students of Arab nationalism. In coping with its political and financial crises, the AAUG
experimented with redefining Arab nationalism in more promising ways. Instead of
ignoring the differences in the experiences, concerns, and interests of Arabs and Arab
Americans, and men and women, the organization has attempted to acknowledge them
and to try to balance them off. The result has been a healthy exploration of differences, in
the hope that the two groups could learn from and relate better to each other.
In responding to its financial crisis, the AAUG discovered the dangers of dependence
on international allies even though they were Arab brothers. At the times of crisis, outside
backers, regardless of their ethnicity, will insist on imposing their own agenda and the
only way to maintain one's independence is to keep one's house in order and to maintain
a supportive national base. The old Arab nationalist discourse glossed over the political
and the financial costs of dependence. Awareness of those costs was another lesson that
was learned by the AAUG from the Gulf war.
Finally, the fraternal power structure of the old AAUG and its old nationalist
discourse represented another source of problems. They relegated women and their
concerns to a secondary role. They ignored women's contribution to institution building
and the importance of their experiences at the local level. In the face of a severe financial
crisis, active AAUG women revived the local base and used it to rebuild a more sound
financial base of operation. Because women rose to leadership positions during the
financial crisis when the male leadership was reluctant to contribute their time to a
diminished institution, it is not yet clear if the male leadership has accepted the women or
is willing to support them in these positions in more prosperous times. What is clear from
this study is that women brought a set of perspectives and organizational strategies that
benefitted the AAUG and enhanced the ability of the organization to re-establish its appeal
to the membership. The benefit of these perspectives is crucial for the continued
inclusiveness of the institution.

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