Protestans missions in the Middle East

Anders Bjørkelo
Inger Marie Okkenhaug
Renate Lunde
Department of History, University of Bergen

The Protestant missionary movement of the nineteenth century engaged women on a large scale in North America and in Europe, including the Nordic countries. Women played a central role both at home, as fund-raisers and as active agents in "heathen" countries. It has been claimed that Western women missionaries through their work both at home and out in the field were not only liberating themselves from the constraints of the private sphere, but that they also contributed to the liberation of women in general by changing cultural premises.[1] This project seeks to explore central aspects of this process based on empirical studies in relation to gender and Scandinavian, German, American and French Protestant missions in the Middle East. What characterised the encounter between these Protestant representatives and the local population, in relation to religion, race, modernisation and gender issues?

In their roles as professional missionaries, European and American women conquered new ares within the patriarchal structures of the Protestant church. However, did these women's success in expanding the scope of gender boundaries build on undisputed notions of racial hierarchies? Or is it possible to intepret mission as a feminist project with implications for women's roles within church and society?

Mission, like other forms of Western colonialism, is a manifaceted phenomenon. Focusing on the individual actors is one way of making explicit the variations within the group "female missionaries". Empirical based studies are therefore fundamental and necessary in order to grasp the various encounters between the Christian and the Arab worlds.

"Protestant Missions, gender, religion and race in the Middle East, A German, Danish and Swedish comparison". ( Researcher: Inger Marie Okkenhaug)

Women missionaries saw it as their main priority to include non-Christian women in what they perceived as the collective of Christian, liberated women. This solidarity with non-Christian women was based on the Protestant belif in the right of all women to salvation and the spiritual equality of men and women. The ambitions of improving women's conditions of life were very much the motivation behind the establishment of a German boarding school for Arab girls (the "Talitha Kumi") outside Jerusalem in 1851, the Swedish "Jerusalemförening"'s girls school established in Jerusalem in 1902 and the Danish Women's Missions work among Armenian women and children. Scandinavian missions had strong ties to German Protestant organisations and the "Jerusalem-Verein zu Berlin" encouraged the Swedes to establish a school for girls in Jerusalem. This school was open to both Jewish and Arab children. However, the greater majority were Arab children dominated by various Christian backgrounds. The Danish Women Mission Workers (Kvindelige Missions Arbejdere) gave priority to work among the Armenian population. After the genocide in 1919, they opened a school and orphanage, "Fugleredet" (the Bird's nest) in Jbeil, north of Beirut.

This study will include an underlying comparative aspect in relation to already existing research on mission and gender issues in colonial areas, including my own work from Palestine.[2] Here the Anglican education in Palestine had an explicit class-profile, which was connected to the Anglican Church's ambitions that went beyond the religious and educational level. The schools were part of the Anglican anti-national project, which was based on modernising and co-existence between Arabs and Jews. Gender- and class dimensions were explicit, and women and men from the middle class were seen as having specific roles. Are there similar attempts at modernising and co-existence between Jews and Arabs in the German and Swedish school ideologies? This is especially relevant in relation to the anti-Semitic ideology in Germany and Nazi attitudes to women. The Scandinavian countries, on the other hand, developed differently, with women gaining more access to higher education and the job market. Do we find these national variations of women's roles in the various missions? If so, how did the missionaries represent and communicate these different gender models that were the norm, or were propagated in their own societies?

Protestant education and elite women in the Middle East (Ph.D. project: Renate Lunde)

The Ph.D. candidate will look at women and higher education at one of the most central Christian educational institutions in the Middle East, the American University in Beirut, which before 1920 was known as "The Syrian Protestant College" and run by American missionaries. From the 1920s Arab and Jewish girls educated at various mission schools were sent to Beirut to attend the Protestant university. This project will focus on elite women who received higher education at mission schools, change over time, religious identity, socialization and choice of carriers in the period from 1925-55. The American Protestant College's Archives and the American University's archive is in Beirut. Oral sources will also play a part in this study. The Ph.D. thesis will be published as a monograph with an international publisher.

Mission, women and higher education in the Middle East; A study of Collège Protestant Français" (Senior-researcher: Professor Anders Bjørkelo)

This case-study will also focus on Protestantism, women and higher education in Lebanon. The case study of this project is the "Collège Protestant Français" in Beirut in the period 1950-1970. The "Collège Protestant Français" and its archive are located not far from Beirut. Oral sources will also play a part here. This study will be published as a longer article, and will expand the comparative aspect of missions in the Middle East by including women and education within French Protestantism, which so far has been lacking in international research.

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[1] See for example L. Nyhagen Predelli, "Contested Patriarchy and Missionary Feminism: The Norwegian Missionary Society in Nineteenth Century Norway and Madagascar". Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Southern California, 1998 and on gender and religion in the Nordic countries, see Gender and Vocation: Women, Religion and Social Change in the Nordic Countries, 1830-1940 ed. P. Markkola, Helsinki 2000.

[2] I. M. Okkenhaug: The quality of heroic living, of high endeavour and adventure: Anglican Mission, Women and Education in Palestine, 1888-1948, Brill 2002, see also N. Stockdale, Gender and Colonialism in Palestine 1800-1948: Encounters Among English, Arab and Jewish Women, University of California Press 2003.