“True Stars in the East”: Engendering Faith and Educational Networks in the American School for Girls in Iraq, 1920s–1950s

This chapter examines American women missionaries’ roles in cultivating gender differences, national identity, and civic values through education at the American School for Girls in Iraq founded by the United Mission in Iraq, a joint missionary project between the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in the United States in the 1920s–1950s. It also explores how Iraqi students negotiated Anglo-Protestant ideals of femininity to suit their needs. Drawing on the United Mission in Iraq records, yearbooks, and interviews with former students, the chapter analyzes these materials using the intersection of gender, race, and class. It argues that missionary educators inculcated American Christian norms of femininity and civic values in Iraqi girls through Bible studies, Western academics, American sports, and group activities. By instilling in their students morality, submissiveness, and service-mindedness, the missionaries hoped to cultivate “Christian” homemakers who would serve their community and the Iraqi state. Despite the missionaries’ intentions, several Iraqi girls negotiated traditional gender roles by entering professions and pursuing higher education and work abroad. By investigating these American-Iraqi interactions in an educational setting, the chapter demonstrates how the American School for Girls served as a transcultural and transnational space for intellectual and cultural exchange across religious and national boundaries.