Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1987. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 508-514).

<p>This Bachelor thesis deals with the sexual identity of Egyptian women who love and have relationships with other women. I theoretically study the state of existing literature on homosexuality in the Middle East, and I do this from a gender perspective. By looking closer at four recent books on this topic I derive two main, and contradictory, theories. The first is put forth by Joseph A Massad in his book Desiring Arabs, where he rejects the existence of homosexuality in the Middle East, declaring that same sex acts in this region don’t constitute identities, as in the West. The second theory, best represented in Samar Habib’s work Female homosexuality in the Middle East, sees past and present histories of same sex love as representations of homosexuality. The empirical basis for my analysis is five in-depth interviews with Egyptian women having sexual relationships with women. Examining my material I find a negation of Massad’s theory and a confirmation of Habib’s, the women indeed describe sexual identities. I look into these descriptions and see how the women have reached this point of realizing – or coming to terms. I also study their narratives of passing, as heterosexual women, in order to avoid repression. The women’s knowledge of society’s prejudice gives the explanation for their choices of passing, but at the same time the women’s stories show a will to challenge the view on lesbian women and resist the compulsory heterosexuality.</p>

The purpose of this study is to analyze the events that occurred throughout the Egyptian Revolution from January 2010 to February 2010 through pragmatic humanism. Tweets will be looked at from the book Tweets from Tahrir to show how the process unfolded. Building on the previous research, the tweets will be looked at through the lens of pragmatic humanism. The study will show how individuals can better the world they live in by experimenting with different methods and adapting to any failures they may encounter. The study will also show how the reach of the individual has become faster and further than previously possible. The elements of pragmatic humanism will be broken down into five main tenets. The study will take a thematic approach in analyzing the tweets through the perspective of the particular tenet. The study will also show the power of individual desires when they are able to combine with the social context of the time. The advent of Twitter has allowed individuals to test and experiment with hypotheses much quicker than before and allows them to make monumental changes to their reality in a much shorter period of time. / Graduation date: 2013

Middle-Upper Eocene successions were studied in the Fayum Depression in order to establish depositional and paleoenvironmental models that link the ichnological and sedimentologic data to relative sea-level changes in a sequence stratigraphic framework. Five facies associations (FA1- FA5) are identified. The facies depositional models show overall progradation from quiescent open-marine bay (FA1-2: Gehannam and Birket Qarun formations) to lagoon/distributary channel/estuary sedimentary environments (FA3-5: Qasr El-Sagha Formation). The facies successions and their stratigraphic evolution are controlled by a regional, second-order cycle associated with the northward regression of the Tethys, which is overprinted by subordinate third- and higher-order cycles. Whale-bearing FA1 and FA2 are subdivided into five sedimentary facies. Seventeen ichnospecies belonging to thirteen ichnogenera, as well as rhizoliths are observed within these facies. Facies Association 1 accumulated in a low-energy fullymarine bay, whereas FA 2 represents a bay margin / supratidal paleoenvironments. Clastic point-sources are dominantly hypopycnal although eolian sand may represent an important source locally. The quiescent marine bay is a typical environment and biome for the Eocene whales. Preservation of these fossil whales must occur in association with rapid sedimentation rates, but sufficiently that bioturbation eradicates the physical sedimentary structures. Unusual, large-sized sedimentary structures are examined along the parasequence-bounding surfaces of the Birket Qarun Sandstone. Ichnological data, petrography and stable-isotope analysis are integrated to propose a bio-sedimentologic/diagenetic model, interpreting the origin of these structures as concretion growths around ichnofossils. The marine pore-water carbon was influenced by organic carbon and mixing of meteoric groundwater under eodiagenetic conditions. These conditions led to the precipitation of pervasive authigenic calcite-dominated cement in and around the burrows. More than twenty-five Glossifungites Ichnofaciesdemarcated discontinuities are examined in the study area. These surfaces are grouped into those of autocyclic and those of allocyclic origin. Occurrences of the allocyclically significant Glossifungites Ichnofacies can be classified into sequence-bounding, systems tract-bounding and parasequence-bounding surfaces. Sequence-bounding Glossifungites Ichnofacies-demarcated surfaces divide the studied successions into four third-order sequences. Systems tract-bounding and parasequence-bounding Glossifungites Ichnofacies-demarcated surfaces display higher-order cycles, overprinting the third-order cycles.

This Bachelor thesis deals with the sexual identity of Egyptian women who love and have relationships with other women. I theoretically study the state of existing literature on homosexuality in the Middle East, and I do this from a gender perspective. By looking closer at four recent books on this topic I derive two main, and contradictory, theories. The first is put forth by Joseph A Massad in his book Desiring Arabs, where he rejects the existence of homosexuality in the Middle East, declaring that same sex acts in this region don’t constitute identities, as in the West. The second theory, best represented in Samar Habib’s work Female homosexuality in the Middle East, sees past and present histories of same sex love as representations of homosexuality. The empirical basis for my analysis is five in-depth interviews with Egyptian women having sexual relationships with women. Examining my material I find a negation of Massad’s theory and a confirmation of Habib’s, the women indeed describe sexual identities. I look into these descriptions and see how the women have reached this point of realizing – or coming to terms. I also study their narratives of passing, as heterosexual women, in order to avoid repression. The women’s knowledge of society’s prejudice gives the explanation for their choices of passing, but at the same time the women’s stories show a will to challenge the view on lesbian women and resist the compulsory heterosexuality.

An integrated framework is created to assess national-level tourism plans and is applied to the Egyptian case. To date, the assessment of tourism planning has been a tedious, expensive process and detailed evaluations have not often been undertaken in a systematic manner. It is argued that much can be learned about tourism planning by examining tourism planning documents systematically according to a set of criteria. Although plans differ depending on their contexts, there are certain attributes that should be present in all tourism plans. In this dissertation a set of characteristics is delineated that should be present in national-level tourism plans. The proposed assessment framework is divided into four major components: goals and objectives, approach to tourism planning, institutional elements, and marketing. Each component is then further divided into key points drawn from pertinent literatures that suggest the characteristics of a good plan and, therefore, what should be assessed in plan evaluation. The framework is then applied to the Egyptian tourism plan to guide an examination and assessment of the documents. Based on this analysis, recommendations are made to improve Egyptian tourism planning. This research contributes to tourism planning by suggesting a framework that can be employed with relative ease to assess tourism plans for different national-level destinations, thus facilitating problem and issue identification, offering an opportunity for learning, and providing a structure for undertaking comparative studies.

Purpose: Egypt has the highest prevalence of chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections and also a high prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM). The high prevalence chronic hepatitis C has been attributed to HCV transmission by contaminated injections for the control of schistosomiasis. HCV infection has not been well studied in the context of female genital mutilation (FGM). We sought to identify associations between FGM and HCV using the Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), 2008. Methods: FGM was chosen as the main independent variable of interest. Other independent variables such as age, education, marital status, residence, beliefs associated with FGM, history of blood transfusion, surgery, sharing needles, and history of schistosomiasis were included in the analysis. Throughout the analysis, HCV infection was used as the main dependent variable. Results: Univariate analysis of FGM and HCV showed a statistically significant association with a Prevalence Odds Ratio of 4.82 (2.91 -7.96), after adjusting for age and schistosomiasis injection, the association between FGM and HCV remained statistically significant with an odds of 2.98 (1.76 – 5.05)Among the category for FGM performer and association with HCV infection, the OR was 4.28 (2.31 – 7.91) when the FGM was performed by a ghagaria, 3.68 (2.76 - 4.90) when the FGM was performed by daya, and 3.30 (1.81 -5.88) when the FGM was performed by a barber. Among other independent variables, a lack of education, rural residence, and having religious precepts for FGM had statistically increased odds of association with HCV infection. Conclusion: There is a statistically significant association between FGM and HCV infection. There are increased odds of HCV when the FGM is performed by providers other than doctors. Participants from a rural residence and who those who did not have any education were at increased odds of HCV. Subjects who believed in religious precepts for FGM and also who answered that FGM can continue had increased odds of association with HCV infections.

This thesis will use three case studies to test the existing research on civil society and authoritarian regimes. By using concrete data from Putin’s previous decade in Russia, the post-Mubarak government’s control over transitional Egypt, and the Hun Sen regime in Cambodia, this thesis is an attempt to analyze under what conditions will authoritarian governments not only create, but enforce controls and restrictions against their NGO communities. This thesis expands O’donnell & Schmiiter’s existing theory: Government policy makers will increase restrictions when NGOs and civil society represent too strong of a threat, to include both real and perceived threats. Unfortunately, this thesis cannot conclude on the true power of NGOs, however one does not need to answer this question to examine why governments restrict them.

The politics surrounding retrenchment and social protection in the Middle East have been obscured by a broad ideological consensus that civil society has replaced the state as the site of social provisioning since the nineties. Contrary to the dominant “state retreat” narrative, the adoption of neo-liberalism in the region was not in fact uniformly accompanied by convergence around a minimal welfare regime. Why have processes of welfare retrenchment unfolded along contrasting patterns across the Middle East with some states explicitly redefining social policy frameworks, and others undermining access and effects of prevailing programs without dismantling them? The dissertation aims to contribute to our understanding of state-society relations in the region by closely examining recent welfare regime changes in Egypt. Why has Egypt pursued “hidden retrenchment” entailing dilution of universal benefits, conversion of social programs to new beneficiaries and institutional layering, without the explicit overhaul of welfare policy frameworks? What are the micro-level political influences shaping the retrenchment process on the ground? Using the Social Fund for Development as a window for understanding hidden retrenchment in Egypt, the dissertation demonstrates that external dynamics of globalization, and donor assistance do not mainly account for welfare regime restructuring. Similarly, the state’s fiscal status, and the underlying switch in development strategies cannot explain retrenchment patterns. Rather, I argue that the internationally dominant neoliberal development discourse has influenced some aspects of retrenchment reforms, and domestic political dynamics have molded hidden retrenchment in Egypt. The regime’s power maintenance logic and a prevailing moral economy of social entitlements explain the process. Micro-level qualitative and statistical analyses of retrenchment politics also reveal that intra-state agencies struggles, regime security concerns, the state’s tendency to fiscally penalize areas with a history of Muslim Brotherhood support, as well as the National Democratic Party’s patronage networks influence outcomes on the ground. My findings suggest that variations in retrenchment patterns across the region reflect important differences in states’ social bases of power, rather than external pressures or domestic economic dynamics.

The politics surrounding retrenchment and social protection in the Middle East have been obscured by a broad ideological consensus that civil society has replaced the state as the site of social provisioning since the nineties. Contrary to the dominant “state retreat” narrative, the adoption of neo-liberalism in the region was not in fact uniformly accompanied by convergence around a minimal welfare regime. Why have processes of welfare retrenchment unfolded along contrasting patterns across the Middle East with some states explicitly redefining social policy frameworks, and others undermining access and effects of prevailing programs without dismantling them? The dissertation aims to contribute to our understanding of state-society relations in the region by closely examining recent welfare regime changes in Egypt. Why has Egypt pursued “hidden retrenchment” entailing dilution of universal benefits, conversion of social programs to new beneficiaries and institutional layering, without the explicit overhaul of welfare policy frameworks? What are the micro-level political influences shaping the retrenchment process on the ground? Using the Social Fund for Development as a window for understanding hidden retrenchment in Egypt, the dissertation demonstrates that external dynamics of globalization, and donor assistance do not mainly account for welfare regime restructuring. Similarly, the state’s fiscal status, and the underlying switch in development strategies cannot explain retrenchment patterns. Rather, I argue that the internationally dominant neoliberal development discourse has influenced some aspects of retrenchment reforms, and domestic political dynamics have molded hidden retrenchment in Egypt. The regime’s power maintenance logic and a prevailing moral economy of social entitlements explain the process. Micro-level qualitative and statistical analyses of retrenchment politics also reveal that intra-state agencies struggles, regime security concerns, the state’s tendency to fiscally penalize areas with a history of Muslim Brotherhood support, as well as the National Democratic Party’s patronage networks influence outcomes on the ground. My findings suggest that variations in retrenchment patterns across the region reflect important differences in states’ social bases of power, rather than external pressures or domestic economic dynamics.