No description available.

Egyptian women played an integral and important role in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Egypt witnessed different forms of struggles and fights over power since January 25, 2011. The last decade can be understood as episodes of contention. Women played vital roles in each of these episodes. Both the complexity and dynamics of the different roles played by women problematized the various conceptual frameworks that are usually used in analyzing Egyptian women’s various forms of activism. Resultantly, this dissertation suggests a new analytical framework that can be applied to understand Egyptian women’s struggles and ways of expressing their agency. The theory of intersectionality by Collins and Bilge was used to analyze six documentaries produced by either female filmmakers or focused on women’s struggles and activism after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. The Triple C Model (Context, Contradictions, and Commonalities) analytical framework could fill the analytical gap in understanding the complex discourses surrounding Egyptian women’s oppression and activism.

Sexual Harassment is a phenomenon that is widely disseminated around the globe. Sexual harassment has many forms not only physical but also verbal through unwelcomed comments. This thesis will focus on analysing the topic of sexual harassment from an Islamic perspective using Egypt as a case study to examine the phenomenon. The mentioned perspective will deliberately examine different apprehensions of Quranic verses in Islam related to roles and rights of women in society. In that context, the thesis will discuss how some interpretations, among the interpretations presented in the paper, for certain Quranic verses can pragmatically lead to inequality between males and females in Egyptian society, which, eventually might cause/ lead to sexual harassment; the thesis will also focus on the other interpretations provided by Quranic scholars that presents different meanings to these verses, which endorses women’s rights and consequently rebukes sexual harassment against women in society. This paper will narrow down the study to discuss the root cause that creates the culture of the epidemic of sexual harassment in Egypt in terms of linking other factors to interpretations of the certain Quranic verses as referenced earlier. The reasons as it will be indicated in the paper are education, social norms, weak law implementation, and controversial interpretation of Quranic verses related to women’s rights and obligation in the society or in the household. The main question that this thesis is aiming to answer is how can different interpretations of Quranic verses related to women rights and obligations provoke sexual harassment against women in the Egyptian society? Are these interpretations embedded within the cultural norms and traditions? The paper will also discuss the state’s legal frameworks and its implementation against sexual harassment and how can the state response be improved. Moreover, the role of NGOs will also be discussed and what hinders their action against this phenomenon. The thesis has two main theories that are used throughout the whole paper which are Islamic Hermeneutics and Islamic Feminism, which mainly contributes to providing different doctrine interpretations of controversial Quranic verses related to women rights and the relevance of the verses within a certain context. In addition to that, the paper aims to discuss the relevance of the idea of having an Islamic approach to combat sexual harassment in collaboration with NGOs, International organizations, and some religious institutions.

Despite a plethora of empirical evidence on the work-family interface in 'the West', very little research has been carried out on the experiences of women in the context of Pakistan. Gender inequalities persist in the Pakistani labour market and women's employment is skewed towards agriculture and 'respectable' professions, such as academia and medicine. However, following the privatisation of the banking industry, women have been gaining visibility in this profession despite societal pressures to either conform to the homemaker role or remain in 'women's work'. What makes the Pakistani context unique is the interplay between gender, culture, religion, class and family structure. This affects reconciliation of work and family roles among working women. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the experiences of working women in a gendered, patriarchal, Muslim society. It offers an indigenous conceptualisation of the contours, causes, consequences and coping strategies (Four C's) of work-family conflict (WFC) among women working in Pakistani banks through a multi-layered, feminist, intersectional approach that gives voice to women. The study foregrounds women's experiences at the individual-level; however, it also considers the broader structures such as the extended family system, the male-dominated banking industry and the contradiction of Islamic teachings with the societal norms regarding women's paid employment. Consequently, the conceptual model of Four C's of WFC offers a systematic and coherent categorisation of the causes, consequences and coping strategies of WFC in a context-sensitive, multi-level, intersectional, feminist approach framework. Such indigenous manifestations of WFC in the Pakistani context can inform research in similar contexts. Based on a mixed method approach the fieldwork collected empirical evidence through 280 scoping questionnaires and 47 in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews in four different banks in Punjab province of Pakistan. The study reveals the most extreme, yet masked, forms of oppression and the subtleties of agency in the context of religious, patriarchal and cultural understandings of 'work' that also impact the salience of other social categories, e.g. class and family structure. In the main, the findings suggest a gendered culture of silence in Pakistan in which women working in Pakistani banks lack opportunities to vocalise their subjugated positions in the work and family spheres. More specifically, the thesis points to the fact that these women are subject to, sometimes conflicting, organisational and societal pressures to conform to the respective images of 'ideal worker' and 'good woman' simultaneously. This, of course, has implications for the intensity. In doing so the study extends the existing WFC theoretical framework to include and consider not just the Four C's of WFC but the intensity, duration and types experienced by women in particular contexts. However, the research also revealed that women in Pakistani banks are not passive victims, but active agents, making context dependent constrained choices to prevent or cope with WFC. For policymakers, the findings suggest the need for the formulation of context-specific initiatives to address work-family issues in patriarchal Muslim societies.

The author covers issues of gender and Iranian national identity as reflected in Iran’s first published woman novelist, Simin Daneshvar. Her novel, Savushun, is the first novel to be published by an Iranianwoman in 1969. The novel depicts Iran at the start of the country’s governmental factions in 1941 when Reza Shah Pahlavi overthrew years of Iranian dynasty and established a monarchy. This thesis explores how the novel is a vital part of Iran’s historical literature as well as essential to the present day discussion of gender and politics, especially for women within the patriarchal paradigm.

Esta pesquisa se insere no campo dos estudos sobre o mundo muçulmano, tendo como objeto as mulheres muçulmanas e sua presença nos movimentos islamistas, entendidos aqui como movimentos fundamentalistas, cuja ideologia política tem como núcleo a defesa das tradições do Islã e a crítica ao Ocidente. O objetivo central é o de investigar em que medida esses movimentos podem estar contribuindo para (ou obstruindo) uma possível emancipação das mulheres muçulmanas, definida essa emancipação por critérios como autonomia na participação sociopolítica e presença nos espaços públicos. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa propõe-se, na perspectiva da História Social, fazer uma abordagem comparativa entre o Egito e a Turquia, pós-anos 80, estruturando-se em torno de três questões principais: a) O islamismo e seu impacto na vida social e política das mulheres; b) A presença feminina nos movimentos islamistas e c) A modernidade no Islã: a mulher e o islamismo. Trabalhando com as noções de Islã, fundamentalismo, identidade, gênero, feminismo, modernidade e outras, a pesquisa, ao voltar-se para as relações entre mulheres e islamismo, espera contribuir também para o estudo dos processos de modernização das sociedades muçulmanas. / This research inserts in the field of the studies about the Muslim world, having as object the Muslim women and its presence in Islamist movements, understood here as fundamentalist movements whose political ideology is centered defense of the traditions of Islam and in the criticism of West. The main objective is to investigate to what extent these movements may be contributing to (or blocking) a possible emancipation of Muslim women, this emancipation defined by criteria such as autonomy in social and political participation and presence in public spaces. In this sense, the research is proposed from the perspective of social history, making a comparison between Egypt and Turkey, after 80, and is structured around three main issues: a) Islam and its impact on social and politics life of women; b) the presence of women in Islamist movements c) modernity in Islam: Women and Islamism. Working with the notions of Islam, fundamentalism, identity, gender, feminism, modernity and other the research to turn to relations between women and Islamism, also hopes to contribute to the study of the modernization of Muslim societies.

The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the depiction of women in Quran from an Islamic feminist perspective. The questions that my study is based on are: How is the woman accounted in the Quran according to Islamic feminists? How do Muslim feminists argue and what do they base their reasoning on? My study is based on analyzes of the feminists’ works and statements. The results were analyzed with the help of different theories including Miriam Cookes “multiple critique”, Jan Hjärpes “The Islamic basket”, Jonathan Potters “methodological relativism” and Luckman & Bergers “social construction of reality”. The main result of this study is that it highlights how different Islamic feminists interpret the Quran in relation to the present and how their interpretations have created debates internationally. I also discuss the importance of new interpretations and the globalization for Muslim women.

The emerging phenomenon of Western women Islamic converts learning radicalized ideology through social media constitutes a challenge to cyber policy makers hampered by a lack of gender-nuanced radicalization research. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative case study was to develop a greater understanding of how the differential reinforcement tenet of social learning theory may help to explain the conversion and radicalization of Western women towards a fundamentalist Islamic ideology through their participation in the social media. Key research questions explored how participation in online social media may create vulnerability towards radicalization and exploitation. The blogs of 3 different Western women converts were selected from the social media website Tumblr for the period of January 2014 through September 2015. Approximately 21,700 posted entries were subjected to a deductive coding process and thematic analysis. Key findings indicated that fervent activism, strong commitment to the digital community, and a tepid response to world terrorist attacks were potential vulnerabilities for targeted radicalization. Additionally, authors increased the number of their ideology-related posts in response to increased reader interactions. Finally, reader responses did not appear to alter the bloggers' static and strongly held positions on cultural gender roles. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include a starting point for the development of a formal adolescent cyber educational program, new metadata delimiters for the identification and engagement of vulnerable women, and as an example of the use of public policy theoretical frameworks for homeland security research.

Esta pesquisa se insere no campo dos estudos sobre o mundo muçulmano, tendo como objeto as mulheres muçulmanas e sua presença nos movimentos islamistas, entendidos aqui como movimentos fundamentalistas, cuja ideologia política tem como núcleo a defesa das tradições do Islã e a crítica ao Ocidente. O objetivo central é o de investigar em que medida esses movimentos podem estar contribuindo para (ou obstruindo) uma possível emancipação das mulheres muçulmanas, definida essa emancipação por critérios como autonomia na participação sociopolítica e presença nos espaços públicos. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa propõe-se, na perspectiva da História Social, fazer uma abordagem comparativa entre o Egito e a Turquia, pós-anos 80, estruturando-se em torno de três questões principais: a) O islamismo e seu impacto na vida social e política das mulheres; b) A presença feminina nos movimentos islamistas e c) A modernidade no Islã: a mulher e o islamismo. Trabalhando com as noções de Islã, fundamentalismo, identidade, gênero, feminismo, modernidade e outras, a pesquisa, ao voltar-se para as relações entre mulheres e islamismo, espera contribuir também para o estudo dos processos de modernização das sociedades muçulmanas. / This research inserts in the field of the studies about the Muslim world, having as object the Muslim women and its presence in Islamist movements, understood here as fundamentalist movements whose political ideology is centered defense of the traditions of Islam and in the criticism of West. The main objective is to investigate to what extent these movements may be contributing to (or blocking) a possible emancipation of Muslim women, this emancipation defined by criteria such as autonomy in social and political participation and presence in public spaces. In this sense, the research is proposed from the perspective of social history, making a comparison between Egypt and Turkey, after 80, and is structured around three main issues: a) Islam and its impact on social and politics life of women; b) the presence of women in Islamist movements c) modernity in Islam: Women and Islamism. Working with the notions of Islam, fundamentalism, identity, gender, feminism, modernity and other the research to turn to relations between women and Islamism, also hopes to contribute to the study of the modernization of Muslim societies.

The main purpose of the thesis is to investigate the possibility of bridging the dichotomy between Islam and the criteria of modern society by means of reinterpreting the principles (foundations) of Islam. The reformists Abdolkarim Soroush, Sedigheh Vasmaghi and Tariq Ramadan seek to prove that the methods keeping strictly within the boundaries of tradition interpreting the Quran along the lines of previous generations is not necessarily the sole means of coming to an understanding of the Quran’s message. The thesis discusses these reinterpreters’ critique of tradition and their arguments for the possibility of uniting the principles of Islam with the prerequisites of modern society. In conjunction with this, the question whether modern society presupposes a strict division between the private and the public sphere is problematized from a point of departure in Jeffrey Stout’s Democracy and Tradition. The thesis attempts to show potential conceptions of a modern society based on the principles of Islam.