<p> The purpose of this grant proposal was to develop a program, identify potential funding sources, and write a grant to fund an Afghan domestic violence program that offers culturally competent services to Afghan women survivors of domestic violence in the San Francisco Bay Area. An extensive literature review was conducted to explore how culture affects perceptions of domestic violence within immigrant communities and the ways in which those perceptions can impede access to domestic violence intervention services. Findings show that while violence against women in Afghan culture is a serious problem, awareness about and services for Afghan women and families in the United States for domestic violence are virtually nonexistent. The proposed program will provide Afghan-specific domestic violence direct services, raise community awareness and train mainstream providers on cultural competency. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant proposal were not requirements for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> The ongoing war in Syria is reaching its fourth year, and over 1.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes into surrounding countries. This thesis looks at the Syrian refugees that have traveled to neighboring Jordan, and how religion has kept them stable in diaspora. Looking at Thomas Tweed's theory on translocative religion, I will show how diasporic religion symbolically moves in time and space through the use of sacred artifacts and rituals. Emile Durkheim's lens will reflect why human-made objects are sacred. </p><p> The Muslim Syrian refugees that took part in this research always identified with a vision of what the Syrian nation should be: a nation where religion could be practiced and where sectarianism did not divide the people. Benedict Anderson's "imagined community" makes that nation accessible in the imagination, since the refugees cannot physically be there.</p>

This thesis examines the work of the missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and the rise of a Protestant community in Ottoman Syria, from the commencement of the missionary station at Beirut in 1823, to the dissolution of the community in 1860. The primary goals of this thesis are to investigate the history of this missionary encounter and the culture of the new community. This analysis is guided by the theoretical framework of Practice Theory and employs gender as a lens to explore the development of the Protestant identity. It argues that the Protestant community in Ottoman Syria emerged within the expanding port-city of Beirut and was situated within both the American and Ottoman historical contexts. The social structures that defined this community reflect the centrality of the ABCFM missionaries within the community and reveals a latent hierarchy based upon racial difference. However, tensions within the community and subversions to the missionaries’ definition of Protestantism persisted throughout the period under review, which eventually led to the fragmentation of the community in 1860. The contribution of this thesis lies in its investigation onto the activities of women and their delineation of Protestant womanhood and motherhood, as an important manifestation of Protestant culture. This work demonstrates the centrality of women to the development of the Protestant community in Ottoman Syria and reveals the complex interpersonal relationships that defined this missionary encounter.

<p> High fertility rates may not pose short-term threats to Pakistan's stability however, Pakistan's long-term survival largely depends on reducing the rate at which the population is expanding because this growth is outstripping economic development. This paper seeks to highlight a viable strategy for Pakistan to improve its population planning approach. The Iranian government's experience with population reduction from 1986-2010 will form the basis of comparison in this paper, helping to identify a way forward for Pakistan. The first section introduces the current population growth in Pakistan and the economic and security risks associated with these high fertility rates. This section also explains the similarities between Pakistan and Iran and why Iran's population programs could be paired with elements of population programs being initiated by the Pakistani government. The second section examines family planning promotion in both Iran and Pakistan. Iran's unique strategy in introducing family planning to a nation of conservative Muslims involved several unique approaches. In Pakistan, these same approaches, if implemented, could bolster Pakistani receptiveness of family planning. The third part reviews ways Pakistan could improve their family planning education model. In Iran, family planning education promoted birth spacing as way to reduce the religious stigma that might forbid contraception. Iran's government also undertook a serious effort to educate men, young adults and couples through family planning education workshops. The final reviews the role that female empowerment, literacy and employment have in reducing nationwide fertility in both Pakistan and Iran. The Iranian government elevated of the status of women by integrating them into civil society. This social change reduced nationwide fertility and overall lifetime fertility. In Pakistan, female education has indirectly reduced fertility rates but has not been promoted by the government to the same degree as in Iran.</p>