<p>This dissertation discusses how reputation, virginity and honour are made topical in the stories of the lives of Arab and Kurdish women and connected with understandings of culture and religion. The dissertation is composed of five articles, which contain the principal analysis, and five chapters that discuss the project as a whole; the development of the main topics, and choices concerning methodological, ethical and theoretical approaches. </p><p>The empirical material of the dissertation consists of interviews with ten Arab and Kurdish women in Sweden, and seven legal cases of honor related violence. The interview material is analysed as a whole – focusing on the importance of reputation in women’s creation of identity, and how this may be related to cultural conceptions of divided femininity (virgin-whore) and honour (article 4). I also conduct an in-depth analysis of one interview, where meaning is created through a story, in which liberty is contrasted with constraint (article 3). In the analysis of the legal cases, I discuss the arguments of verdicts concerning honour related violence, and criticise the courts’ understanding of crimes as demarcated acts (articles 1 & 5). I also analyse the (violent) stories of the actual lives of women found in the legal cases in their contexts (articles 2 & 5).</p><p>Throughout the dissertation, I aim at a constructivist attempt that sees culture and gender as creative frames of interpretation. This attempt is connected with a hermeneutic perspective, which sees a statement or an act as comprehensible only when interpreted in its context (e.g. in a cultural context of honour). It is also connected with a feminist understanding of men’s violence against women, which relates the meaning of an act of violence to culturally accepted forms of control and cultural conceptions of gender.</p><p>In the analysis of the empirical material, I show how culture is created as contrast in the lives of women. ’Arab/Kurdish’ and ’Swedish’ appear as exclusive categories, and are connected with cultural conceptions of divided femininity and honour. Within these categories, a woman is either a virgin or a whore, and a woman that has been branded as a whore will be stained forever. Men’s honour will not be restored until she is extinguished. When these cultural conceptions are used in the life of a woman who lives with these highly normative demands, they may be crucial and signify experiences of violence. A woman with bad reputation may be defined as a ”Swedish whore” be her male relatives, contrasted with being an ”Arab/Kurdish virgin”. The honour of these men will not be restored until she is excluded from the family or dies: to be a virgin or a whore may be a life-and-death matter.</p>

This dissertation discusses how reputation, virginity and honour are made topical in the stories of the lives of Arab and Kurdish women and connected with understandings of culture and religion. The dissertation is composed of five articles, which contain the principal analysis, and five chapters that discuss the project as a whole; the development of the main topics, and choices concerning methodological, ethical and theoretical approaches. The empirical material of the dissertation consists of interviews with ten Arab and Kurdish women in Sweden, and seven legal cases of honor related violence. The interview material is analysed as a whole – focusing on the importance of reputation in women’s creation of identity, and how this may be related to cultural conceptions of divided femininity (virgin-whore) and honour (article 4). I also conduct an in-depth analysis of one interview, where meaning is created through a story, in which liberty is contrasted with constraint (article 3). In the analysis of the legal cases, I discuss the arguments of verdicts concerning honour related violence, and criticise the courts’ understanding of crimes as demarcated acts (articles 1 &amp; 5). I also analyse the (violent) stories of the actual lives of women found in the legal cases in their contexts (articles 2 &amp; 5). Throughout the dissertation, I aim at a constructivist attempt that sees culture and gender as creative frames of interpretation. This attempt is connected with a hermeneutic perspective, which sees a statement or an act as comprehensible only when interpreted in its context (e.g. in a cultural context of honour). It is also connected with a feminist understanding of men’s violence against women, which relates the meaning of an act of violence to culturally accepted forms of control and cultural conceptions of gender. In the analysis of the empirical material, I show how culture is created as contrast in the lives of women. ’Arab/Kurdish’ and ’Swedish’ appear as exclusive categories, and are connected with cultural conceptions of divided femininity and honour. Within these categories, a woman is either a virgin or a whore, and a woman that has been branded as a whore will be stained forever. Men’s honour will not be restored until she is extinguished. When these cultural conceptions are used in the life of a woman who lives with these highly normative demands, they may be crucial and signify experiences of violence. A woman with bad reputation may be defined as a ”Swedish whore” be her male relatives, contrasted with being an ”Arab/Kurdish virgin”. The honour of these men will not be restored until she is excluded from the family or dies: to be a virgin or a whore may be a life-and-death matter.

This interdisciplinary study examines a collection of chants intrinsically connected to the larger body of Western Chant: the psallendae. These chants of the Ambrosian rite, the form of Christian worship proper to the archdiocese of Milan, were sung during religious processions. With over 700 psallendae assigned to the Church calendar, this study examines only those assigned to feast days of the Virgin Mary, and in doing so, reveals a rich history of devotion to her. The primary sources examined are thirteenth-century manuscripts and medieval liturgical manuals. The processional chants are subjected to a thorough literary and musical analysis. Rooted in François-Auguste Gevaert's thematic theory, and using tools of reticular and stemmatic analysis, the psallendae are grouped according to melodic profile. Each group is then reduced to a core melodic theme, which, when juxtaposed with the ancient practice of religious processions, makes a compelling argument for the psallendae as among the oldest Christian chants.

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This exploratory study examines the question of Mariology in the Anglican Church in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It focuses on how Anglican women priests relate to the Virgin Mary within the patriarchal structures and African context of the Anglican Diocese of Natal. It aims to ascertain the perceptions of the Virgin Mary held by a sample group of ordained, doctrinally informed, Anglican women. The premise is that because the Anglican Church is closer to Roman Catholicism than other Protestant churches, these clerics might be more open to the dogmas of Mariology as proclaimed by the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. The depths of the subjects‘ knowledge of Marian dogma are ascertained, as well as the extent to which their spirituality and devotions are affected by this. An attempt is made to establish the potential advantages of an enhanced Marian presence in The Anglican Church in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This study is intended not merely to establish the dogmatic similarities in the Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions and underscore those issues which inhibit Marian veneration among local ordained Anglican women. Its intention is to elicit the effects of dogma on spirituality and worship, and to discern whether the subjects feel an affinity with Catholic Marian dogma and see any possibility of ecumenical progress between the two Churches. Roman Catholic Marian dogma is elucidated and examined. The four main dogmas are presented: the Theotokos, her Perpetual Virginity, her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption into Heaven. The Protestant and Anglican reservations regarding these dogmas are examined, and ecumenical dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches is discussed, including the bilateral ARCIC discussions with the Anglican Communion. Nine Anglican priests are interviewed, and the data and its implications for Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenism are examined. The findings indicate that the subjects do not subscribe to Roman Catholic dogma and praxis on Mary. It is proposed that Marian dogma per se is not a hindrance to ecumenism, but the fact of the dogmas reflecting the teachings on more fundamental theological issues such as the nature of sacraments, the trinity, the nature of grace and eschatology in the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This interdisciplinary study examines a collection of chants intrinsically connected to the larger body of Western Chant: the psallendae. These chants of the Ambrosian rite, the form of Christian worship proper to the archdiocese of Milan, were sung during religious processions. With over 700 psallendae assigned to the Church calendar, this study examines only those assigned to feast days of the Virgin Mary, and in doing so, reveals a rich history of devotion to her. The primary sources examined are thirteenth-century manuscripts and medieval liturgical manuals. The processional chants are subjected to a thorough literary and musical analysis. Rooted in François-Auguste Gevaert's thematic theory, and using tools of reticular and stemmatic analysis, the psallendae are grouped according to melodic profile. Each group is then reduced to a core melodic theme, which, when juxtaposed with the ancient practice of religious processions, makes a compelling argument for the psallendae as among the oldest Christian chants.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Marquette University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 252-272).

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on August 28, 2009). Department of History, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Eric L. Saak. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 540-548).

Shīʿī aḥādīth, particularly on women, are an immensely understudied area. Studies on Shīʿī aḥādīth on women usually centre on Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ, and little research explores pre-Islamic sacred female figures in Shīʿī aḥādīth. At the same time, there an urgent interest in Shīʿism as well as women in Islam, and a desire for new methods to be applied as well as new questions to be asked. This thesis will analyse Shīʿī aḥādīth about women in pre-Islamic sacred history who appear in the Qurʾān (focusing on Eve, Sārah, Hājar, Zulaykhā, Bilqīs, and the Virgin Mary), and apply the methodologies of ideological criticism and feminist hermeneutics (to be explained in Chapter 1) to explore the subtexts about the essential nature and role of women communicated through these narrations. In addition to exploring the roots of these ideas, it will compare them against the contemporary Shīʿī ideology of gender referred to as the ‘separate-but-equal’ ideology to explore how well this ideology corresponds to Shīʿī narrations. (What constitutes an ‘ideology’ will be explored in Chapter 1.) Rather than attempting to derive the ‘authentic’ teachings of the Prophet or the Imāms, this study will take a stance of inauthenticity with respect to narrations and treat narrations as socio-cultural artefacts representing the diversity of views and beliefs of the Shīʿī community. This distinguishes it from other works which either attempt to derive the ‘authentic’ teachings of the Prophet, or else which presume that all narrations equally reflect what the Prophet and Imāms actually said. This avoids the sticky question of which narrations are actually ‘true’ and allows them to be treated equally as cultural artifacts in negotiating a Shīʿī ideology of gender. Because this study focuses on sacred female figures shared with the Judaeo-Christian tradition, it allows for the exploration of how ideas about women from outside the Islamic tradition were integrated into the Shīʿī corpus through isrāʾīlīyāt, particularly through the intertextual synthesis of pre-Islamic material (such as the Bible) with post-Prophetic notions (such as normative paradigms of jurisprudential discourse). Two trends will emerge from these narrations. The first heavily reinforces patriarchal norms, such as women’s seclusion, the need for male authority, and male guardianship over women. These narrations reflect jurisprudential discourse and are largely found in two of the four most prominent books of Shīʿī ḥadīth, al-Kāfī and al-Faqīh. However, in the second, other narrations form a ‘counter-narrative’ in which women and men are portrayed as equals; these narrations invoke the imagery of esoteric Shīʿism and focus on the narrative of wilāyah (loyalty to and love of the Prophet, Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ, and the Shīʿī Imāms). Since both sets of narrations address uniquely Shīʿī concerns, such as the Imāmate, it can be deduced that these differing portrayals of women reflect competing concerns in the early and mediaeval Shīʿī communities with respect to determining Shīʿī identity and orthodoxy, and may also reflect the spread of and resistance to Arabization. Lastly, because many narrations attributed to Imam ʿAlī convey strikingly different views about women, the penultimate chapter will explore whether Imam ʿAlī was misogynistic through a comparison of two foundational Shīʿī texts: Kitāb Sulaym ibn Qays al-Hilālī (c. 100 AH) and Nahj al-Balāghah (c. 400 AH).

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work aimed the preparation of clotrimazole-loaded nanocapsule suspensions for vulvovaginal fungal infections treatment. For the first time, virgin coconut oil and medium chain triglycerides were used as an oil core of polymeric nanocapsules containing clotrimazole. The analytical method for quantification of this drug into nanoparticles was developed and validated. The method proved to be selective, linear, precise, accurate and robust. Using the method of interfacial deposition of preformed polymer, the nanoparticles were successfully prepared at three different concentrations of clotrimazole (1, 2 and 3 mg/mL). The physicochemical parameters measured were pH, particle diameter, polydispersity index, drug content, encapsulation efficiency, zeta potential and stability in storage during 60 days. The encapsulation efficiency was near to 100%, zeta potential was positive due to the cationic polymer employed, the pH was around 5.6 and drug contents were close to the theoretical values. The size distribution was nanometer (140-200 nm) with polydispersity index lower than 0.2. The formulations had adequate physicochemical characteristics and were stable during storage. Photodegradation studies have shown that the nanoencapsulation improved the stability of clotrimazole against UVC radiation compared to free drug solution after 14 hours of experiment. The in vitro drug release using the dialysis bag technique was characterized by a prolonged release. No burst effect was observed. Profilesare based on an anomalous transport and first order kinetics, regardless of the oil used. The in vitro microbiological test of nanocapsules suspensions was performed against Candida albicans and Candida glabrata susceptible and resistant to fluconazole by microdilution method. In combination with clotrimazole into nanoparticles, medium chain triglycerides was reported to have similar MICs of methanolic solution containing the oil and the drug. In addition to the antifungal activity in solution, coconut oil did not lose its activity after incorporation into the nanostructures and, in combination with drug, showed greater inhibition of microbial growth than the nanocapsules of medium chain triglycerides with clotrimazole. Finally nanoparticle suspensions were incorporated into hydrogels containing polymers with mucoadhesive properties, Pemulen® and Pullulan, which presented appropriate drug content, pH and spreadability. The formulations developed in this study represent promising alternatives for treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis. / Este trabalho objetivou a preparação de suspensões de nanocápsulas contendo clotrimazol para o tratamento de infecções fúngicas vulvovaginais. Pela primeira vez, o óleo de coco virgem e os triglicerídeos de cadeia média foram empregados como núcleo oleoso de nanocápsulas poliméricas contendo clotrimazol. A metodologia analítica para a quantificação do fármaco nas nanopartículas foi desenvolvida e validada. O método mostrou-se seletivo, linear, preciso, exato e robusto. A partir do método de deposição interfacial do polímero pré-formado, as nanopartículas foram preparadas com sucesso em três concentrações diferentes de clotrimazol (1, 2 e 3 mg/mL). Os parâmetros físico-químicos avaliados foram pH, diâmetro de partícula, índice de polidispersão, teor, eficiência de encapsulamento, potencial zeta e estabilidade frente ao armazenamento por 60 dias. A eficiência de encapsulamento foi próxima a 100%, o valor do potencial zeta foi positivo devido ao polímero catiônico empregado, valor de pH em torno de 5,6 e teores de fármaco próximos aos teóricos. A distribuição de tamanho foi nanométrica (140-200 nm), com índice de polidispersão menor que 0,2. As formulações apresentaram características físico-químicas adequadas e foram estáveis durante o armazenamento. Estudos de fotodegradação mostraram que o nanoencapsulamento melhorou a estabilidade do clotrimazol sob radiação UVC, em comparação com a solução do fármaco livre, após 14 horas de experimento. A liberação do fármaco in vitro, a partir da técnica de sacos de diálise, foi caracterizada como uma liberação prolongada sem efeito burst, que foi mediada por transporte anômalo e seguiu cinética de primeira ordem, independente do óleo utilizado. As suspensões foram capazes de diminuir a velocidade de liberação do clotrimazol nas 24 horas de experimento. A partir do método de microdiluição, procedeu-se a avaliação microbiológica in vitro das suspensões de nanocápsulas contra Candida albicans e Candida glabrata sensíveis e resistentes ao fluconazol. Em combinação com o clotrimazol nas nanopartículas, os triglicerídeos de cadeia média apresentaram valores de CIMs semelhantes à solução metanólica contendo o óleo e o fármaco. Além de apresentar atividade antifúngica em solução, o óleo de coco não perdeu sua atividade após a incorporação na nanoestrutura e, em associação com o fármaco, apresentou maior inibição do crescimento microbiano do que as nanocápsulas de triglicerídeos de cadeia média com clotrimazol. Por fim, as suspensões nanoparticuladas foram incorporadas em hidrogéis contendo polímeros com propriedades mucoadesivas, Pemulen® e Pullulan, que apresentaram teor, pH e espalhabilidade adequados. As formulações desenvolvidas neste estudo representam alternativas promissoras para o tratamento da candidíase vulvovaginal.