Feminism, gender equity and sexual/reproductive health in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region

Sexual/reproductive/health and rights are crucial public health concerns that have been specifically integrated into the Millennium Development Goals to be accomplished by 2015. These issues are related to several health outcomes, including HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence (GBV) among women. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region comprises Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), West Bank and Gaza (WBG), and Yemen. This region is primarily Arabic speaking (except for Israel and Iran), and primarily Muslim (except for Israel). Some traditional and cultural views and practices in this region engender gender inequalities, which manifest themselves in the economic, political and social spheres. HIV and gender-based violence in the region may be interlinked with gender inequalities which breed justification for partner violence and honour killings, and increase the chance that HIV will transform into an epidemic in the region if not addressed. A feminist framework, focused on economic, political and social empowerment for women would be useful to consider applying to sexual/reproductive health in the region.^

Critical connections : Islamic politics and political economy in Indonesia and Malaysia

This article explores Islamic politics in two Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia, by linking their trajectories, from late colonial emergence to recent upsurge, to broad concerns of political economy, including changing social bases, capitalist transformation, state policies, and economic crises. The Indonesian and Malaysian trajectories of Islamic politics are tracked in a comparative exercise that goes beyond the case studies to suggest that much of contemporary Islamic politics cannot be explained by reference to Islam alone, but to how Islamic identities and agendas are forged in contexts of modern and profane social contestation.

Bibliography of Spanish Muslim Art 1939-1946

Bibliography of Spanish Muslim Art 1939-1946

Hādhihi taʻlīqah laṭīfah fī-mā yataʻallaq bi-qawl al-Nabīy ṣallá Allāhu ʻalayhi wa-sallam "ḥubbiba ilayya min dunyākum al-nisāʼ wa-al-ṭīb wa-juʻilat qurrat ʻaynī fī al-ṣalāt" / taʼlīf al-Shaykh al-Imām al-Ālim al-Allāmah wa-al-baḥr al-fahhāmah Shaykh al-Islām wa-al-muslimīn ʻumdat al-fuqahāʼ wa-al-muḥaddithīn Sayyidī Abū al-Suʻūd ibn Tāj al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Zakī al-Dīn al-Khazrajī al-Shāfiʻī : manuscript, 1685

Written in one column, 15 lines per page, in black rubricated in red. Title written in green and red ink.

Tārīkh al-Muslimīn min ṣāḥib sharīʻat al-Islām Abī al-Qāsim Muḥammad ilá Dawlat al-Atābakīyah =: Historia saracenica, qua res gestae Muslimorum, inde a Muhammede primo imperij & religionis muslimicæ auctore, usque ad initium imperij Atabacaei, per XLIX imperatorum successionem fidelissimè explicantur. Insertis etiam passim christianorum rebus in orientis potissimum ecclesijs eodem tempore gestis

arabicè olim exarata à Georgio Elmacino ... et latinè reddita operâ ac studio Thomae Erpenii. Accedit & Roderici Ximenez ... Historia Arabum, longè accuratius, quam antè, è manuscripto codice expressa.

Kitāb Munyat al-muftī / taṣnīf al-Shaykh al-Imām al-ʻĀlim al-Fāḍil al-ʻAllāmah Jamāl al-Dīn Muftī al-muslimīn Yūsuf ibn Abī Asʻad ibn Aḥmad al-Sijistānī. manuscript, 1481

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وبالله التوفيق والاعانة وهو حسبي ونعم الوكيل الحمد لله الواحد ... :Incipit

Hādhihī risālah sharīfah fī al-amr bi-al-maʻrūf wa-al-nahy ʻan al-munkar / taʼlīf Shaykh al-Islām wa-al-Muslimīn Najm al-Dīn al-Ghazzī : manuscript, 1658

A treatise on the principle of "commanding right and forbidding wrong" in Islam.

#DressCodePM & Re-Framing The Niqab: News Sources, Hashtag Activism, and Media Representation

This thesis originates from my interest in exploring how minorities are using social media to talk back to mainstream media. This study examines whether hashtags that trend on Twitter may impact how news stories related to minorities are covered in Canadian media. The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated the niqab was “rooted in a culture that is anti-women” on 10 March 2015. The next day #DressCodePM trended in response to the PM’s niqab remarks. Using network gatekeeping theory, this study examines the types of sources quoted in the media stories published on 10 and 11 March 2015. The study’s goal is to explore whether using tweet quotes leads to the representation of a more diverse range of news sources. The study compares the types of sources quoted in stories that covered Harper’s comments without mentioning #DressCodePM versus stories that mention #DressCodePM. This study also uses Tuen A. van Dijk’s methodology of asking “who is speaking, how often and how prominently?” in order to examine whose voices have been privileged and whose voices have been marginalized in covering the niqab in Canadian media from the 1970s and until the days following the PM’s remarks. Network gatekeeping theory is applied in this study to assess whether the gated gained more power after #DressCodePM trended. The case study’s findings indicates that Caucasian male politicians were predominantly used as news sources in covering stories related to the niqab for the past 38 years in the Globe and Mail. The sourcing pattern of favouring politicians continued in Canadian print and online media on 10 March 2015 following Harper’s niqab comments. However, ordinary Canadian women, including Muslim women, were used more often than politicians as news sources in the stories about #DressCodePM that were published on 11 March 2015. The gated media users were able to gain power and attract Canadian Media’s attention by widely spreading #DressCodePM. This study draws attention to the lack of diversity of sources used in Canadian political news stories, yet this study also shows it is possible for the gated media users to amplify their voices through hashtag activism.

The Mirage of the State: Why the West has failed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali and Central African Republic? Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 14 No. 15, July 2014

The state still matters. However, the members of the Euro-Atlantic community may be misinterpreting this crucial baseline prior launching their military interventions since 2001. The latest violence and collapse of the state of Iraq after the invasion of Northern Iraq by a radical Sunni Muslim terrorist group, so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), demonstrate once again the centrality and requirement of a functioning state in order to maintain violent forces to disrupt domestic and regional stability. Since 2001, the US and its European allies have waged wars against failed-states in order to increase this security and national interests, and then have been involved in some type of state-building.1 This has been the case in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali, and Central African Republic (CAR). France went into Mali (2012) and CAR (2013), which preceded two European Union military and civilian Common Security and Defense Policy missions (CSDP), in order to avoid the collapse of these two states. The threat of the collapse of both states was a concern for the members of the Euro-Atlantic community as it could have spread to the region and causing even greater instabilities. In Mali, the country was under radical Islamic pressures coming from the North after the collapse of Libya ensuing the 2011 Western intervention, while in CAR it was mainly an ethno-religious crisis. Failed states are a real concern, as they can rapidly become training grounds for radical groups and permitting all types of smuggling and trafficking.2 In Mali, France wanted to protect its large French population and avoid the fall of Mali in the hands of radical Islamic groups directly or indirectly linked to Al-Qaeda. A fallen Mali could have destabilized the region of the Sahel and ultimately affected the stability of Southern European borders. France wanted to avoid the development of a safe haven across the Sahel where movements of people and goods are uncontrolled and illegal.3 Since the end of the Cold War, Western powers have been involved in stabilizing neighborhoods and regions, like the Balkans, Africa, and Middle East, which at the exceptions of the Balkans, have led to failed policies. 9/11 changes everything. The US, under President George W. Bush, started to wage war against terrorism and all states link to it. This started a period of continuous Western interventions in this post-9/11 era in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali and CAR. If history has demonstrated one thing, the members of the Euro-Atlantic community are struggling and will continue to struggle to stabilize Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali and Central African Republic (CAR) for one simple reason: no clear endgame. Is it the creation of a state à la Westphalian in order to permit these states to operate as the sole guarantor of security? Or is the reestablishment of status quo in these countries permitting to exit and end Western operations? This article seeks to analyze Western interventions in these five countries in order to reflect on the concept of the state and the erroneous starting point for each intervention.4 In the first part, the political status of each country is analyzed in order to understand the internal and regional crisis. In a second time, the concept of the state, framed into the Buzanian trinity, is discussed and applied to the cases. In the last part the European and American civilian-military doctrines are examined in accordance with their latest military interventions and in their broader spectrum.

Towns of New England and old England, Ireland and Scotland : connecting links between cities and towns of New England and those of the same name in England, Ireland and Scotland : containing narratives, descriptions, and many views, some done from old prints : also much matter pertaining to the founders and settlers of New England and to their memorials on both sides of the Atlantic /

"Written to commemorate the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrims."

Christ Carrying the Cross, with the Crucifixion; The Resurrection, with the Pilgrims of Emmaus

Gerard David; 2 ft. 10 1/64 in.x 10 63/64 in. (left); 2 ft. 10 1/64 in.x 10 63/64 in. (right), painted surfaces; oil on oak panel

The Resurrection, with the Pilgrims of Emmaus

Gerard David; 2 ft. 10 1/64 in.x 10 63/64 in. (painted surface); oil on oak panel

The proceedings by the state of Connecticut in commemoration of the tercentenary anniversary of landing of the pilgrims on Plymouth rock, 1620-1920.

Simeon E. Baldwin, chairman.