Rosa mesopotamica (Blogger: Rua Al-sheikh)

Social Networking and The Egyptian Revolution

2011-08-27T04:28:00.001+01:00

This dissertation focuses on the role of social networking websites in the 2011 Egyptian revolution. The role of social media in the Egyptian revolution or what has been called the “Facebook revolution” is investigated by analyzing some Facebook pages and groups.

Please click on the link to view the full text of my dissertation.

Iraqi Identity among Young Iraqis in the British Society

2011-08-27T04:24:00.002+01:00

This dissertationexplores Iraqi identity among young Iraqis in the UK. The main focus is howyoung Iraqis deal with their Iraqi identity and adaptation strategies to lifein the UK. A qualitative approach was chosen; nine semi structured interviewswere conducted with young Iraqis in the UK from different backgrounds. Thestudy revealed that some participants do not stick to their Iraqi identityunlike others who are strongly attached to their identity. In addition, youngIraqis in this study experience different levels of adaptation to life in theUK.

Please Click here http://www.box.net/shared/3bsargpbjn8ftprqq0vv to view the full text of my dissertation.

Negotiating dating online within Arab contexts

2011-02-03T19:54:00.000Z

May 2010

Negotiating dating online within Arab contexts

“I and my fiancée met online but we tend to tell people that we have met in a friend’s party”; this is what my friend answered me when I asked her how she met her fiancée. My friend told me this information because I am a close friend and would understand the situation. This story is common in the Arab world nowadays as Arab people still have a difficulty accepting the idea of people meeting or dating online. Arabs also have a negative image on people meeting online so people might hide how they have met like my friend (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). In this paper, I am going to look at some of the reasons why people have this negative image of online dating. In addition, I am going to provide some examples of Arab online dating website to illustrate more.
Some facts about online dating would be mentioned to give a brief background on online dating in general. Nowadays, marriage has become easily arranged online and even sexual desires can be simply fulfilled (Merkle& Richardson 2000, p.187). People worldwide lately have used the internet for dating, getting married and even having sex (Merkle& Richardson 2000, p.187). The number of online romantic relationships has increased dramatically as more people nowadays have access to the internet (Cornwell& Lundgren 2001, p.127). The question here would be how could online romantic relationships affect face to face relationships? People who experience online dating report those face to face relationships are not affected and consider online relationships important as face to face relationships (Cornwell& Lundgren 2001, p.127). Merkle (2000) described the internet as the new space for people to shape social relationships. This is obvious as more people are using internet for online dating (Cornwell& Lundgren 2001, p.127). I also agree with Merkle’s definition of the internet as nowadays almost everything has become digital even social communications such as sending a birthday card instead of calling...etc. In addition, Mckenna (1999) has found in a study conducted on 600 randomly respondents in the United States that 51% of respondents create close friends online and 35% created romantic relationships. This study proves the idea that internet is being used increasingly nowadays for dating and romantic relationships.
After giving a brief introduction on online dating worldwide, a background on Arabs and online dating would be introduced. The notion of online dating is new to the Arab society but at the same time it is commonly used especially with the high rate of unmarried young people (Abeed 2006). In the Arab world, it is common for the family to choose for young people the suitable groom or bride (Abeed 2006). However, the internet has given young Arabs the chance to choose the partner by themselves (Abeed 2006).The Arab society, especially the Gulf society, is conservative and the notion of online dating is new but commonly used among young people because of repression caused by family control and culture (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner).
The background on online dating mentioned above would lead to the research questions of this essay. First, what are the reasons for Arabs to use the internet to meet people then get married? Second, how would Arab society deal with online dating? Finally, what is the role of culture, religion and family dealing with online relationships?
The reasons for Arabs to use the internet for dating and then marriage are various. First, some Arabs are away from their hometown. As a result, the tradition is to get married to someone from the same country but this is a bit difficult when people are not in their home country. For example, Suheer is an Iraqi lady who lives in Jordan and wants to get married but from an Iraqi man (Al-khatateya 2010); she is in her thirties and needs to get married as she is getting old and the society has started to criticize her for being late in getting married (Al-khatateya 2010). As a result, she used the internet to find the man of her dreams. She eventually found the man and they got married but the guy turned to be abusive and not like what he claimed to be online and she even described him as a “monster” (Al-khatateya 2010). The story of Suheer indicates two points; the first point is about the Arab culture and how the society views the girl who is unmarried in her thirties as spinster and look down to her. The second point is about having fake image through the internet because it is all about computer screen and cheating can be common. However, internet sometimes might be the only way for meeting people to get married especially for people from a country like Iraq with circumstances caused by the war (Al-khatateya 2010).
Another reason for Arabs using internet for dating is in some Arab countries especially the Gulf area, girls and boys do not usually communicate and mix. Consequently, girls and boys tend to use the internet to choose their partner instead of family choosing on their behalf (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). Repressed youth not only using internet for online dating but they might do so many wrong things online as well (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). Ali Alwardy, An Iraqi sociologist, criticized such conservative communities which repress its people and then behave wrongly (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). I think Arab society is contradictory as Gulf society does not allow girls and boys to mix and at the same time let them do whatever they want online (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner).
In addition, there are other reasons for Arabs to use internet for dating and the first is shyness (Abeed 2006). Some Arabs just feel shy to talk about themselves online and this is why internet solves this problem as they can chat and write without facing the person. Some people ,especially women, feel embarrassed to talk about themselves face to face so they prefer online dating (Abeed 2006). I think conservative societies cause young people to be shy and then use internet to escape facing people.
Also, some Arabs believe in the notion of meeting and getting married online for some reasons. Some believe that internet gives people the chance to know their partners well before getting married (Reyah 2009). For some, traditional way of getting married does not allow them to know the partner well so online dating is the best for such people in such conservative communities (Reyah 2009). This is the advantage of internet as people have the chance to talk freely and tend to know the other better. Moreover, anonymity is one of the advantages which people like about online dating (Merkle& Richardson 2000, p.189). According to a qualitative research conducted by Wysocki in 1996-1998, people prefer online dating to face to face relationships because they can enjoy the anonymity in the beginning of meeting new people (Merkle& Richardson 2000, p.189). People via online dating feel free to reveal many personal matters because it is anonymous. However, some might criticize this notion and say it is also a bad thing as some people hide behind this anonymity and cheat people.
Some Arabs believe that online relationships allow people to be in control of such relationships. For example, people can disconnect or block any unpleasant people they meet online but in real life, it is hard to delete somebody (Merkle& Richardson 2000, p.190). This advantage might be good for some but at the same time it might be a disadvantage as people might only be having fun and not serious in the relationship. This is the main problem with online dating which Arabs are concerned about and I would talk more about in the next paragraph.
The last sentence of the previous paragraph leads to why online dating is problematic for Arabs. According to the marital and family therapist David Schnarch (1997), some and most men might prefer to have a romantic relationship online because such relationships have no commitment (Merkle& Richardson 2000, p.190). This means that online relationships are not serious and only for fun as my hypothesis suggested. However, I cannot generalize that all online relationships are not deep or serious as there are some successful relationships which have started online. Arabs also believe that online relationships are not authentic because users can log off from their computer anytime and do not reply to any message online (Merkle& Richardson 2000, p.189). This might be true but it depends on individuals and how serious they are in their relationship. It is hard to know but when a couple decides to develop their relationship to meet in real life, the case is going to be different. At the same time, some people might see the ability to log off anytime people want as an advantage and keep people in control.
In addition, one of the problems of online dating is cheating among married couples online (Reyah 2009). Some Arabs believe that online dating and marriage would bring social problems to the family such as unsettlement (Reyah 2009). However, cheating and unsettlement among the family can be common among couples who get married traditionally so why would those problems be only related to online marriage? The reason for that might be because people tend to know shallow stuff about each other via the internet. However, this contradicts what some claim about online dating that people have the chance to be more honest talking about themselves because it is anonymous (Reyah 2009).
Online infidelity among couples is one of the problems of online dating. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the rate of divorce has risen due to online infidelity (Cornwell& Lundgren 2001, p.127). 53% of respondents to the study conducted by Mckenna, people not only commit infidelity to their face to face relationships but to their online relationships as well (McKenna 1999). This again shows that people are just having fun through online relationships as they do not stick to one online relationship (Cornwell& Lundgren 2001, p.132). This is mainly why most Arabs have a negative image about online dating and marriage.
Furthermore, divorce rate is high among people from conservative societies; this does not mean divorce is not common among people from other communities or only among online relationships but its more common among online relationships (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). Maysa Al-karaan, a social care specialist explains how online dating might cause shock for some young people as they imagine what the partner looks like online and when they get married, they are shocked because the image in their mind is not as in reality (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). This shock might be applied to online sex where some men use pornography websites and compare what they are exposed to online with real life and their wives (Issa 2010). This results in weak relationship among husbands and wives (Issa 2010). I think this is a real problem for young married couples and this is why the rate of divorce among young couples is very high (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). Dr.Basant Mahmoud, A sociologist with PhD in early divorce, states that internet has become one of the important causes of divorce in the Arab world as people depend on sex websites and get shocked in reality (Issa 2010). Lack of sexual awareness has led young people to be curious about sex and then use the internet especially sex websites to fulfill their sexual desires, dr. Mahmoud added (Issa 2010).
In addition, Dr.Heba Qutb, sex health expert, stated that online sex might cause many problems for young people and one of these problems is late marriage (Issa 2010). Young single men tend to use the internet for online sex and this might replace real sex, Dr. Qutb added (Issa 2010). This is true in my opinion as in a conservative society where sex is a taboo, people tend to find alternatives and internet is one of the best alternatives (Issa 2010).
Economic and financial factors which prevent young people from getting married contribute to the notion of people using internet to fulfill their desires (Issa 2010). Dr Qutb stated that online sex or dating is cheaper than real marriage as nowadays in Egypt for example, it is expensive for middle class people to get married. As a result, people tend to use online dating for fewer expenses (Issa 2010). It is worth to add that sometimes married men seek sex online as it is cheap and does not require specific place and time, dr. Qutb added (Issa 2010).
Arab society in general is religious so religion’s opinion on online dating is very important to discuss. The whole debate on online marriage according to Islam is about the legality of such marriage (Reyah 2009). There are almost 200 Arab websites which offer online marriage and almost 8 million Arabs visit such websites (Reyah 2009). This might prove that people are seeking such marriages because of financial factors and other factors. According to Dr.Hayel Abdelhafez, Islamic religion professor in Cairo University, online marriage has become a phenomenon nowadays in the Arab world (Reyah 2009). Some religious figures are against online marriage because they think that having a marriage certificate online is not valid as in Islam, there should be two witnesses for the marriage process (Saeed ) As a result, online marriage would miss this important step in marriage and this is why some consider it invalid (Reyah 2009).
In fact, some people are mixing between meeting online and then getting married according to the traditional way and with online marriage. In my opinion, the two concepts are different and online marriage is getting married online and people have the relationship only online while meeting online is all about the way which people have met (Saeed ) I think online marriage is not logical as marriage should depend on face to face relationship and not only facing the computer screen and consider it marriage. A question for those who choose to get married online should be asked and it is why would they choose to get married online instead of the traditional way in the court or mosque and at the same time the certificate would be registered in the court? I can not understand the reason from having the marriage online and at the same time register the marriage certificate in the court as any traditional marriage. The reason for that might be as I mentioned before about being away from home so any couple needs to get married online then register this marriage to be legal. The question here would be are marriages through the internet illegal? Some religious figures might answer this question as Dr.Abdelhafez thinks that to have a marriage certificate online is ok but it must be registered in the court to be legal (Saeed ). In addition, Dr.Abdelhafez suggested that marriage certificates can be written online but with religious supervision (Saeed ). For example, online marriage websites should be sponsored by religious institutions so it would be legal and authentic (Saeed ). I think this might be fair enough for those who cannot get married in one country. To conclude, religious figures call online marriage as “Take away marriage” because of lack of credibility (Saeed ). “I am not against using the internet and new technology but for marriage certificate, it is unacceptable according to Islam and need to have restrictions, Dr.Abo Al-basal said (Saeed ). This quote sums up the opinion of Islam on online marriage.
In addition, 60% of Arab dating websites has turned to be about sex and pornography (Issa 2010). Almost 7 million Arab users visit such websites (Issa 2010). This might show that Arabs use such websites to fulfill their sexual desires (Issa 2010). This also indicates that Arabs who use those websites sexually repressed; this is confirmed by Dr.Najwa Abdelhamid, a sociologist in Ain Sham University, as she stated that Arab culture is conservative and it is a taboo to talk about sex (Issa 2010). As a result, young people who are curious to talk about this topic tend to use the internet as it is free to seek information about sex (Issa 2010). Moreover, young Arabs in the past tend to fulfill their sexual desires by reading novels and watching films, Dr.Abdelhamid added (Issa 2010); this has changed with the invention of the internet in early 1990s. Also, because of cultural reasons, Arab women do not talk about sexual desires with their partners so they fulfill those desires online (Issa 2010). This is in my opinion might be true as sex is a very sensitive issue in the Arab world and people cannot talk about which I really believe it is something wrong and leads people to do more wrong things.
To illustrate more about online dating in Arab society, some examples of Arab dating websites would be mentioned. The most famous Arab online dating is called “Bent Alhalal” which means “the good woman for marriage” (Bent Alhalal website: the biggest and most famous Arab and Muslim dating website). To avoid members who are not serious in their membership, the website puts strict restrictions on members and might deactivate any membership if the member is not serious (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). This shows that people who want to only have fun in such websites are very common. Sameer, 34 year old a member of Bent Alhalal, expresses how he does not believe in the idea of online dating but participated in it hoping to find the perfect partner (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). I think this is very contradicting as this guy doesn’t believe in the whole idea but takes part in online dating website which is really strange. This is a huge problem within Arabs as they use technology in almost everything but at the same time criticize it and do not accept it. This is again caused by culture and conservative societies which people should follow. Another member in Bent Alhalal, Nasir, 27 year old, from Jordan expresses how the way of getting married online is new to the Arab society and stated that “ We as Muslims believe that traditional marriage is the suitable way for us” (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). Nasir’s quote concludes how Arabs use technology but at the same time do not believe in online marriage and stick to their culture. In addition, Nasir believes that Arabs refuse this way of marriage because it comes from” the West” (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). I think this is a valid argument but any society needs to adapt any new idea and not only adopt it as it is. This may be what some Arab online dating websites are trying to do.
Some successful stories from Bent Alhalal website might show that people are different in using such websites as some online marriage stories are successful (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). The successful marriage stories of people who met through Bent Alhalal website encourage others to use such websites and build a happy life.
Other Arab online dating website is Muslima.com which is for all Muslims to gather and get married (Muslima.com: to gather all Muslims). This website has led me to think more about the notion of it is for all Muslims and at the same time the debate around the legality of online marriage in Islam is very common. This might show that people use such websites even if religion is against such idea. In my opinion, if people meet via the internet and then decide to meet in real life, it is ok because after that, it is going to be like any traditional marriage and in this case, Islam allows such thing. The debate on such websites is again about how people might be sure about the seriousness of members as some include all good things about themselves (Abeed 2006). However, the good characteristics are fake because people make a good use of anonymity. (Abeed 2006)

In conclusion, the internet is just a new and another way people meet each other by. This does not mean that online dating has replaced traditional way of meeting people to marry but it is just another way. Dr.Maysaa, the Arab sociologist, stated that Arab society needs time to adapt such new way of dating (Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner). In my opinion, online dating is a fact in Arab society and should be taken in consideration. Concerning online dating and cheating, it might be common even in face to face relationships. As a result, it depends on personalities and how people deal with such relationships. I cannot generalize that all online relationships are not genuine because this would be unfair. I think people might meet online but they should meet in real life to build a genuine relationship.

Bibliography
Abeed, M. (2006), "Love and Marriage through the internet" . Available from: http://zed70.maktoobblog.com [Accessed: April 26, 2010].
Al-khatateya, K. (2010), Electronic marriage: the solution for the high number of spinsterhood or another cause for divorce " الزواج الالكتروني :حل لمشكلة العنوسة ام تعقيد اكبر ومسبب للطلاق" . Available from: http://www.manbaralrai.com/?q=node/68997 [Accessed: March 28, 2010].
Bent Alhalal website: the biggest and most famous Arab and Muslim dating website "بنت الحلال : اكبر واشهر موقع عربي اسلامي للزواج على الانترنت " . Available from: http://bentelhalal.maktoob.com/ [Accessed: May 3, 2010].
Cornwell, B., Lundgren, D. & C. (2001), "Love on the Internet: involvement and misrepresentation in romantic relationships in cyberspace vs. real space", Computers in Human Behavior, vol., no. pp. 197-211.
Issa, S. (2010), "80% of Arab youth in illicit relationships, Internet is the portal for Youth to sex " 80% من الشباب العربي في علاقات غير مشروعة الإنترنت بوابة الشباب إلى الجنس الإلكتروني" ", Aljareeda, Jan 19.
McKenna, K. Y. A. (1999). The computers that bind: relationship formation on the Internet (Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 1998). Dissertation Abstracts International, 59, 2236.
Merkle, E.R. & Richardson, R.A. (2000), "Digital Dating and Virtual Relating: Conceptualizing Computer Mediated Romantic Relationships", National Council on Family Relations, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 187-192.
Muslima.com: to gather all Muslims . Available from: http://www.muslima.com/Arabic/success.cfm [Accessed: April 6, 2010].
Reyah, N. (2009), Marriage through the internet " الزواج عبر الانترنت" . Available from: http://swmsa.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-12070.html [Accessed: April 8, 2010].
Saeed, A., Electronic Marriage " الزواج الالكتروني" . Available from: http://www.barasy.com/pages-859.html [Accessed: April 26, 2010].
Young Arabs use the internet searching for their partner “شباب العرب يتجهون الى الانترنت بحثا عن نصفهم الاخر" (2008),. Available from: http://www.compuhot.com/news.asp?c=2&id=10665 [Accessed: May 1, 2010].

Veil, repression and women’s representation in ‘the Day I became a woman’

2011-02-03T19:45:00.001Z

Autumn 2010

Women and repression have a long history. Cinema especially, Iranian cinema, has dealt with this topic recently. Women’s repression has always been related to Islam and veil (Naficy 1995, p.548). It is worth to mention that there is no clear verse in the Holy Quran which forces women to wear hijab or to punish those who do not wear it (Sadeghi 2008, p.257). As I mentioned above, Iranian cinema has dealt with this sensitive issue recently (Naficy 1995, p.548). In general, the first Iranian film was produced in 1901 (Naficy 1995, p.548). This shows that Iranian cinema is not new. The Islamic revolution in 1979 has been a boundary for Iranian filmmakers as cinema is considered a harmful source for the Iranian society according to Muslim extremists (Naficy 1995, p.548). Moreover, cinema was viewed as a type of westernization in Iran (Naficy 1995, p.548). As a result, cinema has started to be unwelcome in the Iranian society (Naficy 1995, p.548). Moreover, the Iranian government has tried to Islamize the Iranian cinema and bring cinema under the government’s control (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.675). Films after the Islamic revolution in Iran have attracted many critics to talk about (Moruzzi 1999, p.52). On the other hand, some Iranian leaders such as, Khomaieni, support cinema in Iran but those films which show the right Islam (Naficy 1995, p.548). Concerning women, Filmmakers after the Islamic revolution tend to ignore women in their films to avoid controversy as it is believed that women are the source of troubles (Naficy 1995, p.550). This has been the image of women in most societies. However, in the 1980s, women have returned to be the main issue in films (Naficy 1995, p.550). Women’s veil and enforcement of hejab on women are two of the most important topics that Iranian cinema has dealt with recently (Moruzzi 1999, p.52).

In this essay, a detailed discussion of the film ‘The day I became a woman’ would be the main point which raises critical issues about women in Iran.
As an introduction to the issue of veil and Islam nowadays, this is a brief background about this issue. Veil among Muslim women has become the news for a while. This might be because of “ Islamphobia” (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.1). People have started to view Islam differently especially after 9/11 incident and Danish cartoons about prophet Muhammed and how Muslims react violently to those events (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.1). European world has changed their image about Islam and started to relate violence to Islam (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.2). This image has been promoted by media such as TV and cinema (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.1). As a result, women’s veil has been related to Islam and violence. This has raised the question of why is veil only related to Muslim women when other women from different religions such as Christianity and Judaism wear the veil. (Macdonald 2006,p.7). The answer would be media and especially American media and cinema which promote the negative image of Islam (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.3). In addition, there are no enough films which show the Muslim’s point of view (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.1). For example, few Muslim directors make films about women, veil and Islam until recently when the Iranian cinema has started to produce films such as “The day I became a woman” and “Beneath the veil”. The previous point might lead to the most important point which is to which audience the film is made for? It is very important to know to whom the film is made as every audience would read the film differently.

After giving a brief introduction about the issue of veil and Islam, ‘The day I became a woman’, would be discussed in detail. The day I became a woman is an Iranian film which discusses how Iranian women are controlled by norms, religion and customs of the Iranian society (Russell 2001). The film is about 3 women from different generations, Hava, Ahoo and Hoora (Russell 2001). The three women share one thing which is how they are suffering from repression and control from the patriarchal society (Russell 2001). In this essay, the focus would be n the stories of Hava and Ahoo.

The first protagonist in the film is Hava, a little girl who just turned 9-year old. In this story , issues such as childhood vs. womanhood, the significance of time, segregation between boys and girls, Iranian society, norms and customs and finally its relationship with Hava’s veil. The focal point or main scene in this story of ‘The day I became a woman’ is when Hava is forced to wear the veil by her family and banning her from playing as she is a woman now. According to the Iranian society and as they claim according to Islam, Hava is ‘a woman’ at the moment her 9th birthday has come (Russell 2001). Accordingly, Hava is not allowed to play with her male friend, Hasan, as she is ‘a woman’ now. The most interesting thing in that moment is how Hava does not understand why she can’t play with Hasan or why she should be covered! The only thing her mother and grandmother tell her that she should not play outside or stand in the roof of the house as she is ‘a woman’ now. The phrase, she is a woman now, has been repeated so many times in the film and neither Hava’s parents nor Hava know what being a woman means! This is a fact as in the film no one has talked about the meaning of being a woman or how a girl could turn to be a woman in an hour! This raises the issue of how conservative societies just follow the norms and customs of the society without explaining (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). Also, grandmother and mother just don’t explain to Hava why she should be covered. This is the same idea as in the film, At five in the afternoon, when the father communicates with the horse more than communicating with his daughters as he feels that females can not be communicated with. As a result, the old guy considers the horse, his male friend or son, and talk with smoothly. In my opinion, this really expresses how women are not respected and repressed in conservative communities. In addition, this shows how such societies are male dominated as they repress only women. Although the previous point might be true that the Iranian society is patriarchal, in the day I became a woman, especially in Hava’s story, there are no male characters to show that men are the ones who force women to wear hjab or repress them! In my opinion, this is interesting as this proves that even if men are not visible, they have the power to affect the society and lead old women to believe repressive action like enforcing Hava to be covered is the right thing to do.
After tackling the notion of womanhood vs. childhood in the case of Hava, another related issue is raised from her story which is the significance of time. Hava in the film has only one hour left to play and act as a child .After convincing her grandmother that her birthday has not come yet, her grandmother allowed her to go and play with her friend but she should be home when its noon as at that time, she would be a woman. I think this is unrealistic as time decides whether Hava is a woman or not by playing at 11 am but not 1 pm as she is a woman at that time. This again shows how grandmother and mother don’t understand what it means to be a woman and care only for covering Hava and most importantly how the society view them. For example, “People’s judgment matters”, one of the Iranian girls said when asking about wearing veil in a research conducted on Iranian women in 2005-2006 (Sadeghi 2008, p.250). This shows how norms and tradition in the Iranian society is very important (Sadeghi 2008, p.250). Also, it affirms what women should do and should not in the Iranian society. Furthermore, Hava has to check when she has turned to be a woman when carrying two sticks and checking the shadow of the sun. This action shows how parents of Hava are concerned with shallow stuff about womanhood and time. Hava in the film is really concerned about when the sun is going to disappear to return home; this is because she should follow what her family told her to do not to be punished.

In addition, Hava only cares for playing with her male friend whom she is not allowed to play with as girls and boys should not mix. This really shows how some societies think and want to separate girls and boys even if they are only children. This is another sign how conservative societies encourage segregation among boys and girls. For example, in Saudi Arabia, there has been a law which separates boys and girls even in schools for non-Arabs (Al Hakeem 2006). This expresses how the Saudi community also shares what the Iranian community believes in. Additionally, this shows how such communities encourage segregation among boys and girls even in that early age.

Another significant scene in the film is when two boys are trying to set their ship and need a piece of clothes for their sailing so they ask Hava for her scarf and give her a fish as a price. Using Hava’s scarf in sailing shows it is not that important for her and she only cares for playing as any child.

The final issue the film raised through Hava’s story is how veil is a barrier for girls. The scene when Hava’s mother always tries to cover her and Hava is concentrating on playing demonstrates how veil is considered a barrier for girls. In the case of Hava, she wears the veil only to satisfy her family but again she is not convinced with what she is wearing. In a website called About.com , a girl called Huda asks about what age girls should wear veil in Islam, the answer is that every girl should be convinced with the idea of veiling not forcing her (At what age are Muslim girls expected to start wearing the hijab?). This is not what most families in conservative societies such as the Iranian society do with their daughters.
In addition, another image of veil and how it is a barrier for women is the chadori vs misveiling. The misveiling concept is common in Iran where some women only cover their hair and not covering their whole bodies like the case of Chadori where the whole body is covered except the hands ( Sadeghi 2008, p.251). Some misveiled women claim that wearing what it is called “misveiling” is a representation of refusal of covering the whole body and be free with relationships with boys (Sadeghi 2008, p.251). “Being misveiled generally means to feel more relaxed in relationships with boys.” One of the misveiled women said (Sadeghi 2008, p.251). This obviously means that women feel they are sexually repressed when they are covered. On the other hand, chadori women who cover themselves choose to wear the chador to be sexually protected from any attacks from boys (Sadeghi 2008, p.251). According to a research conducted by an Iranian researcher in 1997 on 60 Iranian men and women, 55% of men believe that when they need to have a sexual relationship, women are automatically exposed to these needs (Sadeghi 2008, p.255). This obviously shows that women are viewed to be ready to what men want to do with. That’s why in my opinion, women should be covered as to protect themselves from any male desires as Chadori girls expressed before.

Additionally, to prove that women wear veil to satisfy the society, I conducted a research on young Egyptian women to examine their veiling and whether they wear it for religious reasons or social and cultural reasons (Alsheikh 2008, p.3). The result has shown that most young women from private and public universities in Cairo wear veil for social and cultural reasons as they do not want to be different in the society and as a protection (Alsheikh 2008, p.3). This shows that wearing veil is for social and cultural reasons more than religious as many assume and as Chadori and misvelied women claim.

To conclude, in the case of Hava, the grandmother and mother are convinced that Hava should cover her hair and separate herself from boys so the society would not criticize her.

The second protagonist in ‘The day I became a woman’ is Ahoo. Ahoo is the story of a young lady who challenges her family, society and customs and participates in a bicycle race in Iran. The film is showing how young women are getting ready to the race but Ahoo’s family starts to follow her and try to stop her. The story of Ahoo raises various issues such as the notion of women and sports, good vs. bad women and other issues.

The first issue which this story discusses is the notion of women’s participation in sports. First of all, physical differences between men and women have led people to believe that women are disabled in terms of sports (Prakash 1990, p.WS19). This shows that women are not able to play sports and it is not their place to do so. For example, in the day I became a woman, this is the case as Ahoo should not ride a bicycle as she is a woman! Moreover, women are not allowed to watch or play sports in some societies as it is a kind of leadership and women can not occupy such a position (Prakash 1990, p.WS19). This shows that women can not play sports in order not to be in a powerful position (Prakash 1990, p.WS19); another example which might proves this point is the film ‘A question of silence’ where women are not allowed to occupy a powerful position simply because they are women. In my opinion, this is the case in most patriarchal societies. For example, this is obvious in the film, the day I became a woman, when Ahoo was riding the bicycle but her husband divorced her for refusing to get off. In addition, It is believed that sports is harmful for women’s health and their reproductive activity (Prakash 1990, p.WS22). This shows how patriarchal societies discourage women from playing sports in order to protect the reproduction’s process (Prakash 1990, p.WS20). Again, women are not important and if sport is not good for reproductive activity, it would be harmful and bad for women to play. In 2006, Iranian women were not allowed to enter football stadium to support their national team although there is no law about that thing (Iranian women are not allowed to enter the football stadium). The same thing happened in Saudi Arabia where women were not allowed to enter the stadium to support the Saudi team (Iranian women are not allowed to enter the football stadium). These two examples express how women not only are not allowed to participate in sports but not to watch as well.

It is worth to mention it is proved that sports has no bad effects on women’s reproductive process and there are no any biological facts which might stop women from playing sport (Prakash 1990, p.WS22). Banning women from playing sport is all about socially constructed reasons (Prakash 1990, p.WS22). This again proves that it is not about biological reasons but how the patriarchal society reads it and to dominate and control women. Moreover, Participation of women in sports arena would be competitive to men and would encourage women to enter the fields of health and science which might change some facts in favor of women (Prakash 1990, p.WS23). This is another sign of how men do not want women to play sports in order not to be powerful and gain their rights.

The second significant issue the story of Ahoo raises is the notion of good vs. bad women. Categorizing women as good or bad is something critical and can not be measured. However, the older generation in some societies, such as the Iranian society, believes that by wearing “hejab”, good women would be recognized from the bad ones (Sadeghi 2008, p.257). New generation believes that being good or bad has nothing to do with veiling unlike parents’ generation (Sadeghi 2008, p.257). For example, in the film, At Five in the afternoon, the old guy is surprised from seeing some girls unveiled in Afghanistan. The old guy believes that good women wear hejab while only bad women do not wear it. This shows that women are judged from their appearance and what they wear. “Female goodies dressed modestly — at the time, this meant they wore a chador — and the baddies wore miniskirts” (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.675). This quote again shows how women are represented in films not only the Iranian ones but also in Hollywood films when women should be whether good or bad such as in the film ‘Fatal Attraction’.

The previous point leads to the idea of women and working. Good women do not work and stay at home under the male supervision while working women are the bad women (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.675). For example, in the film, At five in the afternoon, when Noqreh is taking a photo for herself, the photographer tells her that the right place for women is the house. This scene proves two points; first, most conservative societies such as the Iranian and Afghani share the same point of view of how women should stay at home for their own good and to be ‘good women’; the second point is such societies are dominated by male members and women have little voice in such societies (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.675). Also, it is always shown that women who stay at home are the good ones while those who work are the bad ones. The wife in Fatal attraction is an example of that while the woman who works, the lover, is the bad one.

As it is shown above, the bad woman is the one who works, goes out and rides a bike like Ahoo. Also, bad woman is considered a bad woman when she disobeys her family and husband as Ahoo. The Husband of Ahoo follows her and demands her to get off but she disobeys so he directly divorce her. Some might read the scene when the husband divorced Ahoo a liberating point as she liberated herself from dominating men. However, at the same time it shows how men have the power to divorce women anytime they want.

Ahoo’s story also raises the issue of misveiling and the right code of clothing for women. The Iranian government as Taliban government set what women should wear (Sadeghi 2008, p.250). For example, in the film, At five in the afternoon, women should wear hejab and are not allowed to be educated only because they are women (Sadeghi 2008, p.250). This expresses how women are restricted to wear specific clothes and if they violet that, they would be punished. For example, in Sudan, Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese journalist is at risk of getting 40 lashes because she wore a trouser in public which is considered indecent according to Sudanese’s law (Copnall 2009). This shows how laws are unfair to women as indecent clothes are not specific and officials might consider what they want indecent. “It is not about religion, it is about men treating women badly.", Lubna said (Copnall 2009). This quote really expresses how some people misuse the religion for their own benefit and to control women as it is true that there is no verse in the Quran saying that women should be flogged for what to wear and not to wear!
Also, the film has raised the issue of veil and male gaze. For example, for both groups of girls, chadori and misveiled, they wear the veil according to the male gaze or how men view them (Sadeghi 2008, p.252). Hava’s example of veiling proves that she needs to be covered according to how society views her and most importantly how men see her.

Ahoo’s story also discusses the struggle between tradition which is her family’s opposition and modernity which is riding a bike. To start with, the Iranian old generation is more traditional than the new generation. According to a study conducted on young Iranian generation in 2005 and 2006, the new generation would be less religious and traditional than the old generation (Sadeghi 2008, p.251). As a result, being religious is related to being traditional and being modern means to be unreligious. This point is very important as veil is linked to being not modern and backward and this is in my opinion as a result of media’s image especially in films. The main problem of women and representation in films is the struggle between modernity and traditionalism (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). Both groups want to be dominating in the society so people especially women are the victims of this war (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). Also, Women especially the misveiled are blamed for the bad situation in the Iranian society (Sadeghi 2008, p.258). This shows that in any case, women are the ones to blame for anything even if the society is the problem. For example, in ‘Beneath the veil’, when Afghan women are dying because there are no female doctors as Taliban has banned girls from education, women are blamed for that not Taliban or any male groups.

The final issue that Ahoo’s story has raised is women and public vs. private space. According to Ahoo’s case, she violates the norm by riding the bike in public. It is believed that the right place for women is to stay home as good women stay at home as mentioned before (Sadeghi 2008, p.252). Staying home is a private space and that’s women’s place (Sadeghi 2008, p.252). Furthermore, as the Iranian government has put restrictions on young people’s sexual relationships, young people have turned their relationships to private places so they could be free to do what they want (Sadeghi 2008, p.254). For example, in the documentary ‘Beneath the veil’, although it is about Afghan people, it is applied to Iranian women as they tend to do everything privately especially under Taliban’s regime. For example, women tend to go to schools but privately as they were not allowed to be educated under Taliban’s regime. Accordingly, people tend to move their activities to be private such as relationships, education and even sports. The previous point leads to a very important point which is how conservative societies affect people’s behaviors and lead them to do everything privately instead of publicly as they are afraid of the officials and sometimes do stuff as a resistance to the society and government.
As I mentioned above, people tend to do everything private when they are banned to do some stuff publicly especially those who are not that religious who tend to have affairs, drink alcohol and listen to music privately instead of publicly. (Sadeghi 2008, p.255). For example, in the film, the day I became a woman, Ahoo did ride and participate in a cycling race which is something public and that’s why her family was against her. This has led many Iranians to live a double standard life as they shift from public to private and public to private which can create double personalities (Sadeghi 2008, p.255).

In addition the notion of public vs. private space leads to the point of passivity and women. Women are always viewed as passive persons (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). In films, this notion is very common in Hollywood and other films. For example, in the old Iranian films such as The lor girl, made in 1933, women were viewed active while women in most other films were shown as silent and passive (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). This illustrates how Iranian women were active in the period of 1930s as films show that unlike today when women are viewed in films as passive. On the other hand, Iranian films nowadays concentrate on how women are repressed and need to be liberated as shown in the film, the day I became a woman where most women are passive and have no opinion and only follow what the society wants. At five in the afternoon and beneath the veil deal with Afghani women but the director is Iranian and show how Afghani women are repressed as well and suffer from the same problems that the Iranian women face. Back to the film The lor girl where main female character has become very famous after this film because she broke the rules of passive women in love and was active (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.674). Nowadays films such as at five in the afternoon and the day I became a woman encourage women to ask for their rights and be active members in society as they can take Ahoo for example as a model even if in the end of the films, her family stops her from riding the bicycle.
To conclude Ahoo’s story, the focal point of this story in my opinion is the end when Ahoo’s family forces her to stop her bike. I think this scene is very critical as first; it puts an end to Ahoo, as a heroine, and a resistant to norms and culture of her society. The end takes the audience to reality and what really happens in such conservative societies like the Iranian one. Second, it leads the audiences to wonder what is going to happen to Ahoo after her family forced her to get off. Is Ahoo going to be punished or what? The end is very interesting as it is open and different audience might read it differently. Moreover, the girl who kept watching Ahoo from far away is interesting as first she couldn’t do anything to stop Ahoo’s family and secondly she is also curious to know what it is going to happen to Ahoo. In my opinion, the director puts the girl at the end to represent the audience. The conclusion for Ahoo’s story is that norms, customs and tradition would win at the end.

In conclusion, the topic of veil, repression and women is critical and needs to take attention from filmmakers and critics. Women are still suffering from repression especially in some Islamic countries. In my opinion, such societies are dominated by customs and beliefs which encourage repression against women. Unfortunately, such repressing actions are justified by saying it is Islam and its rules. A good example which proves the previous point is how people interpret the Holly Quran according to their benefits. Although Iranian films are not that popular among large number of people like Hollywood or Bollywood films, films like at five in the afternoon and the day I became a woman can be the beginning to talk about sensitive topics and Islam.

Bibliography
Al Hakeem, M. (2006), Saudi law to separate boys and girls in expat school. Available from: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-law-to-separate-boys-and-girls-in-expat-schools-1.254469 [Accessed: December 28, 2010].
Alsheikh, R. (2008), Veiling concept in various universities in Egypt. Available from: http://rosamesopotamica.blogspot.com/2011/01/veiling-concept-in-various-universities.html, p.1-5 [Accessed: December 14, 2010].
At what age are Muslim girls expected to start wearing the hijab?. Available from: http://islam.about.com/od/dress/f/hijab_girls.htm [Accessed: January 3, 2011].
Copnall, J. (2009), "Lubna Hussein: 'I'm not afraid of being flogged. It doesn't hurt. But it is insulting'", The Guardian, the observer, Aug 2
Gottschalk, P. & Greenberg, G.(2008), Islamophobia: making Muslims the enemy
Iranian women are not allowed to enter the football stadium (2006) الايرانيات ممنوعات من دخول ملاعب كرة القدم. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/sport/newsid_4777000/4777164.stm [Accessed: November 18, 2010].
Macdonald, M. (2006), "Muslim women and the Veil problems of image and voice in media representations ", Feminist Media Studies , vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 7-23
Mir-hosseini, Z. (2007), "Negotiating the Forbidden: On Women and Sexual Love in Iranian Cinema", Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 673-679.
Moruzzi, N.C. (1999), "Women's Space/Cinema Space: Representations of Public and Private in Iranian Films", Middle East Report,, vol. 212, no. pp. 52-55
Naficy, H. (1995), "Iranian Cinema under the Islamic Republic", American Anthropologist , vol. 97, no. 3, pp. 548-558).
Sadeghi, F. (2008), "Negotiating with Modernity: Young Women and Sexuality in Iran", , vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 250-259
Sudan To Investigate Video Of Woman Being Flogged (2010). Available from: http://rssnews.tv/11478/internet-sudan-to-investigate-video-of-woman-being-flogged.html [Accessed: January 1, 2011].

Veiling concept in various universities in Egypt

2011-01-03T18:41:00.001Z

My main topic is about wearing the veil among young women in Ain Shams University and the American University in Cairo. Veiled women wear different styles of veiling such as modern, extreme and moderate style. As a result, the students I interviewed are chosen according to their veil style. I even interviewed students who are not veiled to know their point of view of the veil itself. I interviewed two students from Ain Shams University and two students from the AUC.
The two students that I chose to interview from Ain Shams University are called F Al M and H A M who are seniors’ students in AlAlsun College for language. I hide interviewees’ names for privacy reasons. F is veiled with moderate veil while H is unveiled. I had a visit to Ain Shams University and observed about the veil topic and then conducted interviews with students in an informal setting. We were sitting in the crowd in Ain Shams University and had an open discussion about the veil topic. The interviews were informal because the students are in the same age of mine so felt relaxed to chat with eachother. Also, one of the interviewees was a friend of my friend so the discussion was more open than the stranger.

The other interviewees were from the American University in Cairo. A T, Computer Science graduating senior, is unveiled while N M, Political science student, is a moderate veiled. I had informal interviews because they were my friends. Some have common opinions and of course each interviewee has unique opinions. The setting of the interview was in a comfortable position when I had a free discussion about the veil issue.

In the interviews, various issues were raised that are related to the veil concept. The issues are the duty of wearing the veil, the environment effects, boundaries veiled women face and reasons of high rate of veiled women nowadays. Interviewees have different points of view in some topics and sometimes agree on other issues.

There was an important question that I had to ask in the beginning of every interview; this question is why do u wear the veil for veiled women and in other words for unveiled women why do you think some women wear the veil. Almost all interviewees answered this question as it is a religious duty. Then the question that should be asked is if it is a religious duty why there are some women who are not veiled yet? I asked this question to unveiled students because I am curious about why those women do not wear veil? “I don’t wear the veil because I don’t feel I am ready for that now”, A T said. This means the decision of wearing veil is up to the girl or woman. Some parents force their daughters to wear the veil. Consequently, girls would hate wearing the veil and then do things that might be against the religion because they feel they are not free. There are many women who are not convinced that veil is a duty and that every woman should wear. Some argue that it was mentioned in the Holly Quran to wear the veil. Others argue that what is mentioned in the Quran is understood by people wrongly nowadays. Many people are arguing that women are free to take the decision of whether wear the veil or not.
The other essential point that was raised in the interviews is the environment effects that can influence women about the veil. “I wore it in Ramadan in high school and then could not take it off again because all my friends are veiled”, N M said. Nada explained that she decided to wear the veil not because she is totally convinced of the idea but because her peers in school convinced her to keep wearing it. This young lady did not want to look different from other students in her school so decided to be like the others. This shows that the environment has a big effect on the person’s decisions. Also, F Al explained how she decided to be veiled because her school was Islamic system and all students and teachers are veiled. As a result, she somehow was convinced to wear the veil so she can live in this environment. Although she has the will to wear the veil because of religious reasons, her school environment was more determined that lead her to be veiled. Also, the family environment was very important because all F’s female members are veiled so this is another contributory fact that lead F to take the decision of wearing the veil. On the other hand, H A who is unveiled thinks that society probably can enforce women to wear veil. Society as H A believes respects veiled women more than the unveiled ones. Thus, wearing the veil nowadays has become more social and cultural concept than religious. Women do not understand the real veil concept or the purpose of wearing the veil so they wear it just to satisfy the society, H added. Also, young women wear the veil because some young men respect the veiled women. As a result, they would have chances of being engaged more than the unveiled women. This is another proof that wearing the veil has become more for social reasons than religious.

The very important point that many mentioned is the boundaries that some veiled women are facing these days. I asked the interviewees if they think that veiled women are facing some difficulties in their lives; the answer was yes and difficulties are just in applying for some kind of jobs. Some companies do not hire veiled women for example in Tourism and Mass Media fields. “My sister had to take the veil off because whenever she applied for a job and there is a picture of her in the CV, the company would refuse her without even reading the CV”, A T said. This shows how some veiled women face major difficulties in their careers. A explained that when her sister took her veil off, she gained the job she wanted immediately without any problems. This can also explain how the image of the veil is interrupted in a wrong way. H A also shared the same concerns about these difficulties that veiled women suffer from. She thinks that the main reason for delaying her decision of wearing the veil is the boundaries that she might face in applying for the job she dreams of after graduation. The society is policing boundaries against veiled women and even unveiled ones. On the other hand, F Al disagrees with A and H that she does not think veiled women face difficulties. This might be because she might not apply for such jobs that refuse to hire veiled women or she did not face any difficulty before. In fact, veiled women are facing difficulties in winning specific jobs even if they have the skills acquired.
I asked an important question which is why do you think there is a high rate of veiled women nowadays? The answers were various some think that it is because of the new religious people, such as Amr Khalid in Egypt, who attract the young people and raise the awareness of the veil as A T thinks. H A thinks that in the past there were no many veiled women because of the foreign colonization that everyone was affected by the Western culture. Women were wearing Western style and veil is contradicted with this Western style.

The strategy of conducting an interview is very vital way to get people’s opinion about a specific topic. Honestly, I thought in the beginning that conducting interviews would be very difficult task but eventually, it was very useful and easy. I thought in the beginning that women would consider the veil issue sensitive and would not talk with me frankly. However, women were so open to talk about this topic and talk about different topics related to the veil.

One of the difficulties I faced conducting interviews is the limit of time. I wish I could have more time to interview more women and even men to know their point of view of the veil. Also, I wished to interview some students who have special veil style to know why they chose this style and how it is different than the traditional one. Also, I hope later I can interview some of the girls who were veiled and then took the veil off to know the reasons and causes of such decisions. The other challenge was visiting Ain Shams University and how to get into the university for several times without being a student there. As a result, I had the chance to visit it once to conduct my interviews.

To conclude, many people are convinced that veil is a religious duty but some can not take the decision to wear it yet because of social and cultural reasons. Some wear it to satisfy the society and others wear it properly and really apply of the purpose of wearing the veil. I think wearing veil and not wearing it is a freedom of expression and should be respected in all cases.

الاختلاف بالراي يفسد للود قضية !

2010-08-09T22:50:00.003+01:00

الاختلاف بالراي يفسد للود قضية !
في اي برنامج حواري على شاشات التلفزيون اوفي اي حوار عائلي دائما مايبدأ الحوار بكل هدوء وسكينة من ثم تتعالى االاصوات وثم يتحول مايسمى بحوار ثقافي الى معركة كلامية وتتمازج فيها الاصوات ولا تستطيع سماع الاصوات المتحاورة وفي نهاية السجال يغضب طرف من
الاطراف ويطالب بمغادرة المكان!

هذا السيناريو يتكرر دائما وحفظنا فصوله جيد جدا وتوصلنا لنتيجة واضحة وهي اننا لا نعرف معنى الحوار ويكذب من يقول اننا اصحاب حوار وليعذرني بعض المتحاورون من الدرجة الاولى!
لطالما سالت نفسي لماذا نحن العرب لانعرف معنى الحوار؟ وحينها اجد اسباب عدة وواحد من هذه الاسباب هي طبيعة العرب القبلية التي تعتمد على الرأي الواحد وهو رأي شيخ القبيلة وعلى جميع الشعب ان يتقبله ويعتقد به! سبب اخر لربما يكون هو السبب الرئيسي وهو اننا لم نتعلم معنى الحوار في صغرنا وفي مناهج التعليم.. فنحن دائما مانعلم اولادنا على احترام رأي الكبير وعدم مناقشته او التحاور معه لابداء رأي مخالف للكبير في العائلة او العمل ! فنحن ايضا في مجتمعنا العربي عادة مانسمع عبارة " عندما يتكلم الكبار على الصغار ان يسكتوا" وباعتقادي هذه العبارة خطيرة جدا فهي تنمي عند الطفل منذ الصغر روح الانصات الاعمى والاصم وانا اعني مااعني بصفتي الاعمى والاصم ! فعندما تنصت دون المشاركة بالحديث عندها سينمو عندك شعور التلقي من الاخر فقط وليس لك الحق باداء رأيك وهذه جريمة للاسف لا يعاقب عليها القانون في مجتمعاتنا!

ولكن وهنا كلمة لكن تعني الكثير فهذا الطفل عندما يكبر لايحتفظ بخاصية الانصات ولو كانت عمياء وصماء فحتى هذه الخاصية تبدأ بالتلاشي عندما ينتمي لعالم الكبار فيبدأ الصراع ويبدأ هذا الانسان بايجاد وسيلة لابداء رأيه ويبدأ باعلاء صوته وهي المرحلة الثانية في السيناريو الذي ذكرته سابقا ومن ثم نظل ندور في تلك الدوامة وتتناقل من جيل لاخر !
امنيتي الوحيدة واوجهها الى الاسر والى كل من يريد ان ينهض بمجتماعتنا ومن كل الناس ان تبدأ من الاطفال ونبدأ بتعمليمهم معنى الحوار الصحيح وان نترك لاطفالنا الحرية بابداء الرأي حتى وان كان خاطيء او بريء وان نتعلم نحن ان ذلك المخلوق الصغير في الحجم ممكن ان يمتلك عقل كبير جدا ولديه اراء رائعة فليس علينا سوى الاستماع لها ..الشيء المهم والاخير الذي يجب ان نفعله نحن ان نعلم الاطفال معنى ابداء الرأي حتى يصبحوا ناضجين اسوياء وان يجهضوا مبدأ "الاختلاف بالرأي يفسد للود قضية". ..

9.8.2010

Using new technology is necessary

2010-04-01T20:55:00.001+01:00

Spring 2007
"Using new technology is necessary"

"Technology is like a fish. The longer it stays on the shelf, the less desirable it becomes. " by Andrew Heller. If we compare our life before and after the technology enters our life, we will find a big difference and it is like a revolution. Nowadays the majority of people in the world would like to replace and change their devices for many reasons. Because we are living in a developing world, we need to catch up with what is going on in the world technologically to cope with the developed countries. These days, discarding technological devices once newer models with different features is necessary as today's society is evolving technologically at an ever increasing pace and it also facilitates our personal and professional life.

The first cause why we should replace our old devices with new ones is because our society is developing technologically. Nowadays we are living in a technological community that almost everyone has the latest devices. In order not to feel incompatible with others, we should catch up with the latest devices in the market. For example, if you have a friend that has the newest cell phone that has Bluetooth, the ability to send pictures or files to other cell phone immediately, while you have not this ability, Bluetooth, in your mobile, you will feel different and will face difficulty to communicate with others. A wise man once said "once new technology rolls over you, if you are not part of the steamroller, you are part of the road". Stewart Brand. This quote shows that you need to be up to date to what is new in the world so as not to be isolated from the society. Another point that can make us discard our old devices with the new ones is our technological environment. Companies that produce the new devices have their attractive offers that encourage people to buy. Sometimes such companies offer for their customers the lowest offers with higher qualities in order to attract more consumers, especially in feast and Christmas, so people who would like to buy gifts in feast days will benefit from these useful offers and companies as well. These offers help people buying because they will have the latest devices with lower prices, so it is beneficial for both companies and customers. Another factor that can have a role in making people buy is advertising. Advertising for the newest product is useful because it motives people to buy more. Advertising is important because it is everywhere, television, magazines, radio and even in underground station. This Availability of advertising can encourage even people who are not interested to buy and discover the new device that has all the advertising.

Because our personal life depends on technology in many situations, we discard our old devices with the new ones. In our personal life we use the latest devices because these new devices make our life easier. One of the advantages of the new devices is to reduce time. In the past, we had the traditional cameras with a film that we had to give it to the photographer and spend a week to have our pictures. This was a waste of time and efforts. Nowadays, we have the digital cameras which you can check your photos right away after you capture and delete the bad ones or even recapture the picture. Also, with digital cameras, we can immediately watch the pictures in the computer and save them in. You also can with digital cameras send your pictures to your friends by using the computer while the old ones don’t have this characteristic. Another advantage of new devices, digital cameras, is to save money and then you will balance your income. Another advantage of the new devices that make our life easier is the improvement of our communication with people. The latest computers nowadays have the ability to see people by the webcam and talk to them as you call them by telephone but in a low price. This ability makes our life easier because we can interact anytime with each other, especially with people who are away from us. According to a lady who has her daughter and son away from her, she bought the advanced so as to communicate and see her children easily as she see them face to face. New devices with its developed features, webcam, can strength the relationship between people and each other.

Discarding our old devices with the new ones is also important in our professional life. In many business, you have to use the newest devices, if not you will lose your customers. Because there is competition between companies, every company needs to produce and have the latest devices with the newest features to attract more customers. For example, once new company has the new features that can benefit the customers, other companies replace their old devices and produce the new ones to have more customers. Moreover, New technological devices are necessary in educational professional field According to the 1982 Wingspread Conference that discuss ,many educational issues and one of the issues that was discussed is the importance of technology in education. This conference recommended to improve the technology and computer courses. This shows that it encourages professors in the university to buy the newest devices to help students like their subject. It also show that even before many years many people asked to change and replace their old devices with the new ones. Another point of why we discard our old devices with the new ones is to make our work easier. Any workers want to finish their work quickly; this can be possible by replacing the old devices, with old features, with the new technological devices that can make our work easier. For example, in the past most of the workers had to hold all their documents in CD or in a personal computer while nowadays workers can hold their all documents and computer files in the USB, flash memory, that you can hold everywhere. This shows that we can do our work easily and quickly.
Although discarding the old devices with the new ones is important, we should replace them with a reason. There is a question that always comes to the mind of many people. The question is why we should replace our old devices with the new ones. Some people believe that it is necessary for the developing of the county while others think that it is essential for our personal and the others think it helps them in their work. Technology is necessary but for a purpose.

Works cited
“The Sun Sets on the VCR.” Guardian 23 Nov. 2004:17.1.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,,1370052,00.html

Media coverage of the Lebanese crisis.

2010-04-01T20:48:00.002+01:00

Spring 2008

Media coverage of the Lebanese crisis in 2008

Since the Lebanese war was over in 1990, Lebanon has been in a continuing conflict. After the year 1990, the country had witnessed variable development in many fields like tourism, agriculture, arts, literature and alike. The conflict has started again in 2005 when Mr Rafeek Al Hareery, the Lebanese ex prime minister, was assassinated by a massive car bomb explosion. Following that, Lebanon entered a big conflict, especially with Israel and Syria. Consequently, a war erupted, in 2006 between Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamist party and Israel. Then, this was followed by a series of assassinations of Lebanese political figures during the last three years. The several investigations in these assassinations failed to generate any clues or clear results.

The Lebanese Constitution, agreed on and endorsed in May 23 1926, states that the elected Lebanese president should be a Christian Maronite, the prime minister a Muslim Sunni and the Parliament Speaker a Muslim Shiite. Also in the Lebanese Constitution, the period of the presidency is limited to 6 years without re-election for another term. In 2004, there was a change in the constitution to allow extending the period of the President, Emel Lahoud, for extra 3 years. It was widely claimed that this decision was taken as a result of Syrian pressure. This decision has lead opposition parties to stand against the appointed Lebanese government and the whole political system. Accordingly, General Emel Lahoud’s period was due in November 2007. Since then, Lebanon has failed to elect the next president leaving the country without a president until now. The Army Chief, General Michel Soliman has been nominated as the accepted candidate for the Lebanese presidency election by almost all parties. However, a big argument does exist about him and not everyone agrees on that before fulfilling certain political demands and conditions. Some parties stand against him and others advocate for his candidature. There have been intensive efforts from some countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France and United States to solve this problem. The presidency election in the Parliament was postponed for 17 times. The Lebanese parliamentarians tried to choose the president for the 18th time on 22 April 2008 and again failed to accomplish their task.
The media coverage for this complicated crisis was extended to include Major Arab and international media. This article will scan the coverage by Saudi, Egyptian and of course Syrian and Lebanese Newspapers. Each of these countries expressed different opinions and stands in this issue.

First, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has covered this important issue because this country is considered as an active player in helping Lebanon solves the presidency crisis. Saudi Arabia always calls Lebanon and Syria to meet to discuss and improve their bilateral relations in all aspects with a focus on the political ones. Also, Saudi Arabia always asks Syria to stop interfering in Lebanese internal affairs. Many other Arab countries believe that Syria is interfering in Lebanese internal affairs and claiming that Syria represents the main cause of the Lebanese current crisis. AlHayat newspaper, the Saudi newspaper issued in London, mentioned that Syria claims that the current Lebanese government is illegitimate. However, Lebanon declined that notion by the evidence made by the Syria invitation to Lebanon to participate in the Arab summit that was held recently in Damascus. This shows that the Saudi Arabian media position is against Syria and stresses on issues opposing Syrian politics. In 29 of March 2008, the Arab summit was held in Damascus to discuss the Arab issues; the Lebanese issue was included in the agenda so Syria sent an invitation to Lebanon to participate. However, Lebanon refused to participate. I think that Lebanon should have participated so the Arab countries may have heard the Lebanese position and could have found solutions to Lebanon’s problems. Such position clearly indicates that Lebanon doesn’t have the will to cooperate with Syria. This clearly uncovers Saudis and other Arab countries claim that the Syria is the side refusing to help solving the Lebanese problem. As a matter of fact, Syria preferred that Lebanon chooses their president before the Arab summit but the Lebanese government failed to choose the president for the 17th time. The Saudi press mentions that the Saudi and Egyptian governments first decided to boycott the Arab summit in Damascus but changed their opinion hoping they may find solutions to the Lebanese crisis. The Saudi press all the time illustrates that Syria doesn’t cooperate to solve the Lebanese problem and just talking without doing any action for that. The Saudi Arabia press also thinks that Syria is cooperating with Iran to keep the Lebanese crisis unsolved

The second coverage of the Lebanese crisis is the Egyptian media coverage. Egypt plays with the Saudi Arabia an important role in trying to solve the Lebanese crisis. According to some Egyptian newspapers such as Al Ahram and Al Masry Al youm, the Egyptian position stands that Lebanon has to choose the president as soon as possible for the good of the Lebanese people. The coverage shows how Lebanon is upset about the way how they got the invitation of Arab summit. Also, the Egyptian media reported that Lebanon wouldn’t be able to choose their president before the Arab summit as the Saudi Arabia coverage mentioned. It was reported that the Syrian minister of foreign affairs said that Lebanon missed a golden chance to discuss their problem and improve the Lebanese-Syrian relations. In my opinion, I agree on that because Lebanon should have participate in the Arab summit to show that they are independent and Syria can not interfere with their internal affairs as they claim. Also, the Egyptian media expressed the Egyptian government stands against the boycott of Lebanon to the Arab summit. On other hand, it was mentioned in Al Ahram newspaper that Lebanon boycotted the Arab summit because they had enough from the Syrian interference in Lebanese business by sending terrorists and weapons to Lebanon. Moreover, the majority of Lebanese politicians think that the decision of the Lebanese government not to participate in the Arab summit was a wise one. The Egyptian press didn’t take a side of any of the two sides of the Lebanese issue. They show the Syrian and Lebanese position and support the right position.
The third coverage of the Lebanese crisis is the Syrian coverage. Syria is considered the main reason for the Lebanese problem as many believe and claim. The Syrian coverage pointed out that what Lebanon claims that Syria is the main reason for the Lebanese problem is not true. The Syrian government said that only the Lebanese people can solve the problems without any help from other countries. When the Lebanese prime minster, Fouad Al Saneyora, claimed in his speech that Syria is the main reason for the Lebanese crisis, Syria wouldn’t care about the Lebanese prime minster’s speech because they believe it’s untrue. Also, the Syrian minster of foreign affairs claims that Lebanese politicians do not want to solve the problem and the majority of the Lebanese government is related to the United States and France. Also, the Syrian media coverage shows how the Syrian government decided that the country that has no representative in the Arab summit would not be able to tell a speech. As s result, this shows that Syria doesn’t care if Lebanon participate or not and the Arab summit would be held with and without the participation of Lebanon. This also indicates that Syria did what should be done and held the Arab summit in Damascus as an attempt to discuss and solve the Lebanese problem but Lebanon just ignored all that.

The most important converge is the Lebanese coverage itself. The various Lebanese newspapers and magazines have covered the situation. The Lebanese position is clear that Syria should stop the interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs. Lebanon decided to boycot the Arab summit because it was held in Damascus, the Syrian capital. It was mentioned that the Lebanese prime minister asked the Arab countries to have the Arab foreign affairs ministers meeting to discuss and solve the Lebanese problem. What I think is that Lebanon can discuss the Lebanese issue in the Arab summit instead of holding another meeting. Fouad Al Sanyoura, the Lebanese prime minister, insists on that Lebanon can not participate in the Arab summit without a president. Also, Lebanon thinks that Syria plays a big role in preventing the Lebanese from choosing the candidate Michel Soliman as a president of Lebanon to keep Lebanon unstable. On the other hand, the Lebanese prime minister still believes on building good relations with Syria because Syria is a neighbored country that Lebanon respects.

In conclusion, the situation in Lebanon is still as it is and until now the Lebanese parliament has failed to choose the new president. The next session for electing the president was postponed for unlimited time until they reach an agreement. The different parties are still arguing whether Michel Soliman is the one or not. Lebanon is insisting on preventing Syria from interfering in their business. Lebanese people should participate and decide who is going to be the president to make Lebanon more stable and solve their problems. At the same time, Syria should cooperate more with Lebanon to solve the problem.

السؤال الذي يهين انسانيتي!

2010-03-25T22:47:00.000Z

25.3.2010

سؤال بسيط ويساله البعض بكل براءة ! سؤال ممكن ان يكون عادي عند البعض ولكن بالنسبة لي هو سؤال جارح لانسانيتي وكرامتي! سوف يتساءل البعض ماهو هذا السؤال الذي تتحدث عنه؟! مجرد معرفة البعض انني من بلاد الرافدين يتوافد هذا السؤال على ذهن الناس بدون حتى ان يعرفوا من انا او ماذا احمل افكار او حتى ماذا ادرس! يسألونني هل انت من طائفة (س) ام طائفة (ش)؟! وعندها تكون تعابير المتسائلين جدية وفعلا يريدون معرفة الجواب بكل شغف.. دوري انا بالتساءل الان ماالمغزى من هذا السؤال ومالاستفادة التي سيخرج منها هؤلاء المتساءلين! اتصور لااحد يستطيع الاجابة لان المتسائلين انفسهم لا يعرفون لماذا يسالون هذا السؤال ولكنه مجرد الفضول او السؤال السائد! دائما اسأل نفسي هل بعد الاجابة على هذا السؤال ستتغير نظرة الناس عني او سأوضع بخانة جديدة اذا كنت انتمي لهذه الطائفة او تلك! على علمي الناس تقول ان الدين لله والوطن للجميع! فهل هذه المقولة تكتب على الورق او تقال فقط في الاشعار ولا تطبق على الواقع الذي نعيش به؟! بصراحة انا لااجيب على هذا السؤال
المهين فشعوري عند السؤال مثل زرع خنجر في قلبي و عندها اطالب بالتنفس والعيش بطبيعية!

في رأيي مشكلتنا الكبيرة هي التشبث بالمظاهر وترك ما في داخلنا من افكار واراء ومانؤمن به والاهتمام فقط بالملبس والمظهر او لاي طائفة ننتمي !! وهذه هي مصيبتنا وسبب تأخرنا عن التقدم وسبب تصنيفنا بدول العالم الثالث والله اعلم لاي فئة سنصل في المستقبل القريب ربما للخامسة او حتى العاشرة اذا بقينا نفكر بهذا الاسلوب!! البعض ممكن ان يفكر انني متشاءمة او انني انتقد بلا سبب ولكن بالحقيقة اذا دققنا بفكرة الحكم على الشخص من مظهره او عرقه او اعتقاداته فهي مصيبة واذا لاندرك ذلك فهي مصيبة اكبر! انني فعلا اتعجب من الناس التي تريد تفريق الناس لسبب غير معلوم وعلى التفريق بين طائفة (س) وطائفة (ش) لانني لااحب التلفظ بهم لانني عندها اكون معترفة بهذه التصنيفات!! حسب معلوماتي وعلم الجميع ان حتى في الابجدية العربية حرف السين والشين ياتيان واحد تلو الاخر فعجبي على شعب يتمنى التفريق بينهم وجعل حرف السين يأتي قبل حرف الياء وليس الشين كما هو متعارف !! على الرغم من انني لا احب التكلم بالسياسة او الدين ولكن هذا الموضوع فعلا مؤرق لكثيرين وانا واحدة منهم لان الناس تعتقد ان ابناء بلاد الرافدين لايجمعهم غير التفرقة والكره والبغض!! لا الوم احدا على ذلك ولكن الوم الاعلام الذي انا ادرسه والوم الناس التي تروج لمثل تلك الافكار وتريد فقط زرع الفوارق بين ابناء بلد يسمى بلاد الرافدين وليس بلاد الرافد الواحد! .

how could we design a sociological method to study a phenomenon ?!

2010-03-21T13:44:00.002Z

Spring 2009

This project is designed to help the president of the American University in Cairo studying the AUC graduate students after leaving AUC. He would like to study how their attitudes and feelings could be changed after they graduate from AUC. Also, another important point to be investigated is whether their attitudes have been changed or not. In addition, he is interested in discovering if their study in AUC has any influence whether negative or positive over their lives.
The task of this project is to provide the AUC president with the methods and ways to help answering those questions about AUC graduates. As the president chose to use survey to study the attitudes of AUC graduates, our mission is to give an advice about what is the best survey design. The designs suggested by the president’s advisors are panel study, retrospective histories collected from a sample of older AUC graduates or what is called ‘content analysis’ and One-Short Cross Sectional study. There would be an explanation of each and then will decide which method is suitable for this project.
Various designs can serve the purpose of conducting a survey to identify the changes of attitudes among people. The first survey design was suggested by the president’s advisors is panel study. Panel study is one of the survey designs which is based on choosing one specific group of respondents and collect data from the same group over time. For example, if we decide to measure how people change their opinion about an issue such as abortion, we would collect data from a group of people like the students of AUC and then ask them again about the same issue after a period of time. The only difference of the panel study to other survey designs is to examine the same issue on the same group tested before. This can help us classifying the changing of opinion or attitudes of the same group of people such as the AUC seniors’ students.
Every survey design has its own advantages and disadvantages. Regarding the advantages, one advantage of the panel study is that the researchers can identify the changing of behaviors, opinions, attitudes of specific group of people. For example, if we would like to measure whether some AUC students change their opinion about the new move to the Cairo new campus or not, we would question the students of Science School for example; then after two semesters we should re-question the Science School students again to test if their opinion change or not. Some students might stick to their opinion about the move to the new campus in New Cairo while others might change their opinion and feel satisfied after having two semesters. This means the situation is getting better in the new campus and as a result students are changing their opinion.
Talking about the disadvantages of panel study, mainly there are three disadvantages; the first disadvantage is something called panel attrition which means that some respondents refuse to be questioned in the second time. Sometimes, some students might be busy and reject to respond to the questions of the survey; this might be a problem to the researchers who use panel study. For example, some students who were interviewed might transfer to another university and no one can contact them; in this case, the study is useless and meaningless as the same group should be re-interviewed to recognize the changes in the opinion of AUC students about the Cairo new campus move. The second disadvantage of panel study is that the data collected from the panel study is hard to be analyzed. The third and final disadvantage is that panel study is expensive and time consuming; this is because panel study does not depend on some published data as other methods but there should be new data every time researchers interview the same group of people. This might be another problem of panel study.
Those disadvantages mentioned above might be a reason for why panel study is not common used in conducting a survey. Some might argue that panel study is mostly like doing an experiment which the researchers would have a control group and experiment group to compare between. The control group would be the first group and experiment group would be interviewing the same group for the second time. Consequently, panel study is rarely used or would be used in special cases. Regarding any biases, any survey method can be biased in its language so the wording and how to phrase the questions in the questionnaire is important to not be biased. In the same point, pretesting would be the solution to avoid any biases.
The second suggested method to be used in our project is content analysis. Content analysis is mainly based on analyzing date already existed such as papers done years ago about the same topic, government documents and others. In this case, it’s easier to study one topic as the data is available and the researchers do not have to collect the data by themselves.
Content analysis like other survey methods has advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of content analysis is that it provides an organized analysis of materials which make it easier for researcher in their research. Also, content analysis can prevent any biases researchers might create before they conduct their research. For example, in the case of the president and his interest in studying the attitudes of the AUC graduates students towards the educational system of AUC, he might have an idea that all AUC students are satisfied with the AUC educational system. However, the data collected and researchers conducted before might show that some AUC students are not totally satisfied with the educational system. Accordingly, this can give the president a general idea about the truth and change the bias that the president has before conducting the survey using content analysis. On the other hand, content analysis has drawbacks; one of them is that the documents available might be not enough for the research I would like to conduct. For example, the same example of AUC students’ attitudes towards AUC educational system can be applied to this problem as there might not be enough documents that discuss this issue. As a result, this method might not be helpful to the AUC president’s study. The second disadvantage of content analysis is that sometimes the documents might have some comments that are contradicted which researchers can not depend on them.
The third survey method is Random Cross-Sectional. Cross-Sectional Survey is about collecting data at specific time from a specific group to examine or describe larger population. It is like having a representative group of a larger population. It is not just to describe this sample and group of people but to study a relationship between variables. The advantage of cross sectional survey is that it focuses on one specific group and then can be applied to larger population. However, this can be also disadvantage at the same time because researchers might be biased and generalize in their results to the larger population which is not necessary can be applied to larger population. In addition, the opinions of any specific sample collected at one point might be changed later; this is another disadvantage of Cross-Sectional Survey. In the case of the president, he should interview a sample random group of AUC graduates to ask them whether their study in the AUC has any influence on their lives after they graduate. I think this is possible as he can email those who graduated from AUC and question them some questions to determine whether the study in AUC affected them or not. As the AUC has the contact details of graduates, he can use this as a tool to contact them via email or telephone or interview if possible.
After discussing the survey methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each, we should now choose which method is the most appropriate for the AUC president’s project. In my opinion, each survey method has its own strength to be used and weakness to avoid. First, I think panel study is hard to use in the president’s purpose of studying the AUC students after they graduate as it is hard to re-interview the graduate students again as mentioned before they might refuse to respond in the second time due to private reasons. Secondly, about the content analysis, it is also hard to study students’ opinions based on published documents as the president needs to study the opinion of the students not just descriptive study. I think although it has disadvantages, Cross-Sectional survey is the most suitable one to the president’s project as it allows him to interview random students and know their opinion about studying in the AUC. This will prevent personal biases as it is random.
Most of the topics the AUC president would like to study about the graduate students are sensitive. For example, one topic that I think is sensitive is smoking among AUC students and the new policy in the Cairo AUC new campus. The new policy is that students are not allowed to smoke in public and building reigns. As the new AUC campus is open so the regions are open so they are not allowed to smoke in the majority of the buildings. I think many would not like to answer as they think it is a personal thing and a freedom of expression. Wording the questions is very important in this case as to make students respond. I was requested to suggest some ways to avoid some of the problems the president might face conducting his survey. One of the ways is not to be biased in asking the questions or imposing any answer on respondents. For example, if he would like to know the opinion of the students about smoking and whether the AUC policy of not permitting the smoking in closed areas have any influence on their lives after they graduate or not. First of all, he should introduce to the respondents the topic and give instructions. Secondly, he should start asking them general questions to provide some information about the person interviewed such as gender, age, social status, occupation and other stuff. Then, the president can ask some specific questions about the issue. The most important thing to take in consideration is how to ask the question and the wording. I will include a sample of the survey that can help the AUC president conducting his survey on AUC graduate students.

The sample of questionnaire the AUC president can use to conduct his survey
Instructions: The president of the American University in Cairo would like to study the attitudes of AUC graduate students towards some issues. The topic that the president would like to examine is the attitude of AUC students towards sexual harassment.
1. We changed it to what’s your sex?
a) Female
b) Male

2. What is your nationality?
a) Egyptian
b) Foreigner, please specify_______

3. What is your Social status?
a) Single
b) In a relationship
c) Engaged
d) Married
e) Other,______

4. Researches conducted have shown that the phenomenon of sexual harassment has increased in Egypt nowadays. To what extent you support these statistics?
a) Strongly agree
b) Agree
c) Disagree
d) Strongly disagree
e) Do not know

5. When you hear an accident of sexual harassment in Cairo, what can describe your feeling at that time? Please check all that apply.
a) Sad
b) Disappointed
c) Happy
d) Neutral
e) Angry
f) Dissatisfied
g) Others

6. This scale consists of a number of words that describe different feelings and emotions. Please read each item and then circle a number 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 to indicate the extent to which you have this feeling at the time of knowing that there is an accident of sexual harassment in the new campus.
0=very slightly or not at all
1=A little
2=Moderately
3=Quite a bit
4=Extremely

1 Interested 0 1 2 3 4
2 Distressed 0 1 2 3 4
3 Excited 0 1 2 3 4
4 Upset 0 1 2 3 4
5 Strong 0 1 2 3 4
6 Guilty 0 1 2 3 4
7 Scared 0 1 2 3 4
8 Hostile 0 1 2 3 4
9 Enthusiastic 0 1 2 3 4
10 Proud 0 1 2 3 4
11 Irritable 0 1 2 3 4
12 Alert 0 1 2 3 4
13 Ashamed 0 1 2 3 4
14 Inspired 0 1 2 3 4
15 Nervous 0 1 2 3 4
16 Determined 0 1 2 3 4
17 Attentive 0 1 2 3 4
18 Jittery 0 1 2 3 4
19 Active 0 1 2 3 4
20 Afraid 0 1 2 3 4

7. Some AUC students reported that there are cases of sexual harassment in the AUC new campus. Are you aware of this phenomenon?
a) Fully aware
b) Aware
c) Don’t know
d) Don’t care
e) Unaware

8. Some students are asking for strict security service in the new AUC campus as to prevent the sexual harassment incidents. Do you support such demand?
a) Strongly agree
b) Agree
c) May be
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree

9. Have you ever been sexually harassed before?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Prefer not to answer

10. Some students just feel free and secured in the new AUC campus unlike others. In one word, describe your feeling towards the security services in the new AUC campus.

Women’s social movements in Iraq

2010-03-21T13:37:00.002Z

Women’s social movements in Iraq

Spring 2009

During the last 50 years, Iraq has gone through many struggles, conflicts and wars. Iraqi people witnessed and harshly experienced more than four direct wars during just the last thirty years .To start, a brief review of recent history on Iraq should be mentioned to clarify how bad Iraqi people, in general, have suffered and women, in particular. Iraqi people suffered from dictatorship, wars and nowadays an over added occupation. In 1980, Iraqis found themselves trapped in a fierce war with their neighbor country Iran that went on till 1988 and caused a lot of suffering to the Iraqi people (Wright). The number of Iraqi soldiers who were killed is estimated to fall between 150,000 and 340,000 (Al-Ali and Pratt). In addition, many Iraqi civilians died as a result of this long war. Women have lost their sons, husbands and relatives and were left facing immense emotional and economical challenges (Wright). In less than two years after this bloody war finished, Iraq went through another war with the United States, and 30 of its allies as a result of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Economic sanction was imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council from 1990 till 2003 which really had awful effects on Iraqi people ("Sanctions on Iraq."). The last dramatic event which Iraq has gone through was the American-led invasion on Iraq in 2003 (Miller and Kenedi). The invasion turned the country upside down because of the chaos, lawlessness and insecurity that accompanied and followed the invasion and continued until present time (Al-Ali and Pratt). All these factors have led Iraq to suffer from un-development in all sectors as wars and ongoing conflicts impede the country’s promising development. Significantly, those factors have led Iraqis to create several social movements to change the bad situations they live in such as insecurity, lack of electricity and water (Al-Ali and Pratt). Also, many Iraqi social movements are created to defend and demand women’s rights.

Women in general and especially Iraqi women have suffered from the above reasons and factors. Iraqi Women’s social movements have a long history of demanding specific rights.

An important question that needs to be answered here is how could women’s social movements be helpful to improve Iraqi women’s status during the last 40 years? My main goal of this research paper is to answer this question stressing on the following three dimensions: the difficulties that led women to create social movements, the goals of women’s social movement has addressed and finally the difficulties women faced because of their movement.

Women’s social movement is not one of the new social movements (Woodsmall 48). In Iraq, women’s social movement has started its activities to demand women’s rights since the 1920s (Woodsmall). Women participated in the 1920 revolution in Iraq against the British invasion and occupation following the World War I and helped men in this revolution and started their activities since that time (Fernea and Louis). This shows that women are always active and need to actively participate and achieve their goals of freedom and get their rights. Back to the history of women’s social movements in Iraq, in 1923 women created an organization to teach orphan girls but this organization was soon closed (Woodsmall). I think this shows that such organizations faced difficulties and male dominated society opposed and fought such organizations led by women. Although women’s social movements were unstable and depended on male members, women never gave up and started to create other organizations. In 1944, women’s social movements and organizations have started to be independent and created various organizations such as Sisterhood of Freedom which have branches in Baghdad and Basra (Woodsmall). Such organizations were supported by the British aids in the country at that time (Woodsmall). This indicates that because women’s organizations usually face such difficulties from the society, they ask support from foreign aids. Iraqi women’s social movements were motivated to keep going and demanding their rights by the support from other movements and organizations in other Arab countries such as Egypt (Woodsmall). In my opinion, this clearly shows that most of Arab women share similar suffering in the Arab world and that’s why the cooperation between Arab countries does exist in regard to women’s movements issue.

After giving a brief history on the women’s social movements in Iraq, some difficulties, during the Baath and Saddam Hussein’s regime or the occupation, which led Iraqi women to create social movements, should be tackled. Those difficulties would lead women to assign goals of their movements; some of these goals of the women’s social movements will be mentioned .Finally, difficulties women faced during creating their social movements are worth to be addressed.

First, difficulties women faced during the Baath and Saddam Hussein regime must be mentioned first to have an idea of the kind of magnitude of suffering women had before the war in 2003. Iraqi women indeed faced some difficulties from the Baath party and Saddam Hussein regime. Although the Baath and Hussein regime promoted the status of women in the early 1970s and 1980s, Iraqi women later faced many difficulties with the Baath’s strategy of imposing their ideas on people (Al-Ali and Pratt). At the end of the 1970s, the Baath started to change its strategy and opposed everyone who is not Baathi (Al-Ali and Pratt). Women who were not involved in political life were enjoying their lives and rights away from friction and conflicts. However, women who participate in activities against the Baath regime would be harshly fought (Al-Ali 112). However, this clearly shows that women were not fought because they are women but because of their political activities. In my opinion, this is the problem of the previous regime of Saddam Hussein and Baath party to fight people who disagree or do not follow their ideology. For example, Zeynab J, a lab assistant working in one of the universities of Iraq who is a member of the Daawa party, was fought and dismissed from their colleagues and boss in college as she was not a Baathi (Al-Ali 116). Zeynab had to leave Iraq in the 1970s after receiving many threats of killing (Al-Ali 116). The example of Zeynab might indicate that repression of any regime can lead people to create social movements to get their rights of freedom of expression.etc. Zeynab left Iraq and joined the Daawa party and lived in the United Sates trying to participate in the social movement to change the political regime in Iraq (Al-Ali 112). The case of Zeynab also might show that such women who oppose the regime faced two options; whether to leave Iraq by force or to stay in Iraq but agree on the Baath ideology. The political repression prevents many women from creating any social movement in Iraq as it would be repressed as soon as it is created. In fact, women during the Baath and Saddam Hussein regime in the 1980s did enjoy some of their rights such as education, health care and child care. However, women later suffered from wars, economic sanction and other conflicts that forced women to take harsh responsibilities and the burden to raise families in absence of their men (Al-Ali and Pratt). This was even harsher in the 1990s period as of the economic sanctions when women suffered a lot in finding and home making all for the family with sharp shortage of income and fund submission. Also, lack of political opportunities and participation was one of the difficulties that women suffered from.

Second, after discussing the difficulties women faced during the Baath and Saddam Hussein regime, difficulties women faced after the US invasion in 2003 look even more sever and much different. The main sufferings Iraqis in general and Iraqi women faced after the US invasion are the insecurity, chaos, kidnapping and lawlessness (Al-Ali and Pratt). Also, women nowadays are forced to wear Hijab, the veil, as the extremists control the country after the US invasion (Al-Ali and Pratt 128). Although Hijab is claimed to be Islamic nature, the hijab was imposed even on women from other religions such as Christianity. Iraqi women as the majority of Iraqis suffered from lack of electricity and water because of the destructive war (Al-Ali and Pratt 123). Also, one of the difficulties women faced before and after the war was the lack of women’s representatives in the parliament. Consequently, women have started to demand their right to be active in the political life in Iraq after long years of repression.

The various difficulties Iraqi women faced whether during the Baath and Hussein’s regime or the occupation period led women from middle and high class to create social movement (Al-Ali and Pratt). Iraqi women’s social movements have a variety of goals to change some unpleasant situations women suffer from. One of the main goals of women’s social movements in Iraq after the invasion is to improve the disastrous situations such as standard of living, health care, electricity and water (Al-Ali and Pratt 122). Also one of the major goals of women’s social movements in Iraq is girls’ education as after the chaos, kidnapping and insecurity, many families became hesitant and afraid of sending their daughters to schools (Al-Ali and Pratt 122). This led to sharp decline in the percentage of educated girls in the society. Helping those in need in hospitals and poor people is also one of the goals that Iraqi women’s movements were assigned to improve their terrible situation after the invasion (Al-Ali and Pratt). Moreover, women attempted to clean some of the schools in Baghdad to rehabilitate after destruction as a result of the war and bombings (Al-Ali and Pratt).In my opinion, This indicates that women’s social movements do not just care about women’s issues alone but also care about other social issues such as poverty, education and health. Furthermore, the most important goal of women’s movement in Iraq is to teach women and poor people how to depend on themselves and try to improve their situation (Al-Ali and Pratt). For example, some activists in women’s movement organize computer sessions to teach young people something useful for their future career and living (Al-Ali and Pratt). I think this is more useful than providing people directly with food or clothes as it is obvious more useful to teach people something they can benefit from in their life. In addition to helping the poor and widows, women’s social movements tend to fight the sectarianism that became widespread in the Iraqi society nowadays by treating everyone equally (Al-Ali and Pratt). The final and significant goal of women’s social movements is to get gender balance with equal political opportunities in the Iraqi parliament (Al-Ali and Pratt). In this aspect, women enjoy a minimum of 25% representation in all parliament and local council’s membership by law. In addition to the previous demands, new demands have appeared such as the withdrawals of the American and foreign forces from Iraq (Al-Ali and Pratt 128). However, some other women’s movements prefer the US and foreign forces to stay in Iraq because of the fear of the control of the sectarian and extremist religious parties once forces are withdrawals (Al-Ali and Pratt).

The ways and means to achieve the assigned goals mentioned above are various. Women who were living outside Iraq before 2003 started their activities by collecting funds from colleagues and friends and not political parties to create social movement (Al-Ali and Pratt). This shows that not all social movements are necessarily created by political parties. They started with minor stuff such as cleaning schools and offering services for Iraqis. The local organizations were more helpful to the women’s social movements than the foreign organization (Al-Ali and Pratt). This might indicate that Iraqis are in need of social movements and help so they are ready to help anyone who might take the initiative to improve the terrible situations postwar in Iraq. Women were able to help improving dreadful situations of some families who were affected by the war by providing food and medicine. This is considered an achievement to women’s social movement in Iraq as they were able to achieve some of their goals.

As for the political opportunities for women in the Iraqi Parliament, women started to raise awareness among women about the importance of the political participation of women in the Iraqi government as decision makers (Al-Ali and Pratt). After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, many women decided to create social movements to demand their right of equal political opportunities (Al-Ali and Pratt). “We had an equal share of pain and we need an equal share of peace”, quoted Shanes Rashid an Iraqi women activist (Al-Ali and Pratt). Rashid’s quotation shows that the demand of equal opportunities for women is a normal demand and one of women’s rights. As the dominated parties in the Iraqi government are the sectarian ones, women from the secular parties decided to participate in the political ‘war’ as some might call against the sectarians (Al-Ali and Pratt).The Iraqi government in the beginning started to ignore many skilled people and women. As a result, women decided to participate by creating strikes, demonstrations and campaigns demanding their right to be part of decision making in the “New Iraq” (Al-Ali and Pratt). They started to demand that women should have quota in the new government and institution. However, the Americans refused that claiming that they do not believe in quota arrangement (Al-Ali and Pratt). This was puzzling and very surprising to the activists as the Americans used the quota but ethnically and religiously and ignored women (Al-Ali and Pratt). As a result of this unfairness, activists decided to intensify demonstrations, strikes and campaigns to demand their right (Al-Ali and Pratt). Accordingly, the government decided to give women a minimum of 25% quota in the Iraqi parliament and consequently in local councils (Al-Ali and Pratt). This is considered an achievement to the women’s social movement. Women do not just care for having female representatives in the parliament, but they care more about the active women who can fight for Iraqi women’s rights (Al-Ali and Pratt). However, some women argue that quota for women is not the solution to improve women’s status but election of whether women or men should be based on qualifications, experience, education not on gender or ethnicity , quoted an Iraqi activist Samira Mustafa (Al-Ali and Pratt). As when women have quota in the parliament, political parties would nominate the women who might be the daughters, wives or relatives of the political parties’ leaders, Samira added (Al-Ali and Pratt). In my opinion, I might agree with this activist as Iraq has not reached the level of transparent and smooth democracy that people would elect the candidates based on their qualifications or experience but would continue to elect the people that the political parties would nominate. However, at the same time, I might agree with some other activists such as those who argue that this minimum 25% quota is the first step into democratic Iraq (Al-Ali and Pratt). Also, activists who are with the 25% quota believe that they should be present in the parliament to demand women’s rights against the extremists who oppose women’s freedom and at the same time provide women with practical opportunity for training and skills development (Al-Ali and Pratt).

After women got their political opportunities to be part of the Iraqi parliament and got 25% quota by the help of social movements, women in the parliament started to discuss some issues directly related to women (Al-Ali and Pratt). Some extremists in the Iraqi parliament proposed changing the Iraqi personal status code, which is based on civil rights and was endorsed early 1960s, to a more conservative one (Al-Ali and Pratt). For example, Abd al Aziz Al Hakeem, the head of a conservative Islamic party, proposed to link the Iraqi personal status code to conservative Islamic laws and Sharea which might minimize the role of women in society (Al-Ali and Pratt). Many women and secular men stood firm against this proposal. Women in particular started to organize social movement against that notion and backward movement. In my opinion, because Iraq consists of various ethnic and religious groups, the Iraqi personal code should include all Iraqis and not to be linked to one specific religion. Activists in women’s social movements tried to contact international organizations to put pressure on the government and about any attempt to apply this change proposed by Al Hakeem (Al-Ali and Pratt). This action is called the Boomerang Model or theory which is based on seeking support of international organizations or governments to put pressure on local government if the activists fail to affect the local government (David, Soule, and Kriesi ). Women asked the human rights organizations to put pressure on the Iraqi government to refuse this proposal (Al-Ali and Pratt). Consequently, The Iraqi government refused the proposal of Al Hakeem to change the Iraqi personal status code because of the pressure on them from international organizations and women’s social movements (Al-Ali and Pratt).

Creating a social movement is not something easy. As a result, Iraqi women have faced many difficulties in creating their social movements. The first difficulty is the violence used against the activists during the chaotic atmosphere after the invasion in 2003 (Al-Ali and Pratt). Many activists were in danger of kidnapping and violence as there is no effective police or government to protect them (Al-Ali and Pratt). Women kept working to improve the bad situations in Iraq and to make any differences in people’s lives (Al-Ali and Pratt). Secular women who fight for their rights in the new Iraqi government were fought by the sectarian groups (Al-Ali and Pratt), Despite that, secular women keep fighting for their rights and for new democratic Iraq facing all these difficulties (Al-Ali and Pratt). Also, such women are at risk of random shooting from occupation and religious groups who oppose such movements (Al-Ali and Pratt).

In conclusion, Iraqi social movements have a significant role in demanding Iraqi women’s rights. To conclude this broad topic on women’s social movement, we should first identify who are the ones that women fight against? In my opinion, Iraqi women in their social movements fight the sectarian people and most of them are men who do not care about women’s rights and status. However, women also fight other groups of women who have backward and sectarian ideas who are usually working within the sectarian parties (Al-Ali and Pratt). As a result, women’s social movement is not just to oppose men in general but to fight groups of men and women who limiting women of their natural freedom. Another question that should be answered is how successful women’s social movements were in Iraq? I think these movements were successful to some extent as they still face difficulties in a male dominated society. This does not mean that social movements did not achieve some of their goals. Some goals were achieved such as the 25% quota and other goals. As for the suffering of women in the last 40 years, Iraqi women have suffered a lot during the Baath and Saddam Hussein’s regime and that is continually nowadays under- occupation. In my opinion, during the Baath and Hussein’s regime, there was only one group that women were fighting against government while nowadays there are various groups who oppose women’s freedom. As a result, women’s social movements have a long way to go to get all their assigned goals to promote women’s status in society.

Works Cited
Al-Ali, Nadje, and Nicola Pratt. What kind of liberation?. 2009
Al-Ali, Nadje. IRAQI WOMEN . 2007
Fernea , Robert , and Roger Louis. The Iraqi Revolution of 1958. 1991
Miller, John, and Aaron Kenedi. INSIDE IRAQ. 2002
"Sanctions on Iraq." Economist 326.7804 (1993): 15-6. .
Snow, David, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. 2007
Woodsmall, Ruth F. The role of women in Lebanon ,Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria. 1956.
Wright, Claudia. "Implications of the Iraq-Iran War." Foreign Affairs 59.2 (1980): 275-303. .

Cairo’s Metro: an observation of people’s behavior at rush hour

2010-03-21T13:18:00.000Z

Cairo’s Metro: an observation of people’s behavior at rush hour
Spring 2009

First of all, metro service in Egypt is very popular among the lower and middle class as I noticed. People can be classified as lower or middle class from their appearance and behavior. What I mean by their appearance is that women wear unsuitable clothes for work time. For example one woman wears bright shirt with lots of accessories which might show that she does not differentiate between morning or work and night clothes. Also, one woman was selling some stuff like make up and socks by just one pound. As a result, many women bought from this woman because it is cheap and the price is suitable for them. Moreover, what might indicate that some riders are from the lower class is that they push people without even saying sorry. One lady tried to push me when I was standing as to find a place to stand. Also, one boy played with my bag and when I shouted on him, his mother told him, stop it as it is inappropriate. Another lady kept staring at me without any obvious reason.

When I first reached the station of Alzahraa, I booked a ticket to ride the metro and it is for just one pound and this can be another reason why people from lower class prefer riding the metro. The metro service is fast as I rode it at 2 pm and reached the Helmeyat al Zaitoon station at 2.30. The metro passed by different 12 stations. In every station, new people join and others left but some stations are more crowed than the others. For example, the Saddat and Mubarak stations are more crowded than the rest as they link stations with each other. The metro was very crowded as you can not breathe of stand properly. Furthermore, the metro service is accurate as every five minute people can catch the metro. The air in the metro was very limited as there are many people with no enough air. Light is good in the metro when the metro goes underground.

Although the metro is crowded, the place is clean as nobody through anything on the floor. In every metro station, there are separate carriages for women and the rest are mixed. I and my friends ride the separate carriage for women. One guy entered the women’s carriage by mistake so women shouted on and pushed him away and the door was closed on his legs. There was a foreign woman who was reading a book about Egypt and trying to sit in her seat as the carriage is very crowded.

Though there is a note saying that some seats are for old and disabled people, some old women were standing while young girls sit down. Also, one observation I got in the metro is in the rush hour there is always a bad smell. In addition, there are beggars in the metro who beg and try to get money from the people. Beggars and sellers are started pushing to get space to sell or beg. What I noticed before I get to the metro carriage is that there are some boys cross the railway from one side to another while this is illegal. A policeman started shouting on those boys but could not catch them.

What amazed me is that there are some people who read Quran with lowed voice that everybody can hear. Also, I noticed that one lady was a sleep and later she missed the station she wants to go to. Another lady who was a sleep was wakened up by some women to catch the next station. Cooperation is nice among people who ride the metro.

In conclusion, my friends warned me from the thefts in the metro as my friend told me many thefts wait for the new riders who seldom take the metro to steal them. I did not experience that but friends told me stories about stealing mobiles and wallets. In general, the experience of riding the metro might be a hard one but at the same time it is an enjoyable experience. It is a new experience for me as this is the first time I ride the metro in Egypt. The metro service is very good and fast but in my opinion; it needs some organization and regulations. Also, in the metro station, you might meet different people from different classes which are considered an important thing to be mixed with different kind of people.

New reproduction technologies and Sexuality

2010-03-21T01:40:00.002Z

March 2010
New reproduction technology and Sexuality

A pregnant Man”, does this statement grab your attention? I wonder why? Is it just because it is something unusual or just because we are not used to such statement? This statement has been the headline of many newspapers, magazines and TV programs for a long time. Again, does this statement make you feel surprised, shocked or abnormal? I also wonder if people are going to change their views about sexuality because of this statement. All these questions could lead to the main topic of this essay which is to find out how could new reproduction technology change people’s perspectives about sexuality. There is an ongoing debate about sexuality and whether it is biologically or culturally constructed. In this essay, the biological and social debates are going to be discussed to examine how these social factors might change people’s view of sexuality.

The biological debate about sexuality is that the main purpose of sexuality is reproduction which humans share that with all species (Bancroft 2002, p.15). However, among humans, other than biological factors, social and cultural purposes have been developed gradually due to technology (Bancroft 2002, p.15). Cultural factors are different such as having sex for pleasure, having sex in the age when reproduction is not possible for women and of course new reproduction techniques such as IVF (Bancroft 2002, p.15). Most biologists ignore the fact that sexuality can also be for non reproductive purposes as mentioned above (Weeks 1986, p.20). Researches on sexuality topic have shown that biological factors are still the dominant and the most powerful even with the existence of these cultural and social factors (Bancroft 2002, p.15). This shows that there has been a controversial debate around the purposes of sexuality. Freud (1898) supported the idea of separating sex and reproduction as he viewed them as separate because of cultural, philosophical and religious factors (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.97).

All these factors mentioned above have led people to think differently about sexuality. Technology has interfered everything in people’s lives even sexuality (Goren 2003, p. 488). Nowadays, the reproduction and sexuality concepts are almost independent and consequently many people have changed their idea about sexuality (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.96). As a result, the main focus of this paper is that how people have changed their biological views about sexuality due to some cultural factors and technology (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.97). The phenomenon of gay and lesbian relationships and then parenthood has led many people to reconsider what sexuality and reproduction is (Erwin 2007, p.100). Furthermore, new reproduction technology such as, IVF, contraception and deciding the sex of the baby are the main reasons for changing people’s viewpoints towards sexuality (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). Each of these factors would be separately discussed to examine both sides of sexuality and reproduction debate.
First of all, a background of how people view sexuality in the past is very important to mention to compare between the viewpoints in the past and nowadays. In the past, the western societies such as the Christian culture believe that the main purpose of having sex is to reproduce (Weeks 1986, p.26). This shows that people before were only concerned about the biological side of sexuality and ignoring the other factors related to sexuality. However, nowadays, the link between sexuality and reproduction is no longer very relevant thanks to new technology (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.98). A century ago, to have a baby without having sex was almost impossible (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.98). For example, in the United Kingdom, a new sociological shift of understanding sexuality away from the biological basis has evolved in the 1960s and 1970s (Richardson 2007, p.460). New reproductive techniques such as Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), have been introduced by doctors, scientists and professionals in the 20th and 21st century (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). These new technological techniques have led people to think differently about the whole process of sexuality and reproduction. People have started to believe that sex is not only for procreation because of social changes. The first social change is that more women nowadays enter the workplace so they need to control their fertility by using the new technique, contraception (Abramson and Pinkerton 2002, p.158). The second social change is Gay and Lesbian movement which has led people to rethink about sexuality in general (Abramson and Pinkerton 2002, p.158).
Talking about historical background, religious facts should be mentioned to view how religions view new reproduction technologies. Almost all religions were against the notion of changing the viewpoint of sexuality because of the notion of reproduction is a gift from God which is not negotiable (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.97). I think this is really relevant as some religious countries allow new technology such as IVF but limiting it to only the wife and husband (Schenker 2000, p. 72). However, all these facts were in the last decade while nowadays religions have changed this notion and promoting using reproduction technology to have babies. For example, Islam encourages medical treatment if procreation fails to produce babies (Schenker 2002 b, p. 409). This shows how some followers of a specific religion would be encouraged to seek medical help and use new reproduction technology as to satisfy their religious beliefs.
After listing some historical facts about sexuality and reproduction, I am going to discuss some examples of technological ways to enhance sexuality and also some social changes.

The first reproduction technology that has led people to change their views about sexuality is the introduction of In Vitro Fertilization, IVF technique (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). The idea of IVF was introduced by Dr. Roberts Edwards, the IVF pioneer (Edwards: The IVF pioneer 24 July 2003). The notion of IVF was rejected in the beginning by most scientists and some even described it as condoning murder (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). However, after the birth of Louise Brown, the first IVF baby in 1978 in Oldham, many have changed their notion about IVF (Infertility 'could be wiped out’ 25 July 2003). This shows that the idea is successful and people have started to have faith on it as Louise was the proof of this success. Edwards discovered that having a baby can be done without any sexual activity after putting sperm and eggs together under the microscope and eventually a new human life can be developed (Edwards: The IVF pioneer 24 July 2003). As a result, nowadays most men and women who have fertility problems can become parents because of the new technology IVF (Infertility 'could be wiped out’ 25 July 2003). This new and great discovery shows that having a baby can be separate from sexuality as many believe and as a challenge to nature. “It was amazing, and then I knew that the whole field was opening up before my eyes, Dr Edwards said. (Edwards: The IVF pioneer 24 July 2003).

Another aspect of IVF is that it has been like an industry for some (Rogers 2010, p.1). For example, a fertility clinic in London offers eggs of women to those who cannot have a baby naturally. The first British woman to receive egg donation is called Ceila, 38, businesswoman and her pregnancy is now normal but her request is not telling family and even the children in the future about this process (Rogers 2010, p.1). This simply shows how some people are still not comfortable with the idea of IVF. At the same time, the whole process of offering human eggs for sale shows that IVF has become tourism as described in The Sunday Times (Rogers 2010, p.2). Moreover, the winner of the egg prize would choose the donor according to race, background and education (Rogers 2010, p.1). This illustrates that people nowadays are using the idea of IVF as a way of gaining money (Rogers 2010, p.1).
On the other hand, some such as Feminists oppose the idea of IVF for some reasons (Steinberg 1997, p.34). One of these reasons is that IVF might be harmful for women’s health and social status (Steinberg 1997, p.34). To illustrate, for the social status, this might be true as society might view infertile women negatively (Steinberg 1997, p.34). Concerning health problems feminists argue that IVF might cause more fertility problems to women (Rogers 2010, p.2).

The second phenomenon which encourages people to change their viewpoint about sexuality with the new technology help is Gay and Lesbian parenthood. The increase number of gay and lesbian parents who have children has raised some questions about what family and sexuality really mean (Erwin 2007, p.100). The ideal image of any family is a man and a woman who have sex and then produce children as media portrays (Erwin 2007, p.100). However, as the number of gay and lesbian families has increased in the United States, people have started to rethink about the ideal image of the American Family (Erwin 2007, p.100). According to the 2000 US census Bureau report, 103,252 of lesbian couples raise children and this is almost 34% (Erwin 2007, p.101). This shows that the number of lesbian and gay couples who raise children is increasing. As a result, this affects how people think about the whole process of sexuality and family image in their mind. In addition, this also indicates that not only heterosexual couples can have babies by having sex but homosexual couples can have babies as well thanks to new reproductive technology (Erwin 2007, p.101).

On the other hand, Gay and Lesbian face some difficulties using IVF which is one of the most famous reproduction technologies nowadays (Steinberg 1997, p.34). First, some professionals and doctors just refuse to treat gay and lesbian couples for some reasons (Steinberg 1997, p.34). Moreover, some clinicians expressed in Warnock Report that they prefer doing IVF on heterosexual couples not lesbian or gay couples (Steinberg 1997, p.34). “I would personally have reservations about doing for Lesbians – I feel a child should much preferably have a father as well as a mother in their formative years and this also applies to divorced women”, one of the medical professionals said. This quote shows how some people, especially medical professionals, are still concerned about the use of IVF among Gay/Lesbian couples and how this might affect children in the future. In my opinion, I kind of agree with medical professionals about children’s future as the babies of Gay/lesbian families would grow up having either two fathers or two mothers which is really confusing. Also, I think those children would be viewed by society as weird or just different and this might have a negative impact on children. However, this might take years for people to normalize this phenomenon as people simply are not used to such thing (Steinberg 1997, p.34). For example, people just couldn’t accept the idea of marriage among homosexual couples a century ago but nowadays some countries allow homosexual marriage such as Canada (Erwin 2007, p. 100). Putting restrictions to who should receive IVF treatment and who should not is absolutely up to the medical professionals’ perspectives as what’s the appropriate family (Steinberg 1997, p.37). This is the reason why Gay and Lesbian couples might defend their human rights (Steinberg 1997, p.37). Additionally, this shows how clinicians are powerful as they could be selective to whom they might use IVF for (Steinberg 1997, p.37). Moreover, Legislative policies such as children act (1989) define the proper family is the heterosexual one while the government act (1988) described Lesbian and Gay families as pretended families (Steinberg 1997, p.37). In my opinion, this might be true as Gay/Lesbian families might be unhealthy environment for children. To sum up, although people have changed the way they think of sexuality, family and reproduction, people still struggle to fully accept homosexual families with children. Time would be the only solution for people to accept such new type of families.

The third social factor that has helped people to change their idea about sexuality is some women have sex in menopause period. Menopause period for women, 40 years and above, is the period when women cannot produce any eggs then cannot have babies (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). Most people think that women during menopause are asexual persons (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). This means that women do not have sex because they cannot get pregnant. However, recent studies have shown that women and men can be sexually active until the end of life (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). This illustrates that having sex is not only for reproducing especially for women (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99). According to a study conducted on undergraduate students in various American and British universities, the results have shown that most students think pleasure is the main purpose of having sex (Pinkerton, Cecil, Bogart and Abramson 2003, p. 341).This shows that most people especially new generation believe the desire for having sex is for pleasure and not only for reproduction (Pinkerton, Cecil, Bogart and Abramson 2003, p.341). Again, this is another proof that people are reconsidering their perspectives about sexuality gradually (Benagiano, Carrara and Filippi 2010, p.99).

There are other factors which have affected people and then led to reconsider their thinking about sexuality. One of these factors is the new technology that can decide the sex of the baby (Schenker 2002 b, p. 401). An example of the new technology is infertility treatment called Ericsson’s liquid albumin method (Glass and Ericsson, p.381). Ericsson’s liquid albumin method allows any couple to have male babies (Glass and Ericsson, p.381). This shows that new technology not only helps any couple to get pregnant but select the sex of the baby as well. This also indicates that people are no longer dependent on nature to have a baby because of technology (Schenker 2002 b, p. 401).

All these factors mentioned above will lead me to talk about the case study of Thomas Beatie, the pregnant man. First of all, the most common fact among all societies worldwide is that women are the ones who get pregnant and give birth to babies (Maher 2008, p. 279). However, this fact has been changed in the Western Societies in the 1980s and 1990s due to new fertility technology (Maher 2008, p. 279). Moreover, this fact does not apply to Thomas Beatie , 34, who was born as a girl called Tracy and then transferred to a man in 2002 (ABC News 2008). Thomas met his wife, Nancy, before the transferring operation and then got married (Channel 4 report 2008). What is interesting about Thomas’s case is that he kept the female reproductive organs and that’s why he could get pregnant as his wife cannot have a baby because her womb was removed (Channel 4 report 2008). The whole debate about Thomas is that some people consider him a woman as he still has female organs while others consider him a miracle as he is a man and pregnant (Channel 4 report 2008). In my opinion, Thomas is in between as he has both male and female organs. Many doctors refused to treat Thomas to get pregnant and give birth (Channel 4 report 2008). This shows that doctors cannot believe the idea that a man is pregnant so they refused to treat Thomas. Eventually Thomas gave birth to a baby girl and naturally not by cesarean in 2008 (ABC News 2008). This shows that Thomas is fully female as his reproductive organs are still female. As a result, the whole debate about Thomas is that is Thomas a man or a woman? Also, are people really going to change their views about reproduction and its relation to women and men? Many questions cannot be answered as people are different in their points of view. When Thomas was asked about the reasons why people consider him a phenomenon, he said “people are just not used to see ‘a pregnant man’ and I just used my female organs to become a father” (ABC News 2008). This proves the idea that Thomas’s case is just abnormal and unusual. “We are a woman, a man and a child and it is ironic that we are so different but yet, we are just a family just the same as anyone else”, Thomas said (ABC News 2008). This quote concludes Thomas case as he expresses his situation as normal while others just cannot accept the fact that a man can give birth!

In addition to Thomas Beatie case, Mr. Lee Mingwei is a Taiwanese American artist who got pregnant as well thanks to new medical technology (Associated Press 2001). "With the success of delivering ectopic pregnancies in women, it has become clear that a uterus is not essential to childbirth. We have proven that within the proper biochemical environment, an embryo can indeed implant itself within a male abdominal cavity and thrive’, Dr. Elizabeth Preatner said, a prenatal geneticist and embryologist at RYT Hospital (Associated Press 2001). This shows that men can get pregnant and Mr. Lee is an example of that. Many people are seeking such treatment for men to get pregnant around the world such as India which one Indian woman asked experts in RYT Hospital to treat her husband who really wants to carry their second child (Associated Press 2001). One of the questions raised in this case is whether this is the first stage of gender equality as mentioned in the article or it’s just a revolution that leads all people to rethink about their perspectives about reproduction (Associated Press 2001).

In conclusion, sex and reproduction and technology are related and cannot be separate (Weeks 1986, p.25). “Sexuality is not given, it is a product of negotiation, struggle and human agency”, Weeks said (Weeks 1986, p.26). This quote is really a good conclusion to this topic as sexuality cannot be separate from all other factors but they interrelate and create. Societies worldwide are changing due to new medical discoveries. Technology has a big impact on people’s lives nowadays as it makes people’s lives easier. Obviously new reproduction technology has started to change people’s thoughts about sexuality by making almost everything possible and accessible in that field. . More questions need to be asked such as is the new technology going to change everybody’s opinion or people would stick to some cultural, social and religious perspectives?

Bibliography

ABC News (2008) Barbara Walters Exclusive: Pregnant Man Expecting Second Child [online] available from : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6244878&page=1 [accessed 11 January 2010].
Abramson, P. & Pinkerton, S. (2002), "Sexual Pleasure, Procreation and Natural Selection WITH PLEASURE: THOUGHTS ON THE NATURE OF HUMAN SEXUALITY", Journal of Homosexuality,, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 157-180.
Associated Press (2001) The first man in history to become pregnant speaks up, CNN [online] available from: http://www.malepregnancy.com/CNN/ [accessed 15 March 2010].
Bancroft, J. (2002), "Biological Factors in Human Sexuality", The Journal of Sex Research , vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 15-21.
BBC News (2003) Infertility 'could be wiped out’. [online] Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3094209.stm [accessed 21 February 2010].
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Benagiano, G., Carrara, S. & Filippi, V. (2010), "Sex and reproduction: an evolving relationship ", Human Reproduction Update , vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 96-107Weeks, J (1986) Sexuality , Chichester : Ellis Horwood (chapter 2: ‘The Invention of Sexuality’).
Channel 4 report (2008) The Pregnant Man | Pregnant Man's Diary, Youtube. [online] available from : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYX7ACuTBTY. [accessed 25 February 2010].
Erwin , T.M. (2007), "Two Moms and a Baby", Women & Therapy, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 99-149.
Glass, R.H. & Ericsson, R.J. (1982), "New Advances in Infertility Treatment and Sex Preselection", Studies in Family Planning, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. 381.
Goren, E. (2003), "AMERICA’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH TECHNOLOGY The Transformation of Sexuality and the Self Over the 20th Century", Psychoanalytic Psychology, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 487–508.
Maher, J. (2008), "A pregnant man in the movies: The visual politics of reproduction", Continuum, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 279-288.
Pinkerton, S., Cecil, H., Bogart & L. Abramson P. (2003), "The pleasures of sex: An empirical investigation", Cognition & Emotion, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 341-353.
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Rogers, L. (2010), "IVF doctors to raffle human egg", The Sunday Times, Mar 14, pp.1-2.
Schenker, J.G. (2000), "Women’s reproductive health: monotheistic religious perspectives", International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, vol. 70, no. pp. 77-86.
Schenker, J.G. (2002), "Gender Selection: Cultural and Religious Perspectives", Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, vol. 19, no. 9, pp. 400-410.
Steinberg, D.L. (1997), "A MOST SELECTIVE PRACTICE The Eugenic Logics of IVF", Women's Studies International Forum, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 33-48.

Media and women's body image

2010-03-21T01:28:00.001Z

December 2009

“How media shapes womens’s body image and its effects on women and society in general”,

The topic of media and it’s representation of women’s body image is controversial. There are many assumptions about women’s body image which media portray through various programs and ads. One of those assumptions is that women are more viewed through their physical appearance as beautiful objects than men (Unger, and Crawford, 127). As a result, women’s bodies are the target of sexual desires especially for men (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 27). Also, several researches have shown that women are more likely to care for losing weight and the fear of being “fat” (Kitzinger and Wilkinson 33).The rate of dissatisfaction of body image among women is high especially in the developed countries (Swami, Steadman, and Tove´e, 609). The dissatisfaction is high among specific groups such as high class, non-feminist women comparing to the ones who believe in feminist movement (Swami, Steadman, and Tove´e 609). A Psychology Today survey has shown that 56% of women are dissatisfied with their body image (Swami, Steadman, and Tove´e, 609). Also, women are more likely to be judged according to their physical appearance than men (Unger, and Crawford, 127).

Many researchers have reached the notion that the main cause of such assumptions about women’s body image is due to media representation (Wilkinson, and Kitzinger, 33). It is true that there are other reasons for such assumptions but many argue that media representation is the main cause. This paper concentrates on showing how media represents women’s body and its effects on women and girls. Moreover, I will try to illustrate the other factors that might shape women’s body image in addition to media. Finally, the concentration will be on the study case of Dove campaign that shows the other side of media and its representation and to shape another image of women’s bodies; others argue that this campaign is to make profits more than changing women’s body image.

One of the questions that would be dealt with is how could media shape women’s body image and by which ways? Another question is does media have negative or positive effects on women’s body image? All these questions and issues would be addressed trying to reach a conclusion about the topic of media representation and women’s body image.

First of all, Walter Lippman, a famous journalist in 1992, defines stereotype as individuals are classified by others due to common and shared things (Unger, and Crawford, 107). According to this definition, people might categorize all women as being slim and beautiful because media promotes such image. However, women are different and can not be typical (Unger, and Crawford, 113). This is another assumption and whether to be refuted or proved. This might be clear in the next paragraphs.

Advertisements on TV, radio and newspapers represent women as sexual objects (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 26). Ads use women’s bodies as attractiveness to men. Such ads show women’s bodies as skinny bodies which attracts men. Consequently, women and girls might be affected by such ads and would like to be attractive in men’s eyes (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 26). The images on ads about women’s body represent unrealistic image and do not reflect the real women as mothers, wives and sisters (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 27). Media has started to reflect the unrealistic image of women’s body on children’s programs, story books, movies and magazines (Unger, and Crawford, 113). In my opinion, this shows that media’s target has started with children to promote the stereotypical image of women’s body as children are easily affected.
Moreover, talking about news, women are more likely to be viewed or be mentioned by their physical appearance and their clothes than their abilities (Unger, and Crawford, 115). A study conducted on 221 characters from the most famous TV programs to examine their weight and age; the results were that 69.1% of women working in these programs are thin comparing to only 17.5% of men; also, only 5% of women were recorded as heavy comparing to 25.5% of men (Unger, and Crawford, 116). I think this shows that women are required to be thin to work on TV as it is favorable to hire thin women (Unger, and Crawford, 116). As this study has shown, men do not necessary have to be thin to work on TV but women should as TV producers are interested more in women’s physical appearance than their qualifications (Unger, and Crawford, 116). In addition, fat women are viewed as having unpleasant characteristics and then might be discriminated in the market labor (Kitzinger and Wilkinson 33). I think, this causes problems for women occupying several jobs even if they have the qualifications (Unger, and Crawford, 116). This is also an indication that women suffer from such perceptions and assumptions and always under pressure of such beliefs. Some researches have argued that people who watch many stereotyped programs tend to think more stereotypically about women’s body image (Unger, and Crawford, 117). However, in my opinion, nowadays almost everyone watch TV programs and ads which are full of stereotyped images and some might be affected and others not. Therefore, it is not just about watching stereotyped programs. This illustrates that TV has a big influence on people whether men or women.
Theoretically, the first theory is called “objectification theory” which is mainly about women caring about the external view of body rather than the inside view (Daniels ). Accordingly, this leads women to treat their bodies as objects to satisfy the society (Daniels ). Secondly, the symbolic annihilation is used by Gaye Tuchmna in 1978 to describe how media targets women (Unger, and Crawford, 120). Again, it means to represent women’s body image as beautiful objects rather than useful which is in favor of patriarchal societies (Daniels).

This last and previous point about male dominated culture leads to the effects of other factors on shaping the stereotyped view of women’s bodies. In addition to media, social and cultural factors have a role in shaping those images such as businessmen (Butcher, Coward, Evaristi, Garber, and Harrison, 27). For example, the focus of slimming industries, dominated by men, on women and diet by promoting slimming products for personal benefits shows how women are the target of businessmen to make profits. As a result, women would be under focus and stress to be like what images industries draw (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 33). Again, such industries cooperate with media to promote such products and so the correlation between business world and media is very strong.

Another social and cultural factor that puts pressure on women is health experts. Doctors are more likely to treat and advise fat women than men (Kitzinger and Wilkinson,33). This point might prove the notion that men are less likely to ask for medical advice (Annandale, and Hunt, 25). One reason for that is that men are less caring for their appearance and secondly men rarely seek medical consultation as not to be viewed as “weak” (Annandale, and Hunt, 25). As a result, men might get more diseases than women and live shorter than women (Nettleton, and Watson).
It is always the case that being fat according to women is a negative way but for men sometimes it’s something positive. To illustrate more, some societies consider fatness among men is a sign of wealth (Annandale, and Hunt). Consequently, women are more likely to care for being fat or not as many societies expect women to meet the standards of beauty in their point of view (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 33). During pregnancy period, women are expected to gain weight so this is the only time that fat women would not be viewed negatively by people and society (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 34). In addition, pregnant women view themselves less negatively (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 34). However, during pregnancy doctors advise women not to gain lots of weight because of health risks on the mother and baby’s health (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 34). I think this is good as such diet during pregnancy is beneficial for the health of women. There is nothing wrong with following a healthy diet and keep fit but not just to be slim and unhealthy as some girls do in order to be like the models on TV (Annandale, and Hunt).

This might lead to the point that some fat women face difficulties because of the body image. ‘I do not dress the way I want to any more because of my weight”, one woman expressed in the book of women and health (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 38). This quote shows that some fat women are not satisfied with their body size and do not dress and not dressing like women on TV (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 38). This quote has raised the issue of fashion and fat women. Most fashionable clothes are not available on large sizes (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 39). This might encourage women to lose weight to be fashionable. However, this also indicates that fashion designers concentrate on thin women ignoring fat women and their needs (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 39). Large sizes are not always available locally only in specific shops such as Ann Harvey ("Ann Harvey London"). Ann Harvey branches are limited and available in big cities like London, Cardif, Cambridge and Brighton ("Ann Harvey London"). Sizes available in this shop are ranged from 16 till 32 ("Ann Harvey London"). However, prices are expensive even on sale ("Ann Harvey London"). This is another problem for women as it is not easily accessible and expensive ("Ann Harvey London").

On the other hand, some argue that media is trying to deliver the true women’s body image. One example of this argument is Dove campaign (“Dove campaign for real beauty”). In 2004, a campaign for real beauty was launched by Dove Company to show real beauty of women (“Dove campaign for real beauty”). Dove used billboards, TV ads and magazines to advertise for such campaign (Johnston, and LastTaylor).This campaign was conducted on real women who are from different ages, races and sizes (Johnston, and LastTaylor). In fact, this campaign was successful as it attracted media attention, gender experts, professionals, media celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey (Johnston, and LastTaylor). Also, Dove achieved commercial success by selling many of lotion products (Johnston, and LastTaylor). As a result, Dove campaign which was entitled as “Fat or Fabulous” achieved some of personal benefits (Johnston, and LastTaylor). However, some experts criticize Dove campaign as the main goal of such campaign is just to gain money and make profits (Johnston, and LastTaylor). Such assumption might be true as Dove experts are interested in making profits. However, I think it is not wrong to raise the point of stereotype against women’s body image via such campaign. I think, the notion of “lets make peace with our bodies” Dove has raised is a brilliant idea as it encourages women to love their bodies as they are ; also to refute what media is trying to convince the public about women’s ideal body image (Johnston, and LastTaylor). Actually, this really promotes women and girls to believe in this idea as Dove pronounced that 138,000 girls aged from 8 to 14 created their own projects such as “Uniquely Me” and “Body Talk” (Johnston, and LastTaylor). The dove campaign illustrates that the media image of women’s bodies is unrealistic and fake ("Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty").

In conclusion, 68% of women believe that media and advertising create unrealistic women’s body image which normal women can not achieve ("Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty"). This proves the idea that media has a big role in shaping what women’s bodies should look like. Additionally, 75% of women wish that media portray the real women’s body image and concentrate on other ages not just the young age ("Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty"). In reality, we can not deny the role of socio-cultural factors in shaping this body image. However, media is the main reason for that image and affects various cultures and societies. To conclude, Women’s body image is influenced by media, men, beauty industries and fashion (Kitzinger and Wilkinson).

.

Bibliography
Annandale, Ellen, and Kate Hunt. Gender inequalities in health: research at the crossroads. 2000
"Ann Harvey Women are a Fablous Size 16 to 32." Ann Harvey London. Web. 6 Dec 2009. .
Butcher, Helen, Ros Coward, Marcella Evaristi, Jenny Garber, and Rachel Harrison. Images of Women in the Media. 1999.
"Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty." Media Awareness Network. Web. 6 Dec 2009. .
Johnston, Josée, and Judith LastTaylor. "Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activists: A Comparative Study of Grassroots Activism and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign." Journal of Women in Culture and Society (2008): n. pag. Web. 7 Dec 2009. .
Nettleton, S, and J Watson. The Body in Everyday Life. 1998
Daniels, Elizabeth. "How Media Representations of Women Athletes Can Impact Adolescent Girls and College Women." Journal of Adolescent. (2009)
Swami, Viren, Laura Steadman, and Martin Tove´e. "A comparison of body size ideals, body dissatisfaction, and media influence." Psychology of Sport and Exercise. (2009).
Unger, Rhoda, and Mary Crawford. Women and Gender A Feminist Psychology. 1992.
Wilkinson, Sue, and Celia Kitzinger. Women and Health Feminist Perspectives. 1994.

Israeli war on Gaza in 2008 and media coverage

2010-03-20T23:33:00.001Z

November 2009

Israeli war on Gaza in 2008 and media coverage

The Israeli and Palestinian conflict has been the focus of media, politicians and many people around the world for a long time .The recent event that drags the attention of the whole world is the Israeli war on Gaza in 2008 (Zuhur 2009, p.41). The war has started in December 2008 when everyone worldwide was celebrating the 2009 New Year (Dumont 2009, p.610). This war is considered the most bloody and severe war since 1967 (Zuhur 2009, p.41). Gaza’s population is approximately 1.5 million Palestinians which show how small Gaza is (Zuhur 2009, p.51). This essay focuses on the various media coverage of the 2008 Israeli war on Gaza and how the cultural factors might shape the news.

First of all, Journalists have faced many difficulties covering the war on Gaza (Bauer 2009, p.5). In fact, Israel did not give journalists the permission to cover the war on Gaza except for specific news agencies such as Al-Jazeera and some others (Bauer 2009, p.5). Israel did that to hide the human crisis that Palestinians suffered from (Bauer 2009, p.5). I agree with this as Israel would be controlled by media if it lets media cover the war freely as media has a great influence on audience. This has a consequence on Americans who have limited access to world news channels (Bauer 2009, p.5). As a result, Americans would not be able to be aware of the situation in Gaza (Bauer 2009, p.5). The unbiased media coverage of war on Gaza was not possible as journalists were not allowed to cover all news in Gaza (Zuhur 2009, p.41). Consequently, these limited media sources might hide the whole truth and be biased to one side of the conflict according to the ideologies and cultural determinism (Dunsky 2009, p.10). To understand more about the media coverage of Gaza war in 2008, a close analysis of Western and Arab media coverage and the points of view of each would be discussed to examine the reliability of both media coverage.

The Western media coverage is a very important element that should be discussed to discover its reliability and bias. Marda Dunsky, (2009, p.10) expresses in her article ,The Rest of the story, how Hamas is the only side that should be blamed for the war in Gaza .The White house spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, in the second day of the war has officially blamed Hamas for leading Israel to attack Gaza (Dunsky 2009, p.10). “The rocket attacks are completely unacceptable and Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas “, Johndroe added (Dunsky 2009, p.10). In my opinion, this obviously shows that the Western media point of view is in favor of Israel and its decision of going to war against Hamas. Various Western newspapers such as, The Los Angles Times, New York Times and Washington Post, wrote about the right of Israel to attack Gaza and defend its people and stop Hamas’s rockets (Dunsky 2009, p.10). CNN coverage of the war on Gaza has somehow indicated that its biased and controlled by its cultural aspects as in the second week of the war , the CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman, reported that’s Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 (Dunsky 2009, p.10). This might illustrate that the American media coverage is trying to justify what Israel is doing in Gaza. To illustrate, the report has pointed out that Hamas has no any excuse to attack Israel as the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza was done in 2005 (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). In addition, western media has criticized Hamas of refusing building shelters to protect its civilians (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). As a result, Israel has to defend its people and kill Palestinians so it is a self-defense war (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). I think this clearly shows the ideology of western media to prompt the image that Israel was in a self-defense position. This also indicates that it is Hamas which forced Israel to launch the war on Gaza and kill Palestinians (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). In reality, the makeshift projects and rockets that Hamas used against Israeli towns are rarely caused threaten to people’s lives (Dunsky 2009, p.11). However, the western media is always trying to show that Israeli people are always under threat and risk and can not live peacefully (Dunsky 2009, p.11). As a result, this has led people to believe just one side of the story without referring to the other side and this is enforced by media (Dunsky 2009, p.11).

The previous point might prove the argument that is discussed in the article “Why does it happen” about the notion of lack of Palestinian public relation (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). The Palestinian public relation is not that active and uneasily accessible and this hide the whole truth (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). On the other hand, the Israeli public relation is active and can be easily reached by journalists (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). As a result, the flow of information might come from one side, Israel, while the Palestinian side is difficult to reach (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). Indeed, this is a huge problem for the Palestinian position as their opinion is hardly expressed especially in the western media. For example, the UN spokesman once expressed to the CNN correspondent about the Israeli sanction on Gaza which lasted for a year and half which Gaza people suffer from (Dunsky 2009, p.10). As a result, people do not know about this sanction as there is no good Palestinian public relation with media to express this (Philo and Berry 2004, p.246). In fact, even if the western media, CNN, has an access to such information, it has been ignored so as not to blame Israel (Dunsky 2009, p.11). In addition, talking about the tunnels that the Palestinian officials said that it is used by Palestinians to survive while Israeli army argue that these tunnels are used to transfer weapons (Dunsky 2009, p.10). In this point, which side should people believe?

The second topic about the Western media coverage is the using of words that show how much the western media is in favor of Israel. One of these words that are commonly used to describe Hamas is “terrorist organization” (Dunsky 2009, p.10). For example, ABC news used it to show that Israel attacked Gaza to defend Israeli people from this ‘terrorist’ group (Dunsky 2009, p.10). Wording can be effective and especially when leaving a negative effect on audience about Palestinians. This leads to another point about the image that the Western people create in their minds about the Arabs (Dunsky 2009, p.10). Because of media, the world nowadays is viewing the Arabs and Muslims as terrorists especially after 9/11 in the US (Zuhur 2009, p.40). Additionally, some journalists might write that Hamas is hiding behind its own Palestinians when killing civilian Israelis (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This statement shows that Hamas is using its people especially children to fight Israel and they are heartless (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). Accordingly, Israel has to fight back and kill some innocent Palestinians as Hamas forced them to do that. As a result, the media coverage on Gaza war of western media has been biased (Zuhur 2009, p.40).

The Western media has always criticized the relationship between Hamas and media. The Financial post (Canada), for example, criticizes the way Hamas used the Arab media by providing ready cameras to broadcast the images of dead Palestinian children to affect the audiences emotionally (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). Actually, I think this might show that Hamas useed the media effectively to affect the public opinion.

On the other hand, some Israelis criticize the media in general as being biased against Israel this time. Israelis argue that the bias in media is rooted from the Anti-Semitism theory which based that the world is against the Jews (Philo and Berry 2004, p.249). For example, many Arab and Muslim groups kill each other in Iraq when a woman blew herself in a mosque and killed 40 people, no media coverage of that (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This supports the theory of anti-Semitism as media pays more attention to what Israel is doing than others. Moreover, killing just 100 by Israel in a war of self-defense is much less than the numbers killed by Arabs and Muslims for no reason (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This statement shows extreme bias against Palestinians and Muslims explaining that the killing of Arabs of Israelis is not reasonable while killing the Palestinians by Israelis is acceptable. The world seems not to care when Arabs and Muslims kill each other but cares when Israelis kill some Palestinians as self defense (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). To illustrate,, the writer has provided the readers with an example of Hamas killing two Palestinians girls by mistake when targeting Israeli civilians with no media attention (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). Furthermore, some argue that the protesters in London, San Francesco and Paris were not covered by media when Israeli children were killed by Palestinian terrorists (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This is another example which shows how Israelis feel they are treated unfairly by media. Also, some Israelis blame media for the exaggeration of the number of people killed by Israel in Palestine ignoring the fact that Hamas use women and children as fighters and then Israel has to fight such fighters (Dershwitz 2009, p.2). This indicates again that Israelis feel they are not in position to be blamed for killing innocent people but in a self defense position. To sum up this point, this is a quote from the writer of the article in Financial Post, ‘ every human shield that is killed by Israeli self-defense measures is the responsibility of Hamas, but you would not know that from watching media coverage’ (Dershwitz 2009, p.2).

The Arab media coverage should be addressed to compare with the western media coverage. Al-Jazeera channel was the significant Arab media coverage with 53% of Arab audience and nearly 40 million viewers around the world (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Al-Jazeera has many correspondences in Jerusalem, Gaza and other Arab capitals to cover the various points of view (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Al-Jazeera has been successful in covering the Arab points of view by interviewing Arab experts and Israeli experts to express the others point of view as well (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Only Al-Jazeera’s viewers were able to see the live images of dead children and how Gaza is being destroyed by Israeli forces (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Al-Jazeera was the channel that Arabs know part of the truth as some other Arab channels hid the truth as they follow the governments will (Dunsky 2009, p.11). Al-Jazeera kept itself away from calling Israel the enemy or occupation and interviewed Israeli figures such as Livini Benjamin and Shimon Peres as representatives of Israeli army (Dunsky 2009, p.10). I think this is good as to show the point of view of both sides and not just take one stand of the conflict. Some Arab journalists claim that the goal of Israel is to stop Hamas rockets but many think its nonsense and the real goal is to destroy Hamas (Zuhur 2009, p.41). ‘Opening fire on five people daring to venture out to the market in Gaza city does not make the market a Hamas missile launcher’, Zuhur said. This quote shows that Israel is fighting just to end Hamas as it’s a threat for their Jewish state (Zuhur 2009, p.41). Also, the aim of war is to destroy Hamas as it is a threat to the whole region not just Israel (A bloody new year in Gaza, 2009).

In conclusion,’ news is sometimes described as a constructed reality that is a product of the interests of those who report it and those who consume it’, Dunsky said. This is a good quote to conclude this whole issue as it shows that news is shaped by the interests of people who control the media. An important question that should be asked is did Israel end Hamas in this war? ( Zuhur 2009, p.51). Were the strategies of Western and Arab media successful in this war? (A war of words and images 2009). Also, can Hamas target the West and that’s why Israel had to fight it? (Levitt 2007, p.926). All these questions are hard to answer as for the various media ideologies. The media is supposed to be neutral and unbiased in spite of the organization or country it belongs to (Philo and Berry 2004, p.248). However, many newspapers take a stand and support one part of the conflict which contradicts what journalists should do.

Bibliography
Bauer, B.S. (2009), Gaza live. Available from: The American University in Cairo, Web site: http://0-web.ebscohost.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=106&sid=8df92073-1462-4919-8454-ee214175d6f1%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=35973361 [Accessed: November 4, 2009].
Dershowitz, D.A. (2009), The CNN strategy. Available from: The American University in Cairo, Web site: http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T7856366937&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T7856366940&cisb=22_T7856366939&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=10882&docNo=2 [Accessed: November 5, 2009].
Dumont, D.F. (2009), On the ground in the Gaza Strip. Canadian Medical Association. Available from: Canadian Medical Association, Web site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2653582/ [Accessed: November 11, 2009].
Dunsky, D.M. (2009), The rest of the story. Available from: The American University in Cairo, Web site: http://0-web.ebscohost.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=11&sid=8df92073-1462-4919-8454-ee214175d6f1%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=37708627 [Accessed: November 1, 2009].
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Democratisation and the use of internet in the Middle East

2010-02-26T17:12:00.002Z

January 2010

“Free Esraa” is a Facebook group to free the Egyptian lady, Esraa Abdelfatah, who was arrested by the police ( Libérez Esraa et ses Camarades. Free Esraa 2008). Esraa Abdel Fatah’s only fault was to create Facebook group asking people to participate in a demonstration ( Libérez Esraa et ses Camarades. Free Esraa 2008). Miss Abdel Fatah, 27 years old, is one of many Egyptians who were arrested because of using Facebook groups to support demonstrations in Egypt (Stack 2008 a, p.7). This illustrates how internet is used to achieve democratization in the Middle East despite of governments’ opposition. Internet has nowadays become an essential need in daily life for many people. Moreover, the link between internet and democratization is believed by many researchers worldwide to be strong and relevant. To respond to the question of whether internet can deliver the democratization message or not, a search into the background of alternative media could help. In general, alternative media can be print, Indymeida, video, Youtube and finally internet (Cottle 2003, p.53). The focus of this paper would be on internet as it is one of the most active forms of alternative media. It is fast, free and not hierarchal as the traditional media (Cottle 2003, p.53). However, censorship in many countries, such as Egypt and Iran, on content of the internet information can limit the freedom of expression (Cottle 2003, p.53). Freedom of expression of alternative media depends on the political system of each country (Cottle 2003, p.42). Alternative media in general and internet specifically is organized by unprofessional people to change wrong or unpleasant situations (Cottle 2003, p.42). Alternative media is always supported financially by donations, voluntary works and businessmen (Cottle 2003, p.53). This means alternative media is not supported by official organizations or governments which people mistrust (Cottle 2003, p.53). Blogs, Indymedia and Facebook are examples of alternative media mainly on the internet (Cottle 2003, p.53).

The issue of democratization and internet is crucial in general and especially in the Middle East where democracy is something new for its people (Middle East net censorship increasing in scope and depth 2009, p.1). Some think internet is the perfect tool for achieving democracy while others disagree with this notion. After doing research, internet can convey democratization message but with limitations especially in the Middle East.

Some facts of internet use in the Middle East would help creating an overview of the possibility of achieving democratization in such environment. Iran has almost seven and a half million internet users (Worldwide Internet Usage, 2007); this is considered the highest number of internet usage with high rate of censorship in the Middle East (Worldwide Internet Usage, 2007). This explains how internet is effective enough in Iran to censor its use. According to a study conducted by the open Net Initiative which is a partnership among groups at four leading universities, Toronto, Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford, the censorship on internet in the Middle East has increased rapidly with more censorship of course (Middle East net censorship increasing in scope and depth, 2009, p.1). Facebook , the most famous social networking site, is blocked in Syria for example (Middle East net censorship increasing in scope and depth, 2009, p.1). Also, the United Arab Emirates blocks any sites dealing with Nazism or the Holocust (Middle East net censorship increasing in scope and depth, 2009, p.1). Previous examples illustrate how the internet is heavily censored in the Middle East.

Democracy is hard to achieve in Iran and Egypt because of censorship. The case of Iran and Egypt would be addressed to examine how Iranian and Egyptian populations have faced difficulties to achieve democratization.

The internet in Iran was introduced in the 1990s to publish some stories which are banned in traditional media (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.49). This proves internet is something new to the Iranian community. Almost 75% of Iranians who participated in a study conducted on the population of the ministry of Jahad Keshavarzi own computers at home and 66% have access to internet (Chizari, 2009, p.1293). This shows internet has become a phenomenon and popular in Iran. Political repression has led the Iranians to find alternatives to express their opinion. Consequently, the internet in Iran has become this alternative for oppositional groups to the Iranian regime to express their opinions (Rahimi and Gheytanchi, 2008, p.46). Some oppositional groups have used internet to organize protests and other events (Rahimi and Gheytanchi, 2008, p.46). In my opinion, People in Iran have used internet because it is somehow free and easily accessed. However, the Iranian government has considered the internet a threat for its policy and power (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.46). Accordingly, the government has censored some sites of internet to control its content (Vesely 2004, p.25). Although the Iranian government has censored many websites, people surf the internet for more uncensored news which traditional media hide such as sex and other sensitive issues (Vesely 2004, p.25). This means censorship can only control people and impede democratization.

Iranian Activists have used weblogs and social networking to demand their rights (Vesely 2004, p.25). The two main activist organizations which use internet actively are women’s rights activists and the reformist Ulama (Clerics) (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.47). Previous examples demonstrate how Iranian people are trying to use internet to reach democracy. However, the Iranian government opposes such movement. For example, in 2004, the Iranian regime arrested the Iranian journalist, Sina Morallebi, for creating her own weblog www.rooznegar.com (Vesely 2004, p.25). This weblog is not accessible anymore because the government had blocked it (Vesely 2004, p.25). In my opinion, this weblog is obviously not accessible because the government blocked it for its opposition to the Iranian government (Vesely 2004, p.25). Morallebi’s weblog was only created to express the writer’s opinion about everything not to oppose the government (Vesely 2004, p.25). I think the example of Morallebi’s arrest is an example of a violation of human rights in Iran. As a result, democratization is hard to achieve where human rights are violated. To conclude, such weblogs are considered a threat for the Iranian authorities and then should be blocked which is something undemocratic.

The Iranian government has filtered some websites mainly western websites such as pornography ones (Vesely 2004, p.25). This is wrong, in my opinion, as authorities think this is a protection of their population. However, government is controlling not protecting people; I think instead of blocking such websites, people should be educated enough to recognize between wrong and right (Vesely 2004, p.25). People should decide what is good and bad not deciding on their behalf (Vesely 2004, p.25). Deciding on behalf of people would lead to a permanent dependence on the government in almost everything and this is mainly what happens in the majority of developing countries (Vesely 2004, p.25). Personally, any country needs to reach democracy, people should have the right to choose and decide as some developed countries do nowadays.

The most active group in Iran who uses internet to demand their rights is Iranian women rights group as mentioned before (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.54). Internet is used by groups which cannot convey their opinion via traditional media (Cottle 2003, p.50). Iranian women’s movement use internet so as their voice would be heard by international organizations (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.54). Iranian women used traditional media to reach their rights but it did not work that much (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.49). Also, internet is a good space for Iranian women to write about taboos and away from the government’s authority (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.49). This shows that Iranian women are trying to reach their rights by internet. Iranian women’s movement organized a demonstration by internet objecting inequality and 2005 election’s results (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.54). Women’s movement asked for a demonstration using their website, feminist tribune, and published some photos about the event to attract people to participate (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.54). As a result, the feminist tribune website was blocked by the Iranian government (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.54). The police did not only block the website but took protestor’s mobiles as well in order not to publish images of using violence against protesters by the police (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.55). This proves three main points; the first point is internet is heavily censored in Iran. Second, Iran is not a democratic country which can let its people express their opinion freely. Finally, internet in Iran is considered a high threat for the conservative government in Iran (Rahimi and Gheytanchi 2008, p.54). Consequently, internet should be fought and censored. To conclude, Iranian women think internet is liberating as they can talk about taboos (Vesely 2004, p.25). However, women are using fake names to talk freely as they might be recognized with their real names and then be criticized by the society (Vesely 2004, p.25). This also illustrates that Iranian women are controlled by society and government (Vesely 2004, p.25).
Talking about Iran and the use of internet to achieve democratization can lead us to the second case study which is Egypt. Some facts about Egypt and democracy would help demonstrating the situation in Egypt. First, freedom of expression is limited in Egypt because of the emergency law since 1980s (Shapiro 2009, p.6). Almost 18,000 thousands of Egyptians have been arrested because of this law (Shapiro 2009, p.6). More than five people in Egypt are not allowed to gather to discuss political issues and criticize President Mubarak’s regime (Shapiro 2009, p.6). However, people need a license to create a political party to discuss political issues. This illustrates that the Egyptians cannot express their point of view freely. In addition, newspapers are controlled by the Egyptian ministry of information (Shapiro 2009, p.6). This shows people cannot express their point of view using the newspaper or traditional media.

All these factors have led young people to find other alternatives to express their opinions. Social networking, Facebook, has become an active tool for young Egyptians to express their political point of view (Stack 2008 b, p.3). The main topics discussed in Facebook are freedom of expression, freedom for jailed activists and economic problems (Shapiro 2009, p.6). Facebook is also used to organize protests against the Egyptian government to demand some rights (Stack 2008 b, p.3). This is obviously a sign of democracy in a democratic country. However, in fact, people get arrested by the Egyptian police because of their Facebook activities (Stack 2008 b, p.3). For example, Ahmed Maher, one of Facebook activists, got arrested by the Egyptian authorities in 2008 for creating a Facebook group asking people to join a demonstration in Cairo (Stack 2008 b, p.3). The Egyptian authorities arrested him because they think the protest would encourage civil disobedience (Stack 2008 b, p.3). Accordingly, this might affect Egypt’s security (Stack 2008 b, p.3).
Actually, it’s not just a matter of arresting people which is something not democratic but also about torturing people during their arrest (Stack 2008 b, p.3). Maher was shackled and stripped by the Egyptian police (Stack 2008 a, p.7). Moreover, before his arrest, Maher received some threatening messages from the state security officers on Facebook such as “last time was easy, next time it will be harder, we only threatened to rape you, but next time we actually will” (Stack 2008 b, p.3). This quote shows how Egyptian activists on Facebook are under risk and might be punished if thinking of participating in a political activity. Moreover, activists feel they should keep their mouths shut in order not to be hurt and tortured (Stack 2008 b, p.5). In my opinion, it’s hard for Egypt as Iran to reach democracy in such environment where people are not free to express their opinion. Also, the 6th of April is a Facebook group which organized a protest to free the jailed journalists who were arrested by the police (Shapiro 2009, p.6). Members of this group are trying their best to achieve democracy (Shapiro 2009, p.6). However, Almost 8 members of total of 70,000 members of 6th of April group were arrested (Shapiro 2009, p.6). This again demonstrates how internet activists in Egypt suffer to achieve democratization.

Another example of using internet to serve democracy in Egypt is Almahla strike (Huang 2008, p.5). Almahla strike was organized by the workers in al Mahala against the rise of prices (Huang 2008, p.5). Many people asked people to support and participate in this strike using the internet such as Facebook (Huang 2008, p.5). In my opinion, this is the right of people to demonstrate peacefully asking for a change. However, the Egyptian government thinks internet has become a dangerous source of disobedience by encouraging people to participate in demonstrations (Huang 2008, p.5). Accordingly, the Egyptian government should control the internet for the stability of the state (Huang 2008, p.5). I think this is the problem of most regimes in the Middle East in general and Arab countries specifically. Furthermore, such governments repress its population so people would always need government to save them and be the hero of the country (Altheide 2002, p. 42). This also applies to how governments deal with crises and how media promotes the idea of the” heroes” (Huang 2008, p.5). This can explain why some Arab and Middle East countries cannot achieve democracy (Huang 2008, p.5).

Those factors have led young people not to participate in the political life (Kahn and Kellner 2005) .Young people believe they cannot change any wrong situation. As a result, they do not participate in political life (Altheid 2002 and Atton 2003) .A study conducted by Alahram center has shown that almost 67% of young Egyptians are not registered to vote (Shapiro 2009, p.6). Moreover, 84% have never participated in any kind of political activity (Shapiro 2009, p.6). This study shows how the Egyptians are encouraged not to be engaged in political life to be away from troubles. Because some political activists are affected negatively by the state, Egyptians prefer not to participate in politics.

Concerning the use of internet for political purposes, a question here should be asked; why don’t young Egyptians create a Facebook group instead or joining a political party which has a license? (Shapiro 2009, p.6). Samer Shehata, an assistant professor in Georgetown University, has answered the question above by stating that the political parties are not effective so people do not trust anymore (Shapiro 2009, p.6). “The state of opposition in Egypt is so pathetic that existing parties have lost all credibility”, Shehata said. This quote has proved that it is useless to young Egyptians to join any political party for two reasons. First, people believe most political parties follow the state’s policy. Secondly, such parties are not going to change anything because they are powerless (Shapiro 2009, p.6). “They have been around for a long time and produced nothing”, Shehata added (Shapiro 2009, p.6). However, 6 April Facebook group, for example, is unofficial but credible and people trust more than any political party (Shapiro 2009, p.6). In addition, this group might change something or encourage other people to demand their right of expressing their opinion (Shapiro 2009, p.6). This also shows how internet nowadays has become a successful tool for young Egyptians to express their opinion freely.

On the other hand, if Facebook activists have failed to raise their voice and achieve their aims, blogs have reached some levels of democratization (Shapiro 2009, p.6). Blogs in Egypt have become a good source for oppositional parties to depend on (Shapiro 2009, p.6). For example, Nora Younis, a pre worker in New York Time, posted in her blog stories and videos about the group sexual harassment against women in demonstrations in Egypt which government tried to ignore (Shapiro 2009, p.6). As a result, this attracted the attention of media locally and internationally about human rights in Egypt (Shapiro 2009, p.6). This indicates that blogs specifically have turned to be a source of information for other media such as TV (Shapiro 2009, p.6). This is also a sign of democratization in Egypt despite of all limitations (Shapiro 2009, p.6). In addition, Wael Abbas, one of the most famous bloggers in Egypt has created his website called Egyptian awareness to raise Egyptian’s awareness about their rights (Shapiro 2009, p.6). Abbas use internet because many young Egyptians nowadays have access to the internet as of its low price and availability (Shapiro 2009, p.6). Abbas believes young Egyptians might do something for Egypt by raising awareness (Shapiro 2009, p.6). It is worth mentioning that the Egyptian government has allowed the Egyptians to surf the internet due to the pressure of Bush’s administration for democracy (Shapiro 2009, p.6). this is an indication that internet is available in Egypt for political purposes. To sum up, Egypt, as many countries, is just not ready for democracy and should take it step by step. “If God created the world in six days, we cannot expect to change Egypt in just one”, one member of Facebook group said (Egypt releases jailed Facebook activist 2008). This quote is a good summary to Egypt’s case and democratization as time needed to achieve full democracy in Egypt.

In conclusion, Iran and Egypt are just examples of the Middle East countries facing difficulties achieving democracy. Both Egypt and Iran face problems regarding the use of internet. Iran and Egypt are just two examples of the Middle East countries which experience difficulties with democratization and internet. People use internet to express their political opinion because other media such as TV and radio might not allow oppositional points of view. Time is the only solution for such nations to achieve democracy. In my opinion, using internet as a tool to achieve democratization is the first step. Moreover, there is no obvious answer to the question I asked in the introduction of whether internet can deliver democratization message or not .However, as I mentioned previously, it is just a start for some nations like Iran and Egypt to then reach full democracy of public sphere. The topic of internet and democratization can be addressed in the future in another way by dealing with other case studies from developed countries, for example, where internet could successfully deliver democratization message. This can be a good comparison to study the experience developed countries of democratization and internet. Finally, to achieve democracy, it needs to be adopted not adapted as it is to be accepted in any society.

Bibliography References
Altheide, D. (2002), Creating Fear: News and the construction of crisis,
Atton, Chris, (2003) ’Organisation and production in alternative media’, in Simon Cottle (ed) Media Organization and Production, London: Sage pp 41-57.

Chizari, C.M. (2009), Investigation of the Extend of Information Technology Usage and Assessment of Its Capabilities in Agricultural System of Iran. Available from: http://0-web.ebscohost.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=4&sid=01ff3b10-904d-43a7-89c0-622ed86ce8a5%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=39876835 [Accessed: December 18, 2009].
Cottle, S. (2003), Media organization and production.
Egypt releases jailed Facebook activist (2008), Available from: The American University in Cairo, Web site: http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8358263643&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8358263646&cisb=22_T8358263645&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=244777&docNo=9 [Accessed: December 14, 2009].
Huang, L. (2008), A Tool Of Revolution the failure of a facebook protest in egypt common to new technologies that seem ready to change the world, but not yet . Available from: The American University in Cairo, Web site: http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8248050057&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8248050060&cisb=22_T8248050059&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=5774&docNo=5 [Accessed: December 14, 2009].
Libérez Esraa et ses Camarades. Free Esraa (2008), Available from: http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=freedom+for+esraa+abdel+fatah&init=quick#/group.php?gid=16800526857&ref=search&sid=725420507.3393299282.1 [Accessed: January 4, 2010].
Middle East net censorship "increasing in scope and depth" (2009), BBC Worldwide Monitoring . Available from:, The American University in Cairo Web site: http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8223038330&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8223038333&cisb=22_T8223038332&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=10962&docNo=1 [Accessed: December 25, 2009].
Rahimi, B. & Gheytanchi, E.(2008), IRAN'S REFORMISTS AND ACTIVISTS: INTERNET EXPLOITER.
Shapiro, S.M. (2009), Can social networking turn disaffected young Egyptians into a force for democratic change?. Available from: The American University in Cairo, Web site: http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8239540424&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8239540430&cisb=22_T8239540429&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=6742&docNo=6 [Accessed: December 15, 2009].
Stack, L. (2008 a), Egypt detains Facebook activists again . Available from: The American University in Cairo, Web site: http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8243636446&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8243636450&cisb=22_T8243636449&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=7945&docNo=3 [Accessed: December 21, 2009].
Stack, L. (2008 b), Politics on Facebook brings trouble for young Egyptian . Available from: The American University in Cairo, Web site: http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.lib.aucegypt.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8295570636&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8295570639&cisb=22_T8295570638&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=7945&docNo=7 [Accessed: December 16, 2009].
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Children and Fast Food

2010-02-16T21:57:00.002Z

Children and fast food

One day, when I and my little cousin went shopping, we felt hungry so we decided to seek a restaurant for lunch. We found McDonald’s and another restaurant. I asked my little cousin about the one he prefers more so he chose and with no thinking McDonald’s. Once we went in, my cousin and I were impressed by the colorful, cheerful and flashy atmosphere. While I was ordering a happy meal for my little cousin and for myself a Big Mac meal, my cousin went directly to the playing corner to play. At this point, I asked myself and I am still thinking of an answer to the question: what makes McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants very favorable for children? Many questions need to be answered in this case. Marketing to children has become a common phenomenon nowadays. It is called the “growth industry” (Linn). Fast Food Nation is a book that was written by Eric Schlosser who discusses the issue of fast food and its effects. He points out the marketing of the fast food companies to children and how children are influenced by that easily. Advertising is the most effective way to attract children to buy various products. As a result, companies are making a good use of this point so they are doing their best to attract children to buy their products. Those companies just care about gaining money without concerning about children’s health. The fast food companies attract children by offering toys, games on TV, internet and clubs. According to Schlosser, marketing to children is unfair and unethical because children just cannot differentiate between wrong and right. Schlosser also discusses the matter of marketing to schools and how that may affect children. Advertisings in public American schools are common nowadays. The writer mentions how those companies write in the contract about selling amount of their products to children and if not, schools should pay money back. Several observations and surveys about marketing to children and schools suggest that there is an improvement in regulating marketing to children because some of the fast food companies are trying to improve their products by offering healthy products to children. However, the bad effects of marketing to children are getting worse since many fast food corporations still offer unhealthy food to children, especially in schools meals. As a result, the situation of marketing to children in schools as Schlosser discussed in his book is having a combination of improvement and getting worse. However, the bad effects of marketing to children are getting less while the improvements are getting better.

Marketing to children is having an improvement in some points due to many factors. The first factor is the attempts of governmental regulations. Schlosser mentions in his book that advertising to children has become so common and without any obvious restrictions. Consequently, the first sign of improvement is an example of governmental regulation of the American Academy of Pediatrics which took the first action to ask the Congress to take a strict action against the widespread of advertising on TV shows directed to children. This action was taken by the American Academy of Pediatrics due to the widespread of obesity among children in the US since 2004. As a result, the congress and the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, limited advertising to children on TV to five or six minutes in an hour (Marilyn). This action was taken by the congress and the FTC and is considered an improvement because it limits the effects of marketing to children in the US.

The second sign of improvement of marketing to children is the attempts of the public in the US for a change in food habits of children in the world. For example, The ABCs and Vegetables and Beyond is a book that was published by Steve Charney and David Goldbeck in 2007; this book deals with ways of how to change wrong eating habits that children are engaged with nowadays which are the basic reasons for children obesity (Brody). This book is divided to two parts; the first one is about how to make children be familiar with healthy food by adding some poems and the second part is about teaching parents to include healthy ingredients in children’s food. This book includes tips how to adapt children to the new food habits. For example, it suggests that parents should not ban the candy, ice cream and chocolate but to allow children to have them in a limited time (Brody). This book is like a training session for parents to improve their children’s health. It is also considered a part of raising the awareness of parents. As a comparison to the public movements of change in marketing to children in the US; there are also movements and actions that are taken in the world for example in Great Britain. The most remarkable campaign in Great Britain against marketing to children was established by the chef Jamie Oliver who started to change children’s wrong eating habits. Then, the movement expanded in Great Britain to establish the Soil Association Food awards 2006 to award the primary schools which offer healthy food in dinner meals (“School Dinner Awards to Celebrate Healthy Primary Schools”).

After mentioning the attempts of governmental regulations of marketing to children and the public, attempts of fast food corporations are also trying themselves to enhance the quality of food for children. One example that shows companies attempts to improve their quality food is a report that indicates some fast food companies in 2007, such as McDonald’s, promise to restrict the advertising to children and offering healthy food (Devi). Also, it was reported that these promises were achieved because the advertisings were reduced by 92% in 2007compared to previous months (Hein). These actions shows that people have become more aware of the problem of marketing to children and its effects on children than before. As a result, the fast food companies are taking actions against marketing to children to satisfy their customers. These actions and movements are considered improvements in the process of limiting marketing to children because some of the goals are achieved.

On the other hand, although all these improvements are achieved in some aspects, marketing to children and its negative effects on children are still very common. The first point that shows the bad situation of marketing to children is that some fast food companies are still attempting to marketing to children without being concerned about what problems children may experience .As Schlosser mentions in Fast Food Nation, advertising of fast food companies in public schools is a part of the contract between the school and the company. According to Alex Molnar, an educational policy researcher at Arizona State University, this phenomenon is increasing that it was found in 2005 that 83% of public schools in the US are engaged with advertisements (Marilyn). This shows that schools are continuing cooperating with companies and advertise for them in public schools just for gaining profits without being concerned about children’s education. The situation is even getting worse as schools keep dealing with unsuitable advertisings for children. Obviously, schools are designed for education, not business.

Another factor shows that the situation is getting worse than Schlosser mentions in Fast Food Nation is that the rate of obese children in the US is increasing. American children are considered the most obese children in the world due to the wrong food habits they practice in schools (Brody). Most of the American schools offer unhealthy food that can affect children health so it contributes to an increase in the rate of obesity among children. Also, it was found that American children are considered to be the first generation that may die before their parents according to the obesity (Devi). As a result, if there is a high rate in obesity in the American community, there is a high expectancy of having diabetes among children and later among adults (Devi). Marketing to children seems to be a risky task that has a long term influence on children who will face health problems.

In conclusion, people should be more aware about marketing to children and its problems and consequences on children. Suffering of children every year has increased with time. As a result, it is our responsibility to save and protect our children’s health. In the future, children will suffer a lot if companies keep advertising to children. I think selling healthy food is not a difficult task. According to a university of Minnesota study, replacing healthy food with the unhealthy and ‘junk food’ doesn’t cost too much money. Those schools just care about getting their supplies in a cheaper price and that’s it. There is also a common idea that healthy food is not favorable among children in schools; this is not true and was proven wrong by the study in the University of Minnesota. It is just because it is not offered to them and they were not familiar with that kind of food. So why cannot we save our children’s health and let them live a healthy life?

Works Cited
Brody, Jane E. "When School is Out, Getting Good Food in." New York Times 156.53973 (2007): F7-. .
Devi, Sharmila. "Progress on Childhood Obesity Patchy in the USA." Lancet 371.9607 (2008): 105-6. .
"Healthy Foods do Sell: Study." American School Board Journal 195.1 (2008): 8-. .
Hein, Kenneth. "Report: Consumers Split on Ad Limits." Brandweek 48.30 (2007): 4-. .
Linn, Susan E. "Food Marketing to Children in the Context of a Marketing Maelstrom." Journal of public health policy 25.3/4 (2004): 367-78. .
Marilyn Elias. "Pediatricians Call for Less Advertising to Children." USA Today .
"School Dinner Awards to Celebrate Healthy Primary Schools." Education (14637073).223 (2006): 3-. .
Shlosser, Eric. Fast Food nation. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.

هل نحتاج لقاسم امين جديد؟

2010-01-23T18:31:00.000Z

تلخيص كتاب تحرير المرأة
لقاسم امين
خريف 2006

يعد كتاب تحرير المرأة لكاتبه قاسم امين من اشهر واكثر الكتب اثارة للجدل في وقت اصداره في القرن التاسع عشر والى حد وقتنا هذا. صدر ونشر كتاب تحرير المرأة عام 1899 حيث تناول قضية تحرير المراة من الظلم الواقع عليها في وقت كانت المرأة في حال التخلف والرجعية فكان هذا الكتاب بمثابة الثورة التي اثارت العقول وجعلتها تفكر بمكانة المرأة المتردية وكيفية ايجاد الحلول لهذا الوضع في ذلك الوقت .
قسم كتاب تحرير المراة الى عدة محاور وكل محور يناقش قضية تخص تحرير المرأة ووضعها التي كانت عليه انذاك. المحاور التي تناوله الكتاب هي تربية المراة وحجابها و الامة والعائلة والزواج وتعدد الزوجات والطلاق .
تناول القسم الاول من الكتاب تحليل لواقع المراة التي كانت تعيش عليه انذاك حيث بين كيف انها كانت تتجرع المر ابتداءا بابيها ثم اخيها الاكبر ثم زوجها وابنها الاكبر حيث كانت لعبة بين يدي الرجال وليس لديها اي الحق للاعتراض على هذا كله. لقد كانت المراة لاتعرف كيف تدير اعمالها وامورها وذلك بسبب التربية التي تربت عليها وهو الاعتماد على الرجل وليس لديها الحق بالاعتماد علة نفسها لانه لايجوز ولذلك كان الرجل هو المسيطر حتى بالاشياء التي قد تستطيع المراة تحمل مسؤوليته كادارة اموالها .ايضا تناول الكتاب كيف ان الله خلق الذكر والانثى كلا مكمل للاخر ومن هنا اتت تسمية النصف الاخر وان الله خلق حواء من ضلع ادم اي ان كلا منهم يعتمد على الاخر وليس هناك اي فرق بينهم.
عن محورتربية المرأة تحدث قاسم امين عن كيفية تربية المرأة وما مدى تأثيره عليها بعد ذلك في تربية اولادها في المستقبل وكيف ان على الاهل تربية بناتهم التربية الصحيحة المبنية على حرية التعبير وابداء الرأي وتلقي العلم والتعليم مثل مايتلقى الاولاد تعليمهم وحصولهم على كامل حقوقه . ربط قاسم امين في كتابه بين تربية المراة والتعليم وكيف انها تربت على ان لديها عدة واجبات عليها القيام بها مثل تهيئة الجو العام والجميل والمقنع لزوجها ومراقبة الخدم في العمل وادارة مصروفات البيت واهم كل هذه الاعمال هي تربية الاطفال وكل هذا يحتاج الى عقل راجح متعلم وهذا مالايتوافر عند المرأة الجاهلة وهذا كله ياتي بسبب جهل الاهل باهمية التعليم للمرأة الذي يفيدها عند الكبر . يؤثر ايضا التعليم عند المرأة حيث ان الطفل يتصف بصفات ابويه فاذا كانت الام جاهلة فهذا يؤثر على الطقل وعندئذ يتصف الطفل بصفات امه الجاهلة وانها تتركه ليفعل كل شيء هو يريده حيث يتعلم كل الاشياء الغير صحيحة لانه لم يعلم ماهو صح وخطأ. ذكر الكتاب سبب عدم رغبة الرجال بتثقيف وتعليم المراة الى انه يزيد من قابليتها على الاحتيال والنصب والفساد ولكن العكس هو الصحيح في ان التعليم يعلي من شأن المرأة ويجعلها قادرة على ادارة اعمالها. طالب ايضا قاسم امين الاهتمام بتعليم النفوس وليس فقط التعليم والعلم حيث اننا يجب علينا تربية نفوسنا وعقولنا حتى نستطيع التفتح للعالم والتعامل مع الامور بجدية ورجاحة عقل وهذا ينطبق على النساء والرجال.
اما بالنسبة لمحور حجاب المرأة فان الكتاب بين مدى مساعدة هذا الحجاب الحالي على تخلف ورجعية المرأة وكيف انه عائق امامها لتأدية مهامها في المجتمع. يبين قاسم امين ايضا انه ليس ضد الحجاب الشرعي الذي يطالب بستر المرأة واحتشامها ولكنه ضد المغالاة فيه حيث انه لايوجد نص بوجوب الحجاب االسائد الان ولكنه مجرد مغالاة في الدين.ويرى قاسم امين ان الحجاب قد يعيق ويبعد اامرأة عن الدنيا ويجعلها غير قادرة على التواصل مع العالم الخارجي وهذا بسبب تصور الرجال انه بمجرد عزل امرأته عن الرجال الاخرين انه يحميها من نفسها وشهواتها ولا يقتنع ان المراة تستطيع حماية نفسها وشهواتها اذا كانت متواصلة ومختلطة مع الرجال وليست معزولة لاتراهم ابدا.ان الحجاب يأتي من سوء التربية وهذا يدل على وجود علاقة وثيقة بين تربية المرأة والحجاب .قد يؤدي الحجاب الى انتشار الفساد بدل من الاقلال منه وذلك بسبب الكبت الذي قد يتكون عند المرأة المحجوبة عن الناس وبذلك نكون قد زدنا الامر سوءا وافضل مثال على ذلك هو النساء الاوروبيات والاخص الامريكيات الاتي معروف عنهن الحرية حيث صدر استفتاء قيل انهن اكثر النساء عفة وذلك لانهن متعلمات ومختلطات بالرجال منذ الصغر فيعرفن الصح من الخطأ.
ودعى قاسم امين في ختام كلامه عن باب حجاب المراة الى عدم التخلي عن الحجاب نهائيا في زمننا هذا ولكن التمسك بان تكون المرأة محررة واهل للثقة والاختلاط مع الرجال بالحدود المشروعة وتحت مراقبة الاهل.المحور الاخرالذي تناوله الكتاب هو محور المرأة والامة والذي يدور حول تأثر الامة بتعليم وثقافة المرأة وكيف ان المجتمع هو نفسه رجعي وقام البعض بارجاع هذا الشيء الى ان الاسلام هو دين التخلف على عكس الاصل الذي هو ان الاسلام دين التقدم والتفتح ولكن السبب الرئيسي هو الدين الخطأ الذي يسير عليه البعض والعادات التي اضيفت لللاسلام. بين ايضا ان الامة هي جسد واحد فاذا احد اعضاء الجسد متخلف فاذن الامة كلها متخلفة ورجعية وهذا هو حال المراة حيث انها غير متعلمة ومتخلفة فاذن مجتمعنا هو متخلف وهذا كله اثر على المجتمع وتقدمه.

اما عن محور العائلة ومايتضمنه من امور الزواج والطلاق وتعدد الزوجات فجاء فيه:
اولا: ان الزواج هو رباط مقدس يربط بين اثنين متحابين وليس فقط عقد بين رجل وامرأة والقصد منه اشباع الرغبة واللذة وكما ان للرجل الحق في اختيار شريكة الحياة فعلى المرأة ان تختار شريك حياتها .كل هذه افتراضيات كان يفترضها قاسم امين في كتابه لان الحقيقة كانت عكس هذا كله فالمراة ليس من حقها حتى ابداء رأيها بالرجل الذي سترتبط به وعليها الطاعة فقط ولهذا فهو يدعو للتفتح واعطاء المرأة الحق لابداء الرأي واختيار الشيء المناسب لها.يبين ايضا ان اذا ليس هناك اي ارتباط عاطفي بين الزوجين فان حياتهما ستكون غير مترابطة ويلجأ كلا منهم الى اماكن اخرى للتزود بالعطف والحنان والمودة فعلى كل اثنين متزوجين ان يزرعوا المحبة والحب بينهم حتى يتعايشوا بحب وامان .
ثانيا: عن موضوع تعدد الزوجات فذكر في الكتاب انه ذكر في القران الكريم احلال للرجل الزواج باربع نساء ولكن لسبب ليس لمتعة او اشباع رغبة فالزواج هو وثيقة حب ومحبة بين اثنين متحابين وان المرأة ليست بسلعة يشتريها الرجل ليستمتع بها ويتركها بعد ان ينفذ منها. وبين ان اذا كان هناك اي مبرر لزواج الرجل من امرأة اخرى بسبب عقر امرأته او مرض فعلى الرجل احترام ذلك كما تحترم هذا الشيء اذا كان السبب من الرجل وعلى الاثنين تحمل الاخر والبحث على راحة الاخر. ان الزواج بامرأة واحدة تحافظ على اطفالها وبيتها هو افضل من رجل يتزوج اكثر من امرأة وبيته يسوده الفوضى والغيرة.
ثالثا: بخصوص موضوع الطلاق فبين الكتاب كيف ان جميع الشرائع السماوية احلت الطلاق على الرغم من تحفظ البعض من الطلاق _المسيحيون والغرب_ الان ان الجميع اعترف باهمية الطلاق اذا كانت العشرة بين الزوجين غير مناسبة او مريحة. ايضا بين ان للطلاق اسباب معينة وليست خاضعة فقط لمزاجيات الرجل.اشار الكتاب ايضا الى عدة بنود او قوانين على اي رجل يريد تطليق زوجته اللجوء اليها وهي ان يشترط ان يكون الطلاق على يد القاضي المأذون وعليه نصحهم باذن ابغض الحلال عنذ الله الطلاق ويجب وجود شهود على ذلك. يمكننا ان نستشف من ذلك على ان الطلاق مباح وضروري بظروف معينة.
اختتم قاسم امين كلامه عن هذا الموضوع بخاتمة يطالب فيها الناس بالتثقف والتطور مع المحافظة على عاداتنا وتقاليدنا المناسبة للقرن الذي نعيش فيه.دعى ايضا لتكوين جمعيه تهتم بحقوق المرأة المغتصبة في مصر وعلى الناس الدخول بها لاتاحة الفرصة للنصف الاخر في المجتمع باسترداد حقوقهم المسلوبة.

رأي ونقد لكتاب تحرير المرأة لقاسم امين
بعد قرائتي لكتاب تحرير المرأة الذي كتب منذ سنين عدة وجدت فيه مايلم بأمور المرأة وحقوقها التي قد تكون مسلوبة لحد وقتنا هذا.فقد وجدت كلاما منطقيا وتحليلا دقيقا لحال المرأة في ذلك الوقت ولم يكتف الكتاب ببيان حال المرأة فقط بل البحث عن حلول وطرق لحل هذه المشكلة.ايضا لفت انتباهي استشهاد الكاتب بالقران الكريم والسنة والشريعة وانه ملم بالموضوع من جوانب مختلفة و على الرغم من الهجوم الشرس الذي واجهه قاسم امين وكتابه الا انه ظل صامدا وذلك لقوة حججه وادلته وهذا يدل على ثقافة وفكر الكاتب الواسعة واكبر دليل على شهرة هذا الكتاب انه يتم الاستشهاد به لحد هذا الوقت كاول كتاب يتناول هذا الموضوع بدقة. اما بخصوص الافكار المثارة بالكتاب فاراها منطقية وصحيحة وعلينا التلفت لها.وماوجدته من فوائد في هذا الكتاب انه اتاح الفرصة للناس للتنبه لاشياء كانوا غافلين عنها الا وهي حقوق المرأة المسلوبة واني اظن انه كتاب ممتاز لما يتناول من موضوع شائك قد يهم الكثير من الناس. اعتقد اننا في زمننا هذا نحتاج لاكثر من قاسم امين لتناول هذا الموضوع لاننا في زمن النظر الى الماضي وليس التطلع للمستقبل فعلينا اعطاء الفرصة لعقولنا ان تتنور وتتفتح على العالم وليس فقط التقوقع حول افكار بالية...

Who am I?

2010-01-23T18:29:00.000Z

Who am I?!

Who am I is an important question that we should all think about. I will try to answer this question frankly and honestly to help myself to be a better person and know other people too. My name is Rua Ghanim Alsheikh. I am Iraqi and I was born in Iraq from Iraqi father and mother. I am the youngest in my family. I have two lovely sisters and two lovely brothers. I have a great mother and a great father that I am proud to be their daughter. My father is a doctor and my mother is a history expert.My two brothers are doctors and my sister as well while I and my other sister went in different direction that she decided to go to computer science and I would like to study Mass communication and Sociology because we don’t like medicine as my older sister and two brothers. I am interested in those two subjects as since I was a kid, I used to write stories and write about social issue. In addition, I would love to defend women’s rights because women suffer a lot from patriarchy societies. Qasim Amin has influenced me a lot about women’s rights. If Qasim Amin succeeded in librating women in the 1880s, nowadays 2010, we still in my opinion need another Qasim Amin to liberate women in some societies.
Back to personal life, I was brought up in a democratic, free and comfortable environment that affects my personality positively. My family is everything to me. I love my family very much and cannot resist anything which may harm them. I like my friends which I made in Iraq and Egypt. About my hobbies, I like listening to music, especially Arab songs. When I was little, I used to draw and design dresses for girls but I stopped drawing now because of lack of time and studying. I write some poetry in Arabic and I published some of them in a site in the internet of my favorite singer.
About my personality, My biggest fear in life is to lose people I love. This is really difficult to me and also I hate failing in everything and when I want to do anything, I love doing it perfectly. Moreover, I hate cheating and don’t like some students who say that cheating is cooperation; this is not true and they just want to have an excuse to what they are doing. In addition, I don’t like lying to people or people lie to me .Lying is a bad habit that everybody should be a way from. I also like cats and feel they are really cute. I wish I could someday have one in the future.
The other important thing in my life is my country. I love my country very much and I considerate as my son that is really dear to my heart. I have been away from Iraq for more than 6 years. I wish I could visit my country soon because really I miss everything there I had a great time in Iraq although since I was born I witnessed four wars and one economic sanction. I had beautiful moments on the beach and having fun with my family and friends. Also, I love my country because you feel that everyone can understand you and feel that you are in your home not a stranger.

I would like to visit many places in the world although I hate planes but I would like to visit France, Tunisia, Italy, Spain and many other countries. One day I wished that I can see Egypt and my wish came true.

Finally, I wish I can be an important person in the future and doing well in my future career. I also wish my country will be safe soon and I’ll be able to visit and live in again. I wish all people I love to feel and live a good and steady life.

Five social probelms in the Middle East

2010-01-23T18:28:00.000Z

Five social problems in the Middle East
Dec.2008

In this paper, I am going to discuss five social problems that exist in the Middle East. As I am studying in the American University in Cairo, in this research paper, I am going to focus on the problems exist in Egypt. Every society has its own social problems. Everyone in any society should pay attention to social problems because they have direct effects on people. One problem can cause another social problem because society is connected and one component affects the other component. A definition of every social problem should be mentioned. Another important point that should be discussed is reasons and consequences of every social problem. In addition, sociological theories should be mentioned as to view the scientific explanation for every social problem. Finally, solutions for every social problem should be mentioned to stabilize any society.
Five social problems that would be discussed in this paper are high rate of crimes in the Egyptian society, housing problem, unemployment in Egypt, public transportation and smoking. Those are the five social problems that would be discussed in this paper. Reasons, consequences, statistics, real examples and solutions for every problem would be mentioned. In addition, sociological theories of every social problem would be discussed to explain every problem theoretically. By pointing the problem out and discussing it theoretically, we can propose possible solutions for the problem if possible.
The first social problem that would be discussed is the high rate of crimes in the Egyptian society. First of all the definition of crime should be mentioned. Crime is the violation of the laws of the state and the state can apply sanction for this violation (‘Mooney, Knox and Schacht’). The Egyptian society nowadays is experiencing a high rate of crimes of its different types; Street, family and group crimes are very common in the Egyptian society these days.
Examples of crimes in the Egyptian society are several especially in recent years. For example, at the end of 2008, the rate of crimes has raised to the extent of reading two or more details of crimes in the media especially newspapers and TV.
The first example of crime is the child, Islam Amr Badr eleven years old, who was killed by his teacher in Alexandria. Haitham Nabil is a Mathematics teacher in Islam’s school twenty three years old, who kicked Islam to death because he did not finish part of the homework (‘Abo Shal and AlSharkawy’). Islam was sent to the hospital because he fainted after he was hit then he died after hours because of heart failure (‘Abo Shal and AlSharkawy’). The police caught the teacher to ask and start investigation about the murdering of eleven years old child. The teacher defended himself by saying he did not mean to kill the child but just to punish him for not doing the homework. This accident raises the issue of hitting children in Egyptian schools. Any type of hitting in the Egyptian schools is illegal according to the Egyptian laws. However, many are violating the rules and hit children in schools. Pupils in Egyptian public schools are suffering from hitting and no one punishes the teachers. The case of the pupil, Islam, has taken the huge coverage from the Media and government because the pupil was killed from hitting. Previous cases of hitting pupils did not take this care and coverage as children whether afraid of reporting as they will be fired from school or the pupils are just hit without being killed. This phenomenon is very common nowadays as it is not about hitting children but killing them as well. “I did not expect that when I sent my child to school would return home as a dead body”, the father of Islam said (‘Abo Shal and AlSharkawy’). This shows that parents nowadays are afraid of sending their children to school because they might be killed as the case of Islam. This accident raises another important point which is the change of schools image in parents and children mind from a place to receive education to a death place. Schools have become the place where hitting, killing and bad things are common. Schools are not for educating and teaching students how to behave properly and a safe place to send children to anymore. The image of schools has changed to a scary image. For example, also in Alexandria a student who is 16 years old was injured in his neck and brain when he tried to jump from the second floor to run and escape from school (‘Abo Shal and AlSharkawy’). This indicates how children hate school and scared from teachers and everything related to school. Furthermore, the image of teachers has been changed and they are viewed as criminals even if the teacher who killed Islam is innocent. As the teacher who is accused of killing Islam was sent to jail until the court decide what punishment he deserves. Islam’s parents and everyone are waiting for the court judgment until now. In my opinion, this teacher even if he did not mean to kill the child, he should be punished because he violated the laws by kicking this child to death. Also, he should be punished so other teachers would not think of hitting children and to learn a lesson of what happened to Islam.
The second example of crime is the act of murdering of two girls in the 6th of October city. Heba AlAkkad and Nadine were the victims of this awful crime. Heba AlAkkad is the daughter of the famous Moroccan singer, Laila Ghufran. The police immediately have started an investigation to find the murderer. After few days of investigating, the police caught Mahmud Sayed 20 years old who is suspected to be the murderer of the two girls. After checking the available evidence, the suspect admitted that he committed the murdering of the two girls (‘Ahmed’). Until these days, the parents of two victims suspect that this boy, Mahmud, did it as he looks weak. Victim’s parents especially Heba’s parents think that there is another one who did it or may be someone paid for Mahmud to commit murdering of Heba and Nadine. (‘Ahmed’). The reason that was raised behind killing the two girls is to steal money as the murderer needs money. However, the killer did not steal anything except the mobile and some cash which might raise suspect that the murderer wanted to kill not to steal (‘Ahmed’). This crime shows how some people might feel they are unsafe in their own home. Some residents of some gated communities such as the 6th of October especially Sheikh Zayed city feel they are unsafe although security is supposed to be strict in these small cities. Also, this crime raises another point which is the carelessness of people as no one helped the two girls and listened to their screams. The carelessness of the Egyptians nowadays is really a big problem that should be discussed to find solutions for this phenomenon.
The third crime is the murdering of the Lebanese singer, Suzan Tameem in August 2008. The two suspects of killing her are the famous businessman and a member in the Egyptian Perelman, Hesham Talaat, and Mohsen AlSukkari. This case has taken big coverage from the media because Hesham Talaat is a public figure that people would like to follow up the investigation and the trial (‘Abo Alez’). The investigation has shown that Hesham Talaat asked AlSukari to kill Suzan Tameem for 1 million dollars (‘Abo Alez’). Also, some rumors have declared that Hesham talaat is the husaband of Suzan Tameem and asked AlSukkari to kill her for personal purposes. The trail is keep going and no clear punishment has been declared yet as the police is still asking the suspects and investigating. This crime shows how famous businessmen and public figures can be involved in such crimes for personal reasons. In addition, the image of public figures would be changed. Furthermore, this crime might indicate the rate of corruption in the Egyptian government.
The reasons behind the rate of crimes in the Egyptian society are several. One of the reasons is the media and the violence in movies, series, internet and video games. According to an interview with Dr. Azza Kareem a sociologist on Nile TV for news on the 5th of December 2008, violence scenes in the Egyptian movies or series would raise the aggression, especially within the youth. As a result, those young people would try to be like what they see on TV and be criminals or aggressive. Also, at the same program, Sahar Abd Alrahman, a journalist, mentioned carelessness of people is increased nowadays as there are no strict laws to protect people’s lives. Crimes and violence have become normal in the Egyptian society, Mrs. Abd Alrahman added.
Sociological theories explain crimes in a theoretical and scientific way. According to the structural functionalist theory, crime is functional for society as people would learn that everybody would violate laws would be punished and this strengthens the solidarity of society. Also, crime can lead to a social change. Robert Merton developed strain theory. This theory explains the reasons of committing crimes as there is inconsistency between the legal goals (for example money) and the legitimate means to reach these goals (getting a job). There are five different concepts of strain theory that explains people behavior and why there are some people who violate laws and commit crimes. Conformity is the first concept when people accept the legitimate goals and means while Innovation is the second concept when people accept the legitimate goals but refuse the legitimate means to achieve goals. Ritualism is the third concept and occurs when people accept specific lifestyle but reject the cultural goal. Retreatism is the fourth concept and happens when people reject both the legitimate means and goals. Rebellion is the final concept when people reject both legitimate goals and means and create new goals and means (‘Mooney, Knox and Schacht’).
The third example of crime mentioned above of the man who killed two girls to steal shows that this person takes the innovation concept to reach the goal of getting money but with illegal means which is killing.
Also, conflict theory explains that the gap between low and high class is widening which can result in committing crimes. The third example of committing a crime of killing two girls from high class demonstrates that the conflict theory is right.
One of the solutions to address the issue of high rate of crimes is to raise the awareness of people about violence. Also, families should educate their children how to respect the others and avoid watching violent movies. In addition, government should put strict laws so people would be afraid to violate laws fearing of rigid punishment.
The second social problem that would be discussed is housing problem in Egypt. Egypt has experienced housing problem since the 1950s as the population growth has rapidly increased (‘Feiler’). Evidence shows that growth in Egypt doubled in the period of 1897 to1947 and again doubled in 1947 to 1976 (‘Feiler’). Overpopulation has led to housing problem as many people are concentrated in Cairo especially in the Nile and Delta area (‘Feiler’). The total land area is roughly one million square kms. However, only 38,500 km2 invested in the area along the Nile River and its Delta (‘Feiler’). The pressure on Cairo and other urban areas has led to housing problem (‘Stewart’). Emigration from rural areas to urban areas seeking better jobs opportunities and better lifestyles is another reason of overpopulation and pressure on Cairo (‘Stewart’). Egypt population is almost 80 millions nowadays and can be increased (‘Stewart’). Almost one million live in informal housing such as slums (‘Stewart’). Slums are random housing that people randomly live in. These slums do not receive the essential services such as sewage, electricity and water services (‘Stewart’). Also one of the results of housing problem in Cairo is that nearly one million live in rooftops of buildings (‘Stewart’). Moreover, evidence shows that almost one million live in graveyards where dead people are buried and sometimes it is called “city of deads” (‘Stewart’). All these informal housings do not offer proper services because the government does not authorize people to live in but some people can not offer living in other proper places. Consequently, people have to find alternatives to live in as the government is not able to offer proper housing for them (‘Stewart’). Another consequence of housing problem is that those informal and random places might be the source of producing criminals and drug users (‘Stewart’). Final consequence is that lack of housing can delay the youth getting married. As a result, phenomenon such as sexual harassment would be increased in such communities.
The government is trying to solve housing problem by constructing new cities which are located in the desert. Examples of new cities are as 6th of October, Alobor, Sadat city and 10th of Ramadan city. The main goal of building those cities is to attract businessmen to invest in these areas especially the desert. Also, another goal is to attract people to live in those areas as a solution for housing problem and to reduce housing pressure on Cairo (‘Stewart’). Although these cities have attracted some people to live and invest, high class and businessmen tend to go and live in those new cities; the reason for that is the high cost for middle and low class to go and live in those city. Another reason is that most these cities are owned by private companies not the government. As a result, the costs would be high for low class to buy in those cities (‘Stewart’).
The sociological theories such as conflict theory explain some of the reasons for housing problem. Conflict theorists concentrate how the competition for wealth, power and prestige can create a gap between different classes. As we can see that the government does not control the housing business but private companies do. This can lead to low class can not offer buying or investing in new cities. Consequently, people would live in informal housing such as slums. During the regime of president Naser, he adopted what is called “Arab Socialism” which favored lowered income people and redirecting some resources from the higher income groups to lower groups (‘Stewart’). This resulted in a reducing the gap between classes. However, president Saddat regime in 1970s promoted the private sector and high class (‘Stewart’). All these examples support what conflict theory has explained about different classes and competition for prestige and wealth (‘Mooney, Knox and Schacht’).
A solution that might be applied to address housing problem is that government should care more about offering proper housing to people seeking housing. Also, government should control housing business by reducing costs of new cities and help the youth finding houses to live in. Wages people from low classes and middle class get should be raised. Moreover, a temporary solution is to provide people who live in slums and informal housing essential services of sewage, electricity and water.
The third social problem is unemployment in Egypt. Unemployment is a sever problem that Egypt has experienced since the 1970s (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’). Egypt is not the only country which has experienced unemployment but most MENA, the Middle East and North Africa, have experienced this problem. 12.2 percent of unemployed people are from MENA countries (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’). Most of those unemployed people are young people (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’). According to the World Employment Report 2004-2005, job opportunities are not enough for seekers jobs in the Middle East and North Africa (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’). This shows that the reason for unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa is the lack of job opportunities. What also causes unemployment is the high growth rate especially in Egypt and also rapid demand on labor force (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’). Women participate more nowadays on labor force than before which causes pressure on labor force. Unemployment is more common among women as they are not that favored. Also, the rate of unemployment these days in Egypt is higher among people with high level of education than lower education (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’). 55 percent of unemployed people in Egypt are the ones with intermediate education (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’). This shows that education is not a key anymore for guaranteed job after graduation. Many graduated people from engineering and medical schools can not find jobs after graduation (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’). The Egyptian government has tried to solve unemployment problem by promoting family planning and offering job opportunities (‘Bilgin and Kilicarslan’).
Sociological theories have explained reasons and facts about unemployment problem. The structural functionalists explain how work is essential of everyone in society. Work is important because it provides people with essential needs. Consequently, when people can not find jobs to provide these basic needs, people would be affected badly. Plus, without meeting the basic needs for individuals, people can not move to another step which seeking wealth and other secondary needs.
There might be solutions for unemployment problem and can reach them step by step. The first step should be taken is to control population by imposing strict population policy to control population. By reducing population, main reason causing unemployment would be addressed and solved. Offering job opportunities should be offered to young people. Also, the government should pay more attention to educated people and also the quality of education people get. . Egypt should also attract its people to invest their skills in Egypt not migrating. However, with offering good job opportunities, people would not think of migration to other countries such as Gulf areas or the West. To conclude, solving unemployment is like a cycle that we should start from one side and move to the other one.
The fourth social problem is public transportation services in Egypt. Public transportation of taxis, buses, and trains is problematic in the Egyptian street. The quality of these transportations is not good as to compare to other developed countries. Bad public transportation can have consequences such as the high rate of accidents in private cars and public transportation as well. First of all, the Egyptian traffic has always labeled as “chaotic” (‘Gregory’). The traffic behavior reflects the social interaction between people (‘Gregory’). Egyptian people just get used to the chaos in the street and have become part of their culture (‘Gregory’). One reason for this chaos in the Egyptian street is overpopulation (‘Gregory’). Overpopulation has caused many problems in the Egyptian society and chaos in the Egyptian traffic; public transportation is one of these consequences.
To understand the problem of public transportation problem, consequences of bad public transportation should be addressed. The first example is when five people were killed in the high way of Kafr Alsheikh city (‘Abdullah’). The reason of this accident was the unlimited speed that drivers drive. This unlimited speed has caused death of many people in the Eid holiday. Actually four accidents happened at the same days. One accident was the accident of a bus for tourists as a result of the rain; one girl was killed in this accident and 8 were injured (‘Abdullah’) .This accident can affect the tourism business in Egypt. Egypt’s income depends on tourism. As a result, such accidents can reduce the rate of tourists who visit Egypt. Consequently, the economy of Egypt can be affected negatively as well. The second accident was the accident of the crash of two cars and one person was killed and 6 people were injured (‘Abdullah’). The third accident is the crash of one car and motorcycle and one person was killed. The final accident was when one taxi driver hit one child when she was trying to cross the street to celebrate the Eid (‘Abdullah’). Another accident was the death of 14 people as a bus crashed in its way from Al Menia to Alexandria (‘AlHussieny’).
All these accidents show the high rate of carelessness of people. Also, this shows how the Egyptian street is not safe and chaotic. In addition, some of these accidents demonstrate that the quality of public transportation is not efficient so people would use it easily. As a result, people have to use their private transportation such as cars to reach their university or to do shopping.
The government has tried to solve this problem by providing new taxis which is called “City Cab”. City Cab is very good service and there is specific fees to pay for any journey unlike the normal taxis. In the beginning of hosting this service, the service was very good and efficient. However, the quality of City Cab service has become bad recently and turns to be as bad as the normal taxis. The problem is there are no strict laws that punish everyone who violate traffic laws.
The sociological theories explain some of the reasons for traffic and transportation problem. Symbolic internationalist perspective focuses on how meanings and labels can control people’s interaction and personalities. The case of the Egyptian street supports this theory. People in Egypt are labeled as chaotic; as a result, people would follow what’s norm in the street. For example, if you have driving rules in your mind, you can not follow the rules because you might be hurt. This is the case of Egypt because it is chaotic and you should be like others.
Solutions for this transportation problem are several; one of these solutions is imposing strict laws in the Egyptian laws which can protect people’s right of driving safely. Also, anyone who violates these laws should be punished or pay fines for this violation. As a result, people would follow the rules and then people feel safe walking and driving in the Egyptian street. Moreover, public transportation services of taxis, buses and trains should be improved. Consequently people would use these services. This also can reduce pollution which is another big problem Egypt has experienced since years. To conclude, laws should be imposed so people would feel safe that there is laws in the country could protect them. It is the responsibility of the Egyptian government to improve the public transportation. On the other hand, if the government is unable of improve public services, the government can hand this mission to private companies hoping to improve these services. In addition, another solution is to reduce the exportation of cars and limit people to have specific cars.
The final social problem is smoking. Smoking rate is very high in the Middle East. Young people are the most common groups who smoke. Smoking is supposed to be a freedom of expression. However, smoking not only harms the person who smokes but harms other people that surrounded this smoker as well; this is called negative smoking. For example, I do not smoke but some people in the university, street and public places smoke. This can affect my health and also can violate my freedom as I do not want to smoke but others smoke in public spaces. As a result, some developed countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom forbidden smoking in public and close places (‘Day’). Anyone who smokes in public places such as buses, trains and buildings would have to pay fines for that. For example, in the United Kingdom, anyone who smokes in trains would pay one thousand pound (‘Day’). This shows that there is strict laws that punish everyone violates the rules. People would not follow the rules unless there are rigid and strict laws. These sever laws protect the smoker and non smoker rights (‘Day’). The problem in the Arab countries is that there are no strict laws that forbidden smoking anywhere. Some places ban smoking but not all people follow this ban as there are no fines for violating laws (‘Day’). As we all know smoking has harmful effects on people’s health whether smokers or non smokers (‘Key’). Children are the ones who are most affected by smoking habit especially if the mother is a smoker (‘Key’). Smoking of the mother during pregnancy period can affect the mother’s health and later the baby’s health (‘Key’). Smoking can lead to sever health problems such as lungs cancer, heart disease and other diseases (‘Key’). Smoking not only cause health problem but can also worsen other diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure (‘Key’). In Egypt, most males smoke and unfortunately start smoking from a very young age. Most taxi drivers are smokers and this is against the human rights as non smokers should enjoy not smoking everywhere.
Sociological theories addresses smoking problem. Symbolic internationalists concentrate on how labels and meaning can enforce people to act in a specific way. For example, there is an important question that should be asked and it is why do young people tend to smoke? According to the symbolic internationalist perspective, smokers are labeled to be strong and tough men. As a result, young people who would like to prove they are strong and prove to adults they are important try to smoke to be labeled as strong. Furthermore, young people are affected easily by their peers in schools and university and they would not like to be different from their peers. As a result, they choose to smoke to be like their peers. Also sometimes teenagers would like to try everything new so they would try smoking and later could not give up. Sometimes children can be affected by their family if one of the adults in family smoke, they would like to do as adults do.
Many solutions can be mentioned to solve smoking problem. Solutions can be the responsibility of the government, family and media. The first solution is on the hand of the Egyptian and government. First the government in Egypt should impose strict laws that ban smoking in public places as many countries are trying to limit smoking to specific places. For example, taxi drivers should not smoke during their shift and if the police catch any taxi drivers who smoke fine should be paid. Those laws need control and follow up from the government not just imposing laws without any control; if so people would follow the laws for specific time then will violate those laws later. The second solution is on the hand of family. Family should watch their children and prevent them from smoking because it is harmful for their health. Children are not responsible for their behavior so parents should watch and teach them what’s wrong and right. Media has the third role in solving smoking problem. Advertising of smoking on TV should be banned even if there is a warning of the bad effects of smoking. Also, campaigns on TV should be held to teach people that smoking is not a good habit. Moreover, some movies especially in the Arab world include smoking scenes that can promote audiences to smoke. As a result, these scenes should be reduced on TV series and movies.

Works Cited
Abdullah, Alaa. "5 people killed and 14 injured in a traffic accident in Kafr Alsheikh." AlAhram newspaper 10 Dec 2008: 19.
Abo Alez, Khalid. "First trial of Hesham Talaat and AlSukari." AlAhram newspaper 16 Nov 2008: 32
Abo Shal, Nabeel , and Nasir AlSharkawy. "A teaher killed a pupil in Alexandria because of homework." AlMasry Alyoum 28 Oct 2008: 1
Ahmed, Mussa ,"3 evidence prove who the killer is." AlAhram newspaper 6 Dec 2008: 7.
AlHussieny , Hajaj. "funeral of victims of the bus accident in al Menia." AlAhram newspaper 10 Dec 2008: 19.
Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin, and Ismihan N. Kilicarslan. "An Analysis of the Unemployment in Selected Mena Countries and Turkey." Journal of Third World Studies 25.2 (2008): 189-205. .
Day, Business. "South Africa; Smokers would Pay to Puff on Planes." Africa News January 3 2008.
Feiler, Gil. "Housing Policy in Egypt." Middle Eastern Studies 28.2 (1992): 295-312. .
Gregory, Stanford W.,Jr. "Auto Traffic in Egypt as a Verdant Grammar." Social psychology quarterly 48.4 (1985): 337-48. .
Key, Alexandra P. F., et al. "Smoking during Pregnancy Affects Speech-Processing Ability in Newborn Infants." Environmental health perspectives 115.4 (2007): 623-9. .
Mooney, Linda, and David Knox, Caroline Schacht. “Understanding Social Problems”. 6th Edition. East Carolina University, 2007.
Shoman, Mohammed. "killing of Laila Ghofran's daughter and her Egyptian friend." AlAhram newspaper 29 Nov 2008: 7.
Stewart, Dona J. "Cities in the Desert: The Egyptian New-Town Program." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 86.3 (1996): 459-80. .

China and one child policy

2010-01-23T18:24:00.000Z

China experience of One-child policy
Fall 2008
The main topic of this research paper is the Chinese experience in controlling population growth. The issue of controlling birth growth is both crucial and controversial. Many countries, researchers and governments are in agreement with the policy while many others are against the idea itself for various reasons. There should be a background and a rationale for China making such decision to adapt the one- child policy. First of all, I will be trying to find out whether the policy has been effective or not. In fact, many factors that I am going to discuss in detail show that the one- child policy is successful in China. Nevertheless, I am going to find out whether there are some disadvantages, of any impact in adopting this policy beside the seemingly obvious advantage of control. Also, there must be consequences in applying this policy in China. As a result, more details about these consequences would be discussed. These include aspects such as cultural, social and economic effects. Meanwhile, another important point that should be taken in consideration is the possibility of applying this policy in other countries at risk of facing major overpopulation, such as Egypt.

The main issues related to China’s birth control policy that will be discussed in this paper include history of China population growth, reasons and rationale for adopting the policy, disadvantages of the one-child policy, advantages of the policy, and possibility of applying such policy in countries other than China.
To examine the one-child policy in China, some demographic factors about population history in China is needed to look at. First of all, since its establishment as the modern People’s Republic of China in 1949, has experienced a noticeable overpopulation. In forty six years after 1949, its population was almost doubled from only 542 million in 1949 to 1200 million in 1995 (‘Shen’). This indicates that China witnessed a high and rapid population growth since that early time. Rapid population growth in China caused two main problems. During the period between 1959 and 1961, food crisis and difficulties in raising the standard of living of Chinese population was a major challenge (‘Shen’). As a result, Chinese government started to think about adapting birth control policies that can lead slowing of such growth. Chinese government tried many alternative measures and policies. However, the most effective policy was found to be the one-child policy which called China to adopt (‘Shen’). One- child policy was the most successful way of controlling population growth. China has experienced low fertility rate in 1970s when the fertility rate changed from 5.75 to 2.0 in 1992. However, in the following years after 1992, China witnessed again a rapid population growth. To monitor China population, consequent census rounds were conducted in 1953, 1964, 1982 and 1990 (‘GoodKind’). Those censuses had various outputs about China population. For example, in 1982 census, China population was 1,025 million. This shows that China population was approximately quarter of the total global population (‘Hsu’). Such a proportion is really a huge one single gathering of people in one country. This also indicates the risk that China is experiencing which could affect not just China as a country but the whole world at large.

The Chinese government attempted to control birth since the 1950s and 1960s through various ways and approaches. One of these was based on organizing awareness campaigns to encourage communities and families to control birth. Well known campaigns such as “the Great Leap Forward” in 1950 and the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s were organized by the Chinese government to discuss birth control (‘Hsu’). However, these campaigns were not clearly successful in achieving the assigned goals. Nevertheless, those campaigns were the first step in comprehensively addressing the problem of such high growth rate in China. Also, campaigns encouraged the government and other organizations to look more deeply into the problem and think seriously in finding solutions to population growth in the country. Some goals of these campaigns were formulated in the form of achieving birth control and reduction of overall population. Birth control was one of the main goals among a list of goals which were formulated for a comprehensive national plan to develop China. The other main goal was to reduce population to 0.5 percent after it was 1.2 in 1978 and then after to reach zero percent in 2000 (‘Hsu’). Also, it was envisaged that population should not exceed 1.2 billion in 2000 (‘Hsu’). Therefore, in order to achieve all these goals, there was a need to have in operation a fierce and strict policy that regulates birth growth. At same time, one of the measures that was adopted to encourage people to control birth was promoting family planning. Accordingly, the challenge was in making women more exposed to education and be aware of using contraception, especially in rural areas (‘Hsu’).

Reasons of high growth in China are various. The population growth in China was unwelcome in the periods of 1950s and 1980s. In the past, there was a high increase of fertility rate like 1950s and 1960s. This resulted in a sudden increase in the proportion of females at reproductive age group. There was almost 13 million women who are in the age of getting married (‘Hsu’). As a result, more children were born without any controls

All these factors of fast growth in population in China encouraged the Chinese government to enforce an effective way of controlling this rapid growth of population. Chinese officials warned that the Chinese population would keep growing without taking an immediate action to limit this growth. As a result, the Chinese officials decided to adopt the one-child policy in China. As a result, the one -child policy was launched in 1978 in China. The policy simply dictates that each family should have no more than one child. The anticipated impact was based on the fact that even if they allow a couple to have two children, this would significantly increase population (‘Falk’). However, in some rural areas, there is an exception for women to have one or two children (‘Falk’). There are some especial conditions that allow such women in rural areas in China to have more than one child. The special condition that a woman can take a permission of having a second child is based on notion that if the first child is a girl (‘Falk’). This matter would raise another important point or problem that China has experienced which is sex preference (‘Shen’). China as most of other Asian Eastern communities prefers male to female children (‘Shen’). This is a big problem that China has been facing until present time.

Adopting the one-child policy has immensely benefited China population. The main advantage of the policy is the resulted reduction in China population. In the beginning of adopting one-child policy in China, population was reduced gradually. For example, fertility rate was 5.75 in 1970 and then fertility rate was reduced to 2.25 in 1990 according to the national census conducted in 1990 (‘Shen’). This shows that one-child policy has affected the fertility rate step by step. Another indicator that one-child policy is effective is the resulted reduction in the number of infants. For example, in the period from 1970 to 1995, one-child policy has reduced the number of infants to 200 million (‘Shen’). This is considered as a positive achievement of one-child policy. Also, this shows that the decision the Chinese government made was the right one. Another advantage of one-child policy is that the government decided to adopt it because it is also essential for maternal care (‘Short and Fengyu’). Maternal care that family planning encourage includes the improvement of women and children health and also prenatal care (‘Short and Fengyu’). Consequently, one-child policy is considered to be a successful strategy because it encourages and improves these necessary care measures for the benefit of children and women. At the same point, the Chinese government designed this policy to encourage women to use health care to protect their health. For example, spacing between one child and another is very important to women’s health. Accordingly, one child policy is vital for women to protect their health and live healthy lives with their families. Another advantage of one-child policy is reducing the average number of children that every Chinese woman can have. For example, in 1970 every woman used to have the right to have 6 children when this was reduced after adopting one-child policy to 3 children (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). Without adopting one-child policy, China would have certainly reached population of more than 1.3 billion (‘Shen’).
In addition to the social progress that one-child policy in China has successfully led to, it has also achieved economic progress in Chinese economy. Adopting population policies such as the one-child policy has made some progress in raising the standard of living in some rural areas (‘Falk’). One-child policy has improved the standard of people’s living in rural areas because children costs have been reduced as every family has just one child. In addition, some old villages are turned to be more vital again after long negligence; some of those villages became trade centers in China (‘Falk’). Traditional costume is very important for Chinese women as many of them wear the traditional Chinese costume “ Mao Jackets” which has been changed in the latest years so that women are wearing more modern costume than before. Obviously, this is an indication of an improvement of standard of living (‘Falk’). Also, quality of food services is getting better than what was offered before in China is apparent. This shows that one-child policy was effective in improving Chinese economy and people’s standard of living (‘Falk’). Also another improvement in China’s economy is seen in the way China is protecting its lands. China’s natural resources are enough for feeding China and also probably export food to other countries. These natural resources need to be protected. As a result, one-child policy and other governmental policies are trying to protect these lands and resources for China’s benefits (‘Falk’). The last economic advantage of one-child policy is improving the tourism in one way or another. Tourism is a very important source of foreign currency. Consequently, the government should care about the tourism to improve the country’s economy. One-child policy has contributed to raising the number of tourists who visit China. For example, in 1985 after just few years after adopting the new policy of one-child, almost 200,000 American tourists visited China (‘Falk’). To conclude, one-child policy has a great effect on the economy of China. With the progress in any country’s economy, standard of living of people would be improved as well.

Talking about the problems of one-child policy, sex preference of Chinese population as mentioned in the introduction can lead to many other problems related to the policy. Those problems which are associated with one-child policy in China include health problems, underreporting of children and environmental problems.
Chinese people, especially women, are experiencing health problems as a result of adapting one-child policy. There are three major health problems namely: abortion, delayed prenatal and maternal care and finally hiding pregnancies. Although one-child policy was designed for the benefit of Chinese population and China development, it has ultimately negative consequences on population as well.
The first health problem is abortion. Women’s health in general is affected more than men’s health especially in giving birth, abortion and postpartum. Abortion has been a problem in China since many years before adopting the one-child policy (‘Shen’). However, adapting one-child policy has increased the rate of abortion cases. The main reason that many Chinese women go for abortion is sex preference (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). In most patriarchal societies where male infants are more preferred than female infants, women tend to end their pregnancy if the baby is female. In those patriarchal societies, the need for boys is desperate to work in the field as most of these societies are agricultural in nature. As a result, families need more boys than girls to work in the land (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). When women are told that the new baby is going to be a girl, they decide to go for abortion to end this pregnancy. This is because they have just one chance to have one baby so they will choose to have a male baby rather than a female baby. Ate the same point, sex preference is common in rural areas as the illiteracy rate is higher than in urban areas (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). Uneducated parents are more likely to think to have abortion and preferring boys to girls than the educated parents. Accordingly, this phenomenon can be reduced by educating women because when women are educated, they will think first about the consequences of abortion on their health and accordingly avoid it (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). Not only women who should be educated but men should also be educated to realize that there is no difference between girls and boys and avoid sex preference. Also, economic improvements are needed to improve women’s and family status. As a result, Chinese population would be more aware of the abortion problem and find alternatives to solve the problem rather than through abortion. The other alternatives that can be used to organize family size include using contraception and induced abortion. Induced abortion is another way of ending pregnancy but safer and more organized than the abortion which is risky to women’s health (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). Hazards of abortion are various. A high rate of women’s and children mortality is one of the hazards of abortion and consequences of sex preference (‘Lofstedt and Annika’).technology has contributed in increasing the rate of abortion by using Ultrasound to know the sex of the baby during pregnancy; as a result, when the result of the ultra sound is a baby girl, women choose abortion to end this pregnancy (‘Lofstedt and Annika’).

The rate of abortion was high in the 1980s when first adopting the one-child policy. Penalties for anyone who violate the rules of the new policy were very strict. Those penalties are using IUD, a small object to be injected inside a woman body to prevent any new pregnancy, for women who have one child, abortion for unauthorized pregnancies and doing operation for any couples who have two or more children which make it impossible for them to have more children in the future (‘Birth Control-IUD’). However, in 1984 the second child was permitted especially in rural areas for families that have just girls as to reduce the sex preference and abortion in these areas (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). As a result, the abortion rate among women was reduced to 9 million while in 1995 it declined to 27 per 100 pregnancies; this was because laws have become less strict than before as mentioned above.

The second health problem that Chinese people face is delay prenatal and maternity care. Most mortality cases among women are caused by the bad prenatal and maternity care, especially in developing countries. Some of the complications women experience after giving birth are poor maternal health care, child mortality, low infants weight and poor pregnancy conditions (‘Short and Fengyu’) . These complications can be getting worse if women do not receive proper health care. Some Chinese do not seek maternal care because the Chinese government punishes women who have additional babies that exceed two children per family. The problem is that government sets policies to organize family size but at the same time discourage many women to receive maternity care and prenatal care. Not all women are convinced to plan their family size by restricting it to just one child. As a result, women avoid going to the hospital to receive health care (‘Short and Fengyu’). 345 million women are in the age of reproductive period; this means those women need to receive good health care to protect women and children’s health (‘Short and Fengyu’). Even some couples know they are violating the laws and would pay fines for that, they tend not to go to hospital to receive prenatal care; this is because they are afraid of being forced or encouraged officially to end the current pregnancy (‘Short and Fengyu’) . As a result, the solution women take is avoiding going to hospital to get the necessary prenatal care. Some families might not attempt to get maternity services not just because of punishment but also for financial reasons (‘Short and Fengyu’). The major issue that the Chinese government does is offering maternity services for just those women who follow the laws of having just one child (‘Short and Fengyu’). In one hand, ethically speaking, it is unacceptable not to offer this service to all pregnant women because it is the right of every pregnant woman to receive maternity service. On the other hand, the Chinese government should restrict the laws so everyone would follow the rules. Poor maternal and prenatal care women receive is considered another essential health problem associated with adapting one-child policy in China.

The third health problem is the hiding of some pregnancies. Some women tend to hide their pregnancy to avoid paying fines and to not be punished (‘Short and Fengyu’). In addition, some pregnant women hide their pregnancy because they are afraid of not getting the permission to have another baby (‘Short and Fengyu’). Pregnant women choose to deliver their babies secretly to avoid punishment. This can cause sever post-giving birth complications for women. Moreover, some women migrate to another city to give birth there so no one would recognize and have their babies without nay restrictions; this results in delaying receiving the prenatal service for women (‘Short and Fengyu’).

In short, one-child policy in China has caused many health problems. Women are the ones who are more likely to be affected negatively than men because of giving birth complications. One-child policy not only has caused health problems but increased the problems that were existed before.

The second disadvantage of one-child policy in China is underreporting of children. Underreporting is the action that some Chinese families do by hiding some children and do not register them. Underreporting percentage was high in 2000 while it was low in previous years according to censuses conducted; underreporting percentage was 4.2 and 4.8 percent in 1982 and 1990 while it was tripled in 2000 to 7.0 and 8.0 percent (‘Goodkind’). For example, in 1983 during the first years of adopting one-child policy, 14 million children were underreported. Nevertheless, according to 2002 census, approximately 37 million Chinese children below age 10 were underreported (‘Goodkind’). This shows that parents tend to follow the rules in the early years of adopting the one-child policy. Some families underreport their children for various reasons. The main reason for underreporting is that families are afraid of penalties of violating the rules of one-child policy (‘Goodkind’). Also, family planning rules are asked Chinese families to restrict to one child. As a result, families underreport illegal children to avoid being punished (‘Goodkind’). Parents tend to underreport their children in their early age from 0-4 years; this is because penalties fall gradually after age 4 and above (‘Goodkind’). Also, some parents think that it is better for their children to be underreported in early age because they will be able to report about themselves in the age 18 to 22 years (‘Goodkind’).Some evidence shows that the percentage of underreported female children and male children is the same (‘Shen’). However, other evidences show that the percentage of female children is more than the underreporting of male children (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). For example, there are almost 12 million missing girls in China (‘Lofstedt and Annika’). This shows that girls are more likely to be underreported than boys because girls are more unwelcome than boys in the Chinese society. As a result, lots of parents keep trying to get the ‘boy’ they want but they get girls instead so those girls would be underreported. Some might assume that missing children in China is caused by the lack of having children. However, this assumption is misunderstood as the reason for missing children is no registration of all newborn children because parents are afraid of penalties of violation of one-child policy (‘Goodkind’).

Final and third disadvantage that is associated with adopting one-child policy in China is environmental problems, such as pollution. China population is over 1.3 billion (‘Wu’). Those 1.3 billion consume water, food and other resources for living. As a result, this overpopulation in China has caused environmental problems, such as pollution. China has suffered from water population since the 1970s (‘Wu’). Studies have shown that water pollutants such as acids, nitrogen and mercury are the main sources of water pollution that results in health impacts (‘Wu’). Water pollution has caused many sever diseases such as liver and stomach cancer (‘Wu’). Many Chinese people died from those two deadly diseases. All these factors lead the Chinese government to think about solution to limit and restrict this problem. One child policy was the only solution because the impacts of overpopulation on health of people are several. Beijing and other large cities in China such as Liaoning, and Jiangsu are most likely to be polluted than the small cities (‘Wu’). Many Chinese people are suffering from health problem. As a result, one-child policy has contributed in reducing the growth of Chinese population and pollution also has reduced a bit in Chinese cities. Environmental and its health problems are very important factors in affecting people’s lives. In short, one-child policy did not completely solve the environmental and health problems but at least has contributed to reduce the sever impacts of those problems.

Talking about one-child policy or any other family planning policies, there must have been some boundaries in adopting the policy for the first time. I am going to mention some of these difficulties. One of these difficulties is adopting one-child policy in rural areas (‘Hsu’). Chinese people in rural areas are conservative as it is not an easy task to adopt such policy in these areas (‘Hsu’). Consequently, one-child policy has successful achieved reducing population in urban areas more than rural areas (‘Hsu’).Furthermore, in urban cities; large cities have reduced population more than small cities (‘Hsu’). The reason why one-child policy has succeeded in urban areas is because probably many educated people live there. As a result, it is easier for educated people to follow such policies than illiterate or people with lower education levels in rural areas (‘Hsu’).

In addition, another difficulty that Chinese officials have faced first adopting one-child policy is the contradiction between the rules of this policy and Chinese culture (‘Hsu’). The Chinese culture has never experienced adopting such control birth before. As a result, imposing such policy to the Chinese culture, this will contradict with the Chinese traditions (‘Hsu’). This is the reason why some Chinese people violate the rules of one-child policy because it causes contradiction with their culture. As mentioned above, the Chinese culture is conservative and traditional one, people would not be adopted easily to this new policy (‘Hsu’).Also, the level of education is related to the ability to adopt such policy as educated people tend to understand the drawbacks of having many children; these drawbacks can be health ones for both children and mothers and economically as well (‘Hsu’).
The final point that should be mentioned is the possibility of applying this policy to other countries that are at risk of overpopulation such as Egypt. As the one-child policy has successfully achieved some of its goals of reducing Chinese population, this policy can be applied to other countries but with special conditions. For example, Egypt may face huge difficulties adopting this policy as for religious, social, cultural and political reasons ‘(El-Zeini’). This is a big argument in the Islamic societies of the ability of controlling the birth or it is not allowed in Islam. As a result, the Egyptian government would face such boundaries and many people would follow what the religion says. Also, in Egypt the rate of uneducated people is very high. As a result, it would be very difficult to convince illiterate people especially women to control birth. In addition, the Egyptian culture especially in rural areas is very traditional and people would stick to tradition of having many children. Many children think having many children would be like a support for parents. As a result, people prefer having many children to support them in the future (‘Baron’).

In conclusion, the one-child policy has been a unique experience in the world that no country has adopted such policy before except China .Although one-child policy has successfully achieved its goals of reducing population in China, it also has caused and contributed to cause alternative problems in China culturally, economically and socially. Some might argue that human rights are violated as Chinese people do not have the choice to decide how many children they wish to have. On the other hand, the Chinese government had to make a quick decision to limit the rapid population growth. I think the Chinese government made the best decision for the best of China.

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