Download (.pdf) A FEMINIST TAOIST VOICE PART 1: MY DIALOGUE WITH ELISA FON, ACUPUNCTURIST, TAOIST, FEMINIST AND FRIEND by Sara Frykenberg
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
“So it all kind of depends… even in men compared to men, and women compared to women, you would have to have a... more
“So it all kind of depends… even in men compared to men, and women compared to women, you would have to have a counterpart to judge something as yin or yang—you are never statically just yin or just yang…”
Elisa Fon is a student of acupuncture, graduating this semester from Yo San University in Santa Monica, CA. She also studies reiki, energy healing, meditation and yoga. Elisa and I have known each other for most of our lives as friends, as one another’s support and as chosen family. Over the last few years, however, we have more consciously fostered an intentional aspect of our intimacy: a challenge to each other to live more authentically, to walk counter-abusively and to live towards physical, spiritual and emotional empowerment. One privilege of this relationship has been the opportunity to create a language together in order to speak across our differences and share our respective passions: feminist theo/alogies (mine) and Chinese medicine/ healing arts (Elisa’s).
The “Curse of Eve”—Is Pain Our Punishment? Part I by Stacia Guzzo
Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project
I have been involved in several interesting discussions lately involving friends asking me what I thought of the... more
I have been involved in several interesting discussions lately involving friends asking me what I thought of the so-called “Curse of Eve.” This “curse,” which is generally used in reference to the pain of childbirth, is assumed from the text of Genesis 3:16a. On one side, I have had friends and colleagues argue that the pains of labor are a direct result of Eve’s sin, and thus all women who bear children will suffer them as a reminder of their inherent sinful nature. On the other hand, I have had friends question this interpretation: Why, they ask, would God use such an incredible event to punish us? And what about women who don’t experience any pain in childbirth at all? Or who do not have children? Is God’s punishment reserved for those who procreate? This doesn’t seem to make much sense in a larger spiritual framework.
Some additional questions have arisen from these discussions. I had a friend recently ask me, “If a woman is supposed to feel pain in childbirth, is she going against God’s will if she uses medication to ease her discomfort?” Another friend brought up the fact that God’s actions are seldom (if ever) random; therefore, what is the transformation that God is expecting from such a punishment? What does Eve’s “punishment” have to say about how we interact with, communicate with, and love God (and likewise)?
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Working for the Cure: Challenging Pink Ribbon Activism
Published in Configuring Health Consumers: Health Work and the Imperative of Personal Responsibility. Eds. R. Harris, N. Wathen, S. Wyatt. Amsterdam: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010: 140-159.
Captured and branded in the highly recognizable image of the pink ribbon, the politics of breast cancer at the start... more
Captured and branded in the highly recognizable image of the pink ribbon, the politics of breast cancer at the start of the 21st century is markedly hopeful (given the grim statistics) and surprisingly compliant with the medical establishment’s defined health goals and approaches to addressing the breast cancer epidemic. In keeping with this volume’s theme of “Working to be Healthy”, this chapter examines and evaluates how the pink ribbon message has shaped and organized social response to breast cancer. The work in question is “healthwork”, a term found in the critical health literature denoting the active and purposeful work that people do to look after their health (Mykhalovskiy and McCoy, 2002). Healthwork analysis tends to focus on personal care practices—taking medicines, dealing with healthcare practitioners, informal care-giving, health information seeking, etc.—that are then subject to examination of how those individual actions invite extended relations of governance and ruling (Mykhalovskiy, McCoy and Bresalier, 2004). In this examination of breast cancer campaigns, the same analytic concern with governance is taken, but the health-related work is extended beyond personal care and self-surveillance to also include the volunteer work done by many concerned citizens in their contributions of time, energy, and money to support campaigns for the cure.
In this chapter, I argue that while the appropriation of the language and themes of the early women’s health movement frames pink ribbon activism as a highly personal, emancipatory, and socially-responsible individual effort, this brand of breast cancer activism instead serves to fund a limited biomedical research agenda that is largely shielded from public scrutiny. This agenda has been universalized through endearing “hero” narratives of personal struggle that inspire civic engagement by complicit consumers rather than critical activists. Pink ribbon activism problematically diverges from the women’s health movement’s demand for participation in setting the research agenda and determining treatment strategies. This neglect is troubling, given that breast cancer discourse is so fraught with contested knowledge claims regarding disease aetiology, prevention, and treatment. While the pink ribbon message offers hope and optimism, it does so by suppressing many counterclaims, disputes, and ambiguities surrounding the problem of breast cancer. Instead of soft “pink”, a more critical social response to breast cancer is needed in order to ensure women’s informed participation in addressing this serious challenge to women’s health.
Assessment of the Exposure to Arsenic and Fluoride from Drinking Water in the City of Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico.
The paper "Assessment of the Exposure to Arsenic and Fluoride from Drinking Water in the City of Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico" was presented at the World Congress on Water, Climate and Energy organised by the International Water Association (IWA-WCE 2012) in Dublin on May 15, 2012.
González Dávila, O. (2012) Assessment of the Exposure to Arsenic and Fluoride from Drinking Water in the City of Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico. World Congress on Water, Climate and Energy. International Water Association.
In several areas of Northern Mexico, groundwater arsenic and fluoride levels above the limits established by the... more
In several areas of Northern Mexico, groundwater arsenic and fluoride levels above the limits established by the Mexican guideline have been detected. An exploratory study found that in two of the extraction wells from the system that provides water to the city of Guadalupe, Zacatecas, the levels of arsenic were 10 and 16 times above the Mexican guideline. Further, the fluoride levels were two times above the guideline. There was an urgent need to characterize the risk areas for arsenic and fluoride exposure. In this study arsenic and fluoride exposures from drinking water were estimated and different risk areas in the city of Guadalupe were identified and mapped. It was found that 100% of the collected samples show levels of arsenic above the Mexican guideline of 0.025 mg/l arsenic and almost 50% of the samples have levels of fluoride above the 1.5 mg/l fluoride guideline. Women and children 0-12 years old were identified as particularly vulnerable groups. A comprehensive public policy is required to tackle this environmental problem.
Keywords: Arsenic, Fluoride, Mexico, Water Contamination
Saudi imams warn against mixing of sports, politics and protest
By James M. Dorsey
Saudi and ultra-conservative imams have warned in separate statements against the mixing... more
By James M. Dorsey
Saudi and ultra-conservative imams have warned in separate statements against the mixing of sports and politics and protests against autocratic regimes, which, according to some, results from of the mingling of the sexes in sports.
The warnings come against the backdrop of Saudi efforts to shield the Gulf from the wave of popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, renewed focus on the role of militant soccer fans opposing military rule in Egypt and pressure on the kingdom to allow women to compete for the first time in an international tournament during the London Olympics.
Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh quoted in the kingdom's Al Watan newspaper warned that the protests that have already toppled the leaders of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen and brought Syria to the brink of civil war were sinful. "The schism, instability, the malfunctioning of security and the breakdown of unity that Islamic countries are facing these days is a result of the sins of the public and their transgressions," Sheikh Abdulaziz said.
Such sins include, according to Imam Abu Abdellah of As-Sunnah mosque in Kissimee, Florida, speaking in a video posted on the Internet, the mixing of the sexes at sports events. “In the past it was only men, now it is almost half half (in stadiums). Allah knows what happens afterwards. Either way it is bad. Either people go out, they are sensing and partying and drinking and all that, so that’s negative. And if they don’t, they go out and they demonstrate and they’re angry and they destroy property and they destroy cars and they destroy people’s business. Either way its haram (forbidden), things have to be done in moderation. These are the things that are associated with sports that the believers have to be careful with,” Abu Abedallah said.
“So there is nothing wrong with watching and practicing your favourite sport as long as you adhere to the norms. When it comes to the way you dress and the way you behave, where you’re going to be, what are you going to be listening to; are you going to be mingling in crowds you are not supposed to be mingling with? All of those things do matter when you are practicing or you are watching your favourite sport,” the imam said.
The clerics’ statements came as Saudi Arabia prepares for a summit of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in which it hopes to foist closer political and military cooperation on its largely reluctant co-members Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE. Bahrain, which last year brutally squashed with Saudi assistance an uprising against its minority Sunni Muslin rulers, is likely to be the only GCC state to fully endorse the notion of a political union.
The statements also come as International Olympics Committee president Jacques Rogge is under pressure to make good on his pledges earlier this year to stand for gender equality by banning Saudi Arabia from this year’s London Olympics if it fails to field women athletes. A Human Rights Watch report released in February, called on Saudi Arabia to protect women's equal right to sports and urged the IOC to live up to its charter, which prohibits discrimination, or face a ban similar to that imposed on Afghanistan in 1999 partly for its exclusion of female athletes.
With Qatar and Brunei expected to have women athletes for the first time this year in their delegations, Saudi Arabia would be the only country in the world that still refuses to allow women to compete. The kingdom has recently hinted that it would not stand against Saudi women living abroad competing, but would not field athletes from the kingdom itself.
In separate statements, two Saudi religious scholars admonished soccer players that bad behaviour could lead to a ban on public attendance of matches. It was not immediately clear what incidents of bad behaviour they were referring to.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Suleiman Al Manei, a member of the Gulf Kingdom’s supreme scholars committee and an advisor to King Abdullah warned that “the spread of such (bad) acts on play fields is a clear indicator of a decline in moral values and the transformation of sport from fair competition into bigotry. The continuation of these bad phenomena which pose a threat to the ethical values of our sons makes the attendance of these matches a hateful thing. This means that going to these matches could become prohibited because what is happening there has a strong negative impact on the society.”
In a statement of his own, Sheikh Abdullah Al Mutlaq, another member of the supreme committee, denounced players for allegedly faking incidents in a bid to get a referee to award a penalty in their team’s favour. “These are acts of deception, which is hated and forbidden in Islam…..the sin becomes worse when the player swears by Allah falsely…players should refrain from such wrong acts as they have become a bad example for the young generation,” Sheikh Al Mutlaq said without reference to specific incidents.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a consultant to geopolitical consulting firm Wikistrat.
Women's decision making at menopause - a focus group study.
by Liz Farmer
Alfred A, Esterman A, Farmer E, Pilotto L, Weston K. Aust Fam Physician. 2006 Apr;35(4):270-2.
BACKGROUND: Women are faced with a confusion of information and uncertainty when making decisions at menopause.... more
BACKGROUND: Women are faced with a confusion of information and uncertainty when making decisions at menopause. METHODS: We conducted four focus groups of 31 women aged 40-64 years, exploring their experience and views about menopause, its management, and decision support needs. RESULTS: Focus group participants saw menopause as a natural progression rather than a medical condition, and decision making about therapies as a personal responsibility. They wanted reliable, agenda free information, and opportunities to discuss personal needs with (preferably female) health professionals. They preferred minimal intervention and found life style strategies helpful. DISCUSSION: Women's preference to make their own decisions at menopause is frustrated by conflicting information and the perceived marketing agenda of information sources. Women need unbiased, timely, menopause information backed by expert commentary in a range of media to suit their access needs.
Every Woman Matters
A community reporr from a participatory community-based pronect with the Women's Health in Women's Hands community health centre in Toronto, Canada. the study presents exoeriences of Black Women and Women of Colour accessing primary health care with attention to intersecting vectors of racism, sexism, heterosexism and homophobia, poverty, homelessness and Hiv phobia and stigma.
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An ethnographic look at the status of health of women living in an urban squatter settlement of Karachi.
co authored with Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah, Published in Pakistan journal of Gender Studies.
Egyptian feminists challenge militant soccer fan chauvinism
By James M. Dorsey
An Egyptian feminist group has challenged militant soccer fans that played a key role in... more
By James M. Dorsey
An Egyptian feminist group has challenged militant soccer fans that played a key role in toppling president Hosni Mubarak to recognise women's rights to unrestricted protest.
The challenge exposes conservatism that is deeply rooted in Egyptian society and cuts across ideological, cultural and religious fault lines. It lays bare differing interpretations of concepts such as diversity, freedom and faith and highlights a battle by women who were prominent in the campaign to overthrow Mr. Mubarak to have their rights recognised in post-revolt Egypt.
The women confront a conservatism that pervades the Middle East and North Africa as illustrated by the recent creation of a soccer league in the United Arab Emirates that allows women to play behind closed doors in the absence of men as well as Saudi Arabia's struggle with the International Olympic Committee's demand that it include women among its athletes at this year's London Olympics.
UAE and Kuwaiti royals joined prominent foreign representatives this week at a two day conference to encourage women’s participants in sports and the launch of the Fatima Bint Mubarak Women's Sports Awards, named after the third wife of the founder of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who heads the Family Development Foundation.
Egyptian women are battling to have their rights acknowledged on two fronts: recognition by their often socially conservative revolutionary male counterparts as well as Egypt's post-Mubarak military rulers who have systematically humiliated detained women protesters by subjecting them to virginity tests. A court this week acquitted a military doctor who conducted the tests.
More secular Egyptian women fear that the rise of Islamists further threatens achievement of their rights. Islamists have dissolved the Women's Council, charging that it was a creation of Suzanne Mubarak, the ousted president's widely despised wife. Islamist members of parliament have also proposed the establishment of a family ministry that would operate in accordance with Islamic law and roll back legal advances introduced by the Mubarak regime.
The feminists issued their challenge in response to a decision by the ultras -- militant, highly politicised, soccer fans -- to allow women to participate in their 16-day old sit-in in front of parliament only during daytime and to ban them at night starting from 22:00.
The ultras are demanding justice for 74 of their comrades who died in a soccer brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said that they believe was instigated by the government in retaliation for their role in the ousting of Mr. Mubarak and their militant opposition to his military successors.
In a statement quoted on the Egyptian news website Bikya Masr, the Independent Egyptian Women's Union said that those "who carry the flame of liberty against the oppressive powers should respect it first." They said that their understanding of diversity and faith ruled out restricting women's right to protest.
The battle for women's rights is one that is being waged by different women's groups -- secular and religious -- whose definition of women’s rights varies both among Middle Eastern and North African groups as well as Western ones.
Western groups objected last month to a decision by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to allow observant Muslim women to wear a headdress that meets their religious and cultural requirements as well as safety and security standards.
The decision by the IFAB, which governs the rules of professional soccer, was intended to open opportunity to a large number of observant Muslim women who had been excluded from a professional career because of what they saw as a conflict between the rules of their faith and the rules of the game.
The conservatism is most deep-seated in Saudi Arabia, home to Wahhabism, one of the world's most puritan and restrictive interpretations of Islam that allows women to travel abroad only with the permission of a male guardian and bans them from driving. The kingdom, under threat of exclusion from the London Olympics if it fails to field women athletes and pressured by human rights groups has responded publicly with a series of test balloons on how to respond.
Saudi officials first leaked a story earlier this year about a plan to build the kingdom’s first stadium especially designed to accommodate women who are currently barred from attending soccer matches because of the kingdom’s strict public gender segregation. The planned stadium was supposed to open in 2014. Saudi media subsequently reported that the plan had been shelved.
Deputy education minister for female student affairs Noura al-Fayez said in two letters addressed to Human Rights Watch that the government was working to set up a “comprehensive physical education programme”, including sports facilities and a health and nutrition awareness scheme “as part of its national strategy for physical education for boys and girls”, according to the daily al-Watan newspaper. Ms. Al-Fayez said physical education for girls was under consideration “as one of the priorities of the ministry's leadership”.
The letters didn’t stop Human Rights Watch from accusing Saudi Arabia in a report of kowtowing to assertions by the country's powerful conservative Muslim clerics that female sports constitute "steps of the devil" that will encourage immorality and reduce women's chances of meeting the requirements for marriage.
The kingdom’s toothless Shura or Advisory Council moreover issued regulations for women's sports clubs, but conservative religious forces often have the final say in whether they are implemented or not. Saudi Arabia’s official sports body, the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, presided by a member of the royal family, Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal, only caters to men. As a result, the kingdom last year hired a consultant to develop its first national sports plan - for men only.
Al Hayat newspaper, owned by a Saudi royal, reported last month that Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud had approved plans to send female athletes to the London Olympics. That report was quickly squashed with the media quoting Prince Nayef as reversing his statement.
Prince Nawaf subsequently went a step further by telling a news conference: “Female sports activity has not existed (in the kingdom) and there is no move thereto in this regard. At present, we are not embracing any female Saudi participation in the Olympics or other international championships.”
Despite Saudi women in the kingdom pushing the envelope by forming private clubs of their own, Prince Nawaf asserted that the demand for women’s participation came from Saudi women living abroad. He said the kingdom would work to ensure that expatriate Saudi women seeking to compete in the Olympics on their own account rather than as official delegates would do so “in the appropriate framework and comported with Islamic law.” He said he was working with the Saudi mufti and religious scholars to guarantee that nothing “infringed upon the Muslim woman.”
Saudi Arabia adopted a similar approach at the Youth Olympics in 2010 where Saudi equestrian participated without official endorsement and won a bronze medal in show jumping. It was not immediately clear whether the approach would this time be sufficient to remove the IOC’s threat of excluding the kingdom from the Olympics.
The evident debate about women’s rights to sports is part of a far broader discussion about the position of women in Saudi society. In an unusually frank interview with the BBC, Princess Basma Bint Saud Bin Abdulaziz lambasted the kingdom’s discriminatory policies and called for the drafting of a constitution that would treat men and women equally as well as sweeping reforms, including “abusive” divorce laws, an education system that teaches “that a woman's position in society is inferior” and "that the angels will curse her if she is not submissive to her husband's needs," and a social affairs ministry that “is tolerating cruelty towards women rather than protecting them.”
To be sure the conservatism that inhibits women’s rights has support among conservative segments of the Middle East and North Africa’s female population. Three Emirate women, have launched, according to a report in The National, a behind closed doors soccer league in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the far more liberal UAE alongside the country’s national women’s team because they had no opportunity to play in an environment that banned men.
"There are some girls that don't mind playing in front of men. But there is a huge percentage of Emirati women who can't play in front of men because of cultural reasons. Those in the community who want to play the sport after university don't have a place to go. It's all open and there isn't really a place for the sport to be developed," said government employee Mariam Al Omaira, a founding partner of Irada (Determination) Sports Development Company.
The league has 84 players spread over six teams.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Dışlanmışlık ile destek arasında – Depresif şikayetleri olan Türkiye kökenli göçmen kadınların ulusaşırı biyografilerinde eylem yeteniği
by Sina Motzek
Türkçe'de yazılmış doktora projesi özeti, Şubat 2012
Türkiye kökenli ulusaşırı göçmen kadınlar ulusaşırı alanda informel ve formel destek alarak, kendi depresif... more Türkiye kökenli ulusaşırı göçmen kadınlar ulusaşırı alanda informel ve formel destek alarak, kendi depresif hastalıklarıyla ve sosyal dışlanmışlık süreçleriyle nasıl başediyorlar?
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The Theory and Practice of Soranus’ Prenatal Regimen
Presented at the APA 2009 SAM panel and a portion of the monograph I'm developing for Brill's 'Studies in Ancient Medicine' series "Greek Physicians and the Doctor-Patient relationship in Ancient Rome."
The discussion surrounding pregnancy and childbirth in the Roman Empire often tends to focus on questions of... more
The discussion surrounding pregnancy and childbirth in the Roman Empire often tends to focus on questions of contraception, abortion, and exposure due to larger historical questions. The context surrounding the waning birthrates besetting the elite families of Imperial Rome and the Lex Papia Poppaea’s encouragement of large families among Roman citizens generates understandable interest in how and why such families would choose to limit births, and how much of the situation was driven by intention rather than environmental or genetic factors. However, such a focus tends to leave behind the
experience of women who, for a variety of reasons, wished to conceive and bear healthy children to term.
Fortunately, the Gynecology of Soranus provides a detailed description of the sort of pregnancy likely to be experienced by the wealthy Roman women who were under great pressure to produce heirs for the ruling class, and also gives tantalizing glimpses at alternate methods employed by Soranus’ competitors in that arena.
This paper will explore various beliefs and practices surrounding the care of a pregnant woman and her unborn child, focusing on Soranus’ method and the traditions that informed his philosophy of prenatal care. It will argue that the many facets of therapy for the pregnant woman that seem restrictive, irrelevant, over-cautious, and even harmful to a modern reader were the result of cultural attitudes and medical theories which had in mind the best interests of both the mother and her child.
During the Imperial period the idea that fetal life was extremely fragile seems to have been widespread. Pliny the Elder, for instance, claims that women have miscarried at the smell of a lamp being snuffed (7.5), or from physical contact or proximity to plants (25.67, 27.86) and animals (30.43, 30.44, 32.46). The threat was not only physical; Soranus claims that a pregnant woman’s emotional disturbance could mark the child, or even cause miscarriage (1.39, 1.46), something also reported by Pliny. Also, a first-time mother would in all likelihood be quite young, and so involved in a pregnancy high-risk by modern standards as well. Soranus sets the ideal age for first intercourse at menarche (1.33), and his argument is weighted more strongly against those who would set the age earlier than later, which implies that it was not uncommon for women to bear children in early puberty. Such mothers would be inexperienced, physically immature, and would need the sort of strict supervision set out in the Gynecology.
Even so, many aspects of the regimen advocated by Soranus are counterproductive, for it advocated restrictive caloric intake, thwarted cravings - even for safe foods, and even periods of fasting to settle morning sickness (1.49- 53). Such a course of treatment cannot have been pleasant for the mother, and could very well weaken her for childbirth and retard the child’s development. Soranus’ motivations, though, were clearly rooted in his sect’s philosophy that the human digestive system could only process a fixed amount of food, and that any surplus “decomposed” food would prove toxic to the mother and her
child. Under this model of digestion, “Eating for two” would be disastrous for his patients, and so he advocates thwarting the woman’s cravings out of professional responsibility, and not solely a desire to control. Soranus’ method (and Methodism) represented the best reasoned care that his sect could offer,
and provides a glimpse of Methodist theory in action.
Conservative Saudi crown prince endorses female participation in Olympics
By James M. Dorsey
Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has approved plans for the... more
By James M. Dorsey
Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has approved plans for the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom to send female athletes to the Olympics for the first time at the London Games in a move that counters fears that he would be a less progressive ruler than ailing King Abdullah, according to Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper.
In doing so, Prince Nayef, the kingdom’s long-serving interior minister who is widely viewed as a conservative even by Saudi standards and is closer than the king to the country’s powerful, austere Wahhabi clergy, is bowing to pressure from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that threatened to bar Saudi Arabia from the London games if it failed to field female athletes.
The decision is likely to be welcomed by liberal Saudis who worry that once he succeeds King Abdullah he will prove to be more susceptible to demands of the clergy who adhere to the teachings of the 18th century puritan warrior-priester, Mohammed Abdul Wahhab to reverse the process of gradual political, economic and social reforms initiated by King Abdullah. In an illustration’s of the clergy’s conservatism, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abd al-Aziz bin Abdullah recently called for the destruction of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula.
The decision by Prince Nayef is likely part of a concerted government effort to fend off a possible popular uprising in the kingdom similar to those sweeping large parts of the Middle East and North Africa by catering to youth sentiments and growing female demand for sporting opportunities.
Prince Nayef earned a reputation as a hardliner most recently for his crackdown on Al Qaeda militants in the kingdom. By the same token, he oversaw a largely successful rehabilitation program that guided the return to society of former Al Qaeda operatives.
Al Hayat said that Prince Nayef’s approval was conditioned on women competing in sports that "meet the standards of women's decency and don't contradict Islamic laws." It was not immediately clear which sports the crown prince had in mind.
Al Hayat reported Prince Nayef’s decision a day after the IOC reported that progress had been made in negotiations with Saudi Olympic officials on sending female athletes and officials to the games.
Saudi Arabia alongside Qatar and Brunei has never included women in its Olympic teams. IOC officials believe that Qatar and Brunei will also be fielding women athletes in London for the first time.
“The IOC is confident that Saudi Arabia is working to include women athletes and officials at the Olympic Games in London in accordance with the international federations' rules," the IOC said.
Earlier, IOC President Jacques Rogge said in an interview with The Associated Press that he was "optimistic" that Saudi Arabia would send women to London. "It depends on the possibilities of qualifications, standards of different athletes. We're still discussing the various options," Mr. Rogge said.
He said a decision would be finalized within a month to six weeks, but "we are optimistic that this is going to happen."
The apparent IOC success in nudging Saudi Arabia into complying with the committee’s charter contrasts starkly with world soccer body FIFA’s failure to hold the kingdom to its obligation. Saudi Arabia fields a men’s soccer team but restricts if not bans women’s soccer.
FIFA’s failure to pressure Saudi Arabia also contrasts with its recent effort to ensure that observant Muslim women can play professional soccer by lifting its ban on women wearing the hijab in favour of a headdress that fulfils the cultural needs of Muslim players and meets safety and security standards.
International human rights group Human Rights Watch last month accused Saudi Arabia of kowtowing to assertions by the country's powerful conservative Muslim clerics that female sports constitute "steps of the devil" that will encourage immorality and reduce women's chances of meeting the requirements for marriage.
The Human Rights Watch charges contained in a report entitled “’Steps of the Devil’ came on the heels of the kingdom backtracking on a plan to build its first stadium especially designed to allow women who are currently barred from attending soccer matches because of the kingdom’s strict public gender segregation to watch games. The planned stadium was supposed to open in 2014.
The report urged the International Olympic Committee to require Saudi Arabia to legalize women's sports as a condition for its participation in Olympic games.
Saudi women despite official discouragement have in recent years increasingly been pushing the envelope at times with the support of more liberal members of the ruling Al Saud family. The kingdom's toothless Shura or Advisory Council has issued regulations for women's sports clubs, but conservative religious forces often have the final say in whether they are implemented or not.
In a sign that efforts to allow and encourage women's sports are at best haphazard and supported only by more liberal elements in the government, the kingdom last year hired a consultant to develop its first national sports plan - for men only. There is no legal ban in on women’s sports in Saudi Arabia where the barriers for women are rooted in tradition and the kingdom’s puritan interpretation of Islamic law.
The pushing of the envelope comes as women are increasingly challenging other aspects of the kingdom's gender apartheid against the backdrop of simmering discontent in Saudi society over a host of issues.
Manal al-Sharif was detained in May of last year for nine days after she videotaped herself flouting the ban on women driving by getting behind a steering wheel and driving. She was released only after signing a statement promising that she would stop agitating for women's rights.
A group of women launched earlier this year a legal challenge to the ban asserting that it had no base in Islamic law.
Opposition to women's sports is reinforced by the fact that physical education classes are banned in state-run Saudi girl’s schools. Public sports facilities are exclusively for men and sports associations offer competitions and support for athletes in international competitions only to men.
The issue of women's sport has at time sparked sharp debate with conservative clerics condemning it as corrupting and satanic and charging that it spreads decadence. Conservative clerics have warned that running and jumping can damage a woman's hymen and ruin her chances of getting married.
One group of religious scholars argued that swimming, soccer and basketball were too likely to reveal “private parts,” which includes large areas of the body. Another religious scholar said it could lead to “mingling with men.”
To be fair, less conservative clerics have come out in favour of women's sports as well as less restrictions on women. In addition, the newly appointed head of the kingdom's religious vigilantes is reported to favour relaxation of the ban on the mixing of the sexes.
In defiance of the obstacles to their right to engage in sports, women have in recent years quietly been establishing soccer and other sports teams using extensions of hospitals and health clubs as their base.
Prince Nayef’s decision has revived hope that 18-year old equestrienne Dalma Rushdi Malhas who won a bronze medal in the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics in which she participated at her own accord would be among the first Saudi women athletes to compete at an Olympic games. Expectations that she would be competing in London were dashed recently when the Saudis qualified an all-men team qualified for London’s jumping competition.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Early Farming and Women: Subsistence and Sex-Differences in Dental Health
by Misty Fields
In "Writing in Anthropology: The Summary and The Critique Paper" by Dorothy Ukaegbu, pages 288-297, Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2011.
This article was written for an undergraduate readership. It examines women’s oral health as it relates to... more
This article was written for an undergraduate readership. It examines women’s oral health as it relates to agricultural subsistence and associated dietary and physiological changes. The investigation focuses on the foraging-to-farming transition in the Desert Southwest (circa 1600 BC-AD 200) during a time of subsistence change and population increase. The study uses an osteological sample excavated from the archaeological site of La Playa in northwest Mexico. Analyses of dental data identify differential patterns in the occurrence of pathology in adult women and men. Results provides insights into the development of health trends specific to reproductive-age women. By considering the interaction that occurs between biological and cultural phenomena, study results provide a more dynamic picture of history and health in the ancient Southwest.
Critical thinking questions challenge the student to understand the application of bioarchaeological research to contemporary culture and people today.
Radiaoctivity in Cigarette
Turkish Journal of nuclear Sciences Volume 25 no:2 pp 1998
ibrahim Uslu, E. Tanker, M.L. Aksu
Cigarette is known to be hazardous to health due to nicotine and tar it contains. This is indicated on cigarette... more Cigarette is known to be hazardous to health due to nicotine and tar it contains. This is indicated on cigarette packets by health warnings. However there is less known hazard of smoking due to intake of radioactive compounds by inhalation. This study dwells upon the radioactive hazard of smoking.
