THE QUEEN WAS ACTUALLY A MAN: ARWĀ BINT AHMAD AND THE POLITICS OF RELIGION

Arabica ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samer Traboulsi
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Special Relations ◽  
Politics Of Religion ◽  
The Way ◽  
Literary Legacy

AbstractArwā bint Ahmad (d. 532/1137) ruled in Yemen for fifty-five years. She played an important political role and at the same time occupied the highest rank in the Ismā'īlī religious hierarchy after that of the imam. Her religious policies, particularly her special relations with the Fatimids, led to the transfer of the Fatimid literary legacy to Yemen, and hence to its preservation following the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate. She likewise organized the new structure of the Yemeni Ismā'īlī da'wa, thus contributing to its survival after the fall of the Sulayhid dynasty. The proposed paper investigates Arwā's career from two different angles: the Fatimid Egyptian and the Yemen Ismā'īlī. The main point will be the way they dealt with the fact that she was a female ruler. The Fatimid caliph-imam al-Mustansir first issued a decree stating that to follow her was a religious duty. He then appointed her to the rank of huğğa, the highest after that of the imam, in order to give her rule a more emphatic legitimacy. The Yemeni Ismā'īlī position is best represented in al-Sultān al-Hattāb's religious tract Gāyat al-mawālīd, where he argues that Arwā's female body was no more than a body envelope covering her original male essence. The fact that Arwā was a woman posed a serious problem for both the Fatimids and the Yemeni Ismā'īlīs. In each case they tried to deal with it in a way that suited their political and religious interests.

Something Gleaming

Theoria ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (165) ◽  
pp. 92-117
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Leebaw
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
The Way

What kinds of lessons can be learned from stories of those who resisted past abuses and injustices? How should such stories be recovered, and what do they have to teach us about present day struggles for justice and accountability? This paper investigates how Levi, Broz, and Arendt formulate the political role of storytelling as response to distinctive challenges associated with efforts to resist systematic forms of abuse and injustice. It focuses on how these thinkers reflected on such themes as witnesses, who were personally affected, to varying degrees, by atrocities under investigation. Despite their differences, these thinkers share a common concern with the way that organised atrocities are associated with systemic logics and grey zones that make people feel that it would be meaningless or futile to resist. To confront such challenges, Levi, Arendt and Broz all suggest, it is important to recover stories of resistance that are not usually heard or told in ways that defy the expectations of public audiences. Their distinctive storytelling strategies are not rooted in clashing theories of resistance, but rather reflect different perspectives on what is needed to make resistance meaningful in contexts where the failure of resistance is intolerable.

scholarly journals Lusatian Folklore in the Slavic Research of the Italian Wolfango (Wolf) Giusti

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
Yarema Kravets’ ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Folk Songs ◽  
Folk Song ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
Mood Classification ◽  
The Way ◽  
Literary Legacy

Purpose: The article is devoted to the Sorbian studies work of the Italian Slavic scholar of Lusatian origin Wolfango Giusti (1901-1980) “The Folk Lusatian Serbian Song” (1926), totally unknown in Ukrainian Slavic scholars’ circles. The author of a large number of Sorbian studies publications printed in the 1920s and 1930s in the pages of Italian Slavic editions, he became a true popularizer of Lusatian culture, and his works found a special reverberation in the research papers of authoritative Sorbian scholars. W. Giusti’s name as researcher and translator has recently been more frequently mentioned in Slavistic publications, his interest in Ukrainian poetry, esp. in the 1920s, is written about. The interest in W. Giusti’s literary legacy is linked, in particular, to his being interested in T. Shevchenko’s and M. Shashkevych’s lyrics. In the research under analysis, the Italian scholar stressed that “the soul of the Lusatian people has found its best and fullest expression in their folk song”. Also mentioned by W. Giusti were Ukrainian folk songs, rich in their multi-genre samples. Results: The paper presents a classification of the most characteristic folk songs, the classification coming to be basis-providing for the Italian scholar: W. Giusti relied on authoritative research papers, including those by the scholars K. Fiedler and B. Krawc. The Italian Slavicist acquaints us with songs of love between brother and sister, love songs about the way of life of the whole people, songs resonating with the motif of fidelity. Neither has the literary scholar bypassed the issue of the neighbouring peoples’ influence experienced by Lusatian culture, particularly that of a Germanic culture, providing some examples of a “spiritual analogy” with German folk songs. W. Giusti completed his short essay by promising to offer the reader, before long, “other genres of the extremely rich Lusatian folklore”. The promise came to be fulfilled as early as the next year, in the work published under the title “Folk Lusatian Serbian Songs”. Key words: Lusatian folklore, Wolfango Giusti, folk song, motif of fidelity/infidelity, dramatic mood, classification of songs, aspects of “Wendish” folklore, Germanic influence.

scholarly journals The Concept of ‘Home’ in Palestinian Diaspora Fiction: A Critical Study of Randa Jarrar’s Fiction

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Jameel Ahmed Alghaberi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Creative Space ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

The paper discusses the concepts of ‘home’, ‘cultural identity’, and ‘transnationalism’ in Randa Jarrar’s fiction. Being a diasporic Palestinian American, Randa Jarrar in her debut novel A Map of Home presents a particular view of ‘homeland’ and of what ‘historic Palestine’ means to her. The attempt in this paper is to critically analyze her fiction and to highlight the issues that she tackles as a writer of Palestinian origin. The paper also explores the way Randa Jarrar approaches the concept of ‘home’, and an examination of the relationship between Palestinian diasporas and their homeland-Palestine is presented. There is much wandering that Randa Jarrar is experimenting with in rather a creative space, and there is also a counter-narrative ideology embedded in the novel, a way to resist the stereotypes that have fixed the Middle Eastern female body as propagated in Orientalist discourse. 

Deontological ethics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McNaughton ◽  
Piers Rawling
Keyword(s):  
Moral Duty ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
Surface Features ◽  
Deontological Ethics ◽  
The World ◽  
Special Relations ◽  
The Way

Deontology is often defined by contrasting it with one of its chief competitors, consequentialism. In its simplest form, consequentialism claims that we only have one moral duty: to do as much good as possible. Deontology (the word comes from the Greek deon meaning ‘one must’) denies this, and asserts that there are several distinct duties, not all of which depend for their status as duties on considerations of value alone. Deontological duties are divided into two classes: constraints and duties of special relationship. The former govern the way we treat others regardless of our relationships to them. Some ways of treating people, such as torturing them, are ruled out, even to prevent others doing worse deeds. The latter govern our actions toward those to whom we stand in special relations such as friendship. You are required to do certain things for your friends, even if you could make the world better by abandoning them. In addition to constraints and duties of relationship, some deontologists claim that there is a requirement to do good whenever there is no other duty more pressing. Others are less demanding, requiring only that we do some good in addition to fulfilling our other obligations. The least demanding deontology would incorporate no moral requirement to do good, and claim that provided we breach no duty we are permitted to live as we see fit. Some deontologists attempt to justify the various duties they propose by appeal to some more fundamental and unifying principle(s). Other deontologists deny that such unifying justification is available. Deontologists, then, may agree about surface features, such as the extent of our duties, while disagreeing about the possibility of an underlying rationale.

scholarly journals Politics of Religion in Tehmina Durrani’s Blasphemy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Keyword(s):  
Influential Factors ◽  
Rural Setting ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Status ◽  
Politics Of Religion ◽  
Realistic Representation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Monolithic Approach

Generally regarded as one of the most influential factors in the human history, religion has frequently been used as a strong political force by the ruling pundits. In the hands of retrogressive elites, religion has often been operated as an aggressive tool to subdue the voices of the common. In the recent political history of the subcontinent, the aforementioned political role of religion can hardly been overemphasized. Made on the rhetoric of Islam, Pakistan has frequently identified herself as Islam ka Qilla (fortress of Islam) since the very inception till date. Such a monolithic approach of religion has substantially shaped the individual and collective socio-political consciousness of people in Pakistan. Driving the country’s contemporary sensitivities, the politics of religion pivots Pakistani society. The contemporary English fiction in Pakistan largely represents the cultural issues, deeply rooted in religion. Tehmina Durrani, one of the most acclaimed Pakistani novelists, frequently writes about the religiosity and the status of women in Pakistan. Setting against this socio-political preference of religion in Pakistani society, it is proposed that Tehmina Durrani’s Blasphemy can be read as a critique of the retrogressive roles of clergy and aristocracy in Pakistan. Highlighting Pakistan’s patriarchal and religious society, it is contended that Blasphemy is a realistic representation of the wretched conditions of women. Investigating the politics of religion in Pakistan’s rural setting, the paper foregrounds Tehmina’s bold stance on issues of women in the harsh social conditions caused by the nexus of retrogressive clergy and oppressive feudal aristocracy.

My Pegeen Mike

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-90
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Brewer Redwine
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Western World ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Way

Molly Allgood’s contributions to Synge’s Playboy of the Western World, this chapter argues, are overdue for a reconsideration, and a close reading of their letters with the development of the play shows that there would have been no Playboy without Molly. This chapter follows the earlier discussions in highlighting the ways that current and Revival readings of theater are informed by assumptions about authorship that privilege men and how these concerns are bound up with gender roles. For example, Synge likely burned Allgood’s part of their correspondence due to his worries about her reputation; nonetheless, this chapter reads Allgood’s responses both in the handwritten notes she wrote in the margins of his surviving letters and in the context of Synge’s responses. In particular, the way that Molly brings her physical female body and the work of that body onto the stage and into the text are major contributions she made to The Playboy.

Penelope’s Subordinated Agency

2020 ◽  
pp. 175-202
Author(s):  
Joel P. Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Cultural Discourse ◽  
Internalized Oppression ◽  
Traditional Roles ◽  
The Way

This chapter offers a longer reading of Penelope alone to examine the ways in which her own agency is curbed by the expectations of social roles and varying levels of internalized oppression. It considers how the Homeric depiction of Penelope may be understood as relying on and re-enforcing psychologically damaging discourse about women. Even though Penelope is easily the most complex woman depicted in Homeric poetry, readings that emphasize her complexity tend to overlook the way her “behavior is imposed on her by her impossible role as faithful wife of a man who is absent.” The chapter then argues that Penelope's characterization is limited to traditional roles and hemmed in by cultural discourse about the weakness of the female body. In addition, Penelope's suffering is instrumentalized: the emotional cost of Odysseus's absence increases the value of his homecoming and delimits idealized behavior for a woman separated from her husband.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 151-160
Author(s):  
Charles S. Bullock ◽  
Susan A. MacManus ◽  
Jeremy D. Mayer ◽  
Mark J. Rozell
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
The South ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Southern Politics ◽  
The Future ◽  
Politics Of Religion ◽  
Politics Of Race ◽  
The Many ◽  
Changing Demographics ◽  
The Way

The concluding chapter summarizes key findings of the volume and points the way toward areas of future research and analysis of southern politics. It offers some projections about the future of the region, including its potentially key role in the 2020 elections. The discussion covers the many areas in which change is occurring, including changing demographics, changing partisanship, changing politics of race, and changing politics of religion, all leading up to a discussion of the changing politics of the Trump Era. In its final words, the chapter concludes that the direction of U.S. national politics and governing will continue to be driven substantially by what happens in the South.

Aesthetic/affective norms of femininity: An obstacle to women’s performance of exercise

2020 ◽  
pp. 101269022096935
Author(s):  
María-Alejandra Energici ◽  
Nicolás Schöngut-Grollmus ◽  
Rodrigo Soto-Lagos
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
Body Image ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Affective Norms ◽  
Ideal Body ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Way

Aesthetic/affective norms around femininity could be an obstacle to women’s performance of exercise. Gender differences are significant: women are considerably more inactive than men. In this article we worked with the notion of body image and body affect, with the aim of reflecting on how aesthetic/affective norms around femininity could be an obstacle to women’s performance of exercise in Chile. To understand how these aesthetic/affective norms hinder physical activity, we analyzed media images using a qualitative methodology. The results show that there are four types of female body: extremely thin, thin, fat, and obese. This study explores how affectivity relates to the way in which exercise should be experienced: women must enjoy the actions in order to achieve the ideal body; indeed, they must experience them as pleasant. They should also be performed on a body that feels graceful, fragile, and small. We draw conclusions on the way in which images promote a body affect for the self and for others that becomes a barrier to the performance of female exercise.

The Political Role of Hungary's Nineteenth-Century Conservatives and how they saw themselves

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 845-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Zoltán Dénes
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Way

Around the middle of the nineteenth century, the Hungarian conservatives made a number of attempts decisively to influence the course of events in the Austrian empire and in the kingdom of Hungary, but failed on each occasion. What exactly had they wanted, and why did they fail to achieve it? How did they try to appear to others, and how did they see themselves? What political identity, if any, did they have? Was there anything special about the way their political activity and their perception of themselves bore on one another as compared to other nineteenth-century conservatives? What follows is an attempt to give answers to these questions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document