scholarly journals Hymen ‘repair’: Views from feminists, medical professionals and the women involved in the middle east, North Africa and Europe

Ethnicities ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 146879682110615
Author(s):  
Sawitri Saharso
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Premarital Sex ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
North African ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
Sexual Autonomy ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
Culturally Informed

In Europe, hymen ‘repair’ is controversial because it is often seen as a concession to immigrant groups that do not respect women’s sexual autonomy. But how is hymen ‘repair’ viewed in societies in which the norm is that women should not have premarital sex? And why do women want hymen ‘repair’? Hymen ‘repair’ is also controversial in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries because it is seen as undermining social mores about women and premarital sex. However, some Islamic leaders have defended the procedure. Women request hymen ‘repairs’ for a variety of reasons. Some have been sexually abused and may desire the surgery to overcome trauma. Some have had consensual sex and may fear sanctions, while others may see the surgery as a covert act of rebellion against the virginity rule. Still others may choose it to please their future husband. Hymen ‘repair’ is extensively discussed in MENA countries and in Europe. Feminists in MENA countries are divided over whether the surgery promotes sexual autonomy while, in the European debate, an important issue is whether the choice itself is an autonomous one that doctors should respect. Inspired by a relational approach to autonomy, I see the women involved as individuals with culturally informed identities and interests who may feel pressure to get the surgery yet are still capable of autonomy. I argue for a policy to stimulate debate in communities about the virginity norm and to make hymen ‘repair’ available to women. However, it should be combined with an attitude of sympathetic distrust, recognising that hymen ‘repair’ harms women’s dignity and authenticity.

scholarly journals Environmental Performance and Economic Growth in Middle East and North Africa Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hichem Dkhili
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
The Impact

Background. Studies on environmental performance/quality and economic growth show inconclusive results. Objective. The aim of the present study is to assess the non-linear relationship between environmental performance and economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region from 2002–2018. Methods. A sample of fourteen (14) MENA countries was used in the present analysis. However, due to important differences between countries in this region, the whole sample was divided into two sub-samples; nine Middle Eastern countries (MEAS) and five North African countries (NAF). We performed the panel smooth transition regression model as an econometric approach. Discussion. Empirical results indicate a threshold effect in the environmental performance and economic growth relationship. The threshold value differs from one group of countries to another. More specifically, we found that the impact of environmental performance and economic growth is positive and significant only if a certain threshold level has been attained. Until then, the effect remains negative. Conclusions. The findings of the present study are of great importance for policymakers since they determine the optimal level of environmental performance required to act positively on the level of economic growth. MENA countries should seek to improve their environmental performance index in order to grow output. Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

scholarly journals Dietary trends in the Middle East and North Africa: an ecological study (1961 to 2007)

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 1835-1844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahdieh Golzarand ◽  
Parvin Mirmiran ◽  
Mahsa Jessri ◽  
Karamollah Toolabi ◽  
Mehdi Mojarrad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Dietary Patterns ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
North African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Study Results ◽  
North African Countries

AbstractObjectiveMiddle Eastern and North African countries are undergoing nutrition transition, a transition which is associated with an increased burden of non-communicable diseases. This necessitates the evaluation of dietary patterns in these regions. The present study aimed to assess changes in dietary patterns in Middle Eastern and North African countries between 1961 and 2007.DesignAvailability of energy and fifteen main food items during 1961–2007 was examined using FAO food balance sheets from the FAOSTAT database.SettingFifteen countries including nine in the Middle East and six in North Africa were selected and the average availability of total energy and different food items in these regions were compared.ResultsOver the 47 years studied, energy and food availability (apart from animal fats and alcoholic beverages) has increased in the Middle East and North Africa. In both regions the proportion of energy derived from meat and vegetable oils has increased significantly while that from cereals decreased significantly. In addition, the proportion of energy from milk and dairy products and vegetables has shown an ascending trend in North Africa while the proportion of energy from fruits has shown a descending trend in the Middle East.ConclusionsThe study results reveal an unfavourable trend towards a Westernized diet in the Middle East and, to a certain extent, in North Africa. Tailored nutritional education encouraging healthy eating for prevention of the burden of chronic diseases in these countries seems essential.

scholarly journals The Influence of Oil Prices on Islamic Banking Efficiency Scores during the Financial Crisis: Evidence from the MENA Area

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Ali Said
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Oil Prices ◽  
Islamic Banking ◽  
Islamic Banks ◽  
North African ◽  
Banking Efficiency ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
The North

<p><em>The present paper measured the influence of the oil prices on the Islamic banking efficiencies scores during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. The study showed that there is no a direct relationship between the oil prices and the efficiencies scores of Islamic banks in the MENA area. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that Islamic banks in the GCC area showed a higher mean in pure technical efficiency compared to Islamic banks in the North African and other MENA. Islamic banks in other MENA countries and North Africa considered to be technically inefficient. The inefficiencies were due to the underdeveloped banking system and the lack of experiences in those countries to allocate resources between the bank inputs and outputs. </em></p>

International Social Work and Social Welfare: Middle East and North Africa

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Graham ◽  
Alean Al-Krenawi
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Socioeconomic Inequality ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
International Social Work ◽  
North African ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
International Social

North African and Middle Eastern nations have an 80-year history with social work, based on colonial, imported models of practice. There is some success in localizing social work to immediate communities. Social welfare tends to be instrumental, selective, and not comprehensive. Colonialism has hurt political institutions; and geopolitical conflicts, socioeconomic inequality, poverty, and political repression also influence parameters of social work and social change.

Communism in the Middle East and North Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 195-224
Author(s):  
Jens Hanssen
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
North African ◽  
Soviet Leadership ◽  
Military Regimes ◽  
Revolutionary Ideology ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter provides a critical analysis of a selection of Middle Eastern and North African communist parties since the interwar period and the emergence of Marxist-Leninist movements during the Arab Cold War. It focuses on the difficulties the parties faced in the changing national and international settings. Arabs were drawn to communism in the 1930s because of Soviet leadership in global antifascism. But the parties suffered from Stalin’s support for the partition of Palestine in 1947, especially in countries neighboring Israel, and from Soviet support for Arab military regimes during the Cold War. By the mid-1960s, communists no longer had a monopoly on revolutionary ideology as Palestinian-inspired national liberation movements began to vernacularize Marxism-Leninism.

Bottom-up rather than top-down: evidence from Middle Eastern and North African educational institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-690
Author(s):  
Osama Mah'd
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
North African ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Managerial Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Difference

PurposeEducational institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are striving for better resource management and finance. The bottom-up budgeting approach plays an important role in motivating executives' performance. The main aim of this paper is to discover whether there is a significant difference between bottom-up and a top-down approaches to budgeting in terms of managers' performance.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires were distributed to 453 university executives in 21 MENA educational institutions. The Kruskal–Wallis test was utilized to test the difference between the three groups (bottom-up, top-down and consultative approaches). Further analysis was conducted to test the difference between the two groups using the Mann–Whitney test.FindingsThe results show that there is a significant difference between a bottom-up and top-down approach in terms of managerial performance. The study's findings indicate that the bottom-up approach to budgeting leads to higher performance indicators than a top-down approach to budgeting.Originality/valueThe current study contributes to the research as it increases awareness of budgeting approaches that are used in higher education institutions, specifically in terms of the effect of these differences on executives' performance.

scholarly journals Cross-species hybridization and the origin of North African date palms

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (5) ◽  
pp. 1651-1658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Flowers ◽  
Khaled M. Hazzouri ◽  
Muriel Gros-Balthazard ◽  
Ziyi Mo ◽  
Konstantina Koutroumpa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Date Palm ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Introgressive Hybridization ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
North African ◽  
Mixed Ancestry ◽  
History Of

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a major fruit crop of arid regions that were domesticated ∼7,000 y ago in the Near or Middle East. This species is cultivated widely in the Middle East and North Africa, and previous population genetic studies have shown genetic differentiation between these regions. We investigated the evolutionary history of P. dactylifera and its wild relatives by resequencing the genomes of date palm varieties and five of its closest relatives. Our results indicate that the North African population has mixed ancestry with components from Middle Eastern P. dactylifera and Phoenix theophrasti, a wild relative endemic to the Eastern Mediterranean. Introgressive hybridization is supported by tests of admixture, reduced subdivision between North African date palm and P. theophrasti, sharing of haplotypes in introgressed regions, and a population model that incorporates gene flow between these populations. Analysis of ancestry proportions indicates that as much as 18% of the genome of North African varieties can be traced to P. theophrasti and a large percentage of loci in this population are segregating for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are fixed in P. theophrasti and absent from date palm in the Middle East. We present a survey of Phoenix remains in the archaeobotanical record which supports a late arrival of date palm to North Africa. Our results suggest that hybridization with P. theophrasti was of central importance in the diversification history of the cultivated date palm.

The Maghrebi dialects of Arabic

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordi Aguadé
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Person ◽  
African Language ◽  
North African ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Arabic Dialects ◽  
Second Wave

This chapter analyses synchronically and diachronically the Maghrebi Arabic dialects spoken in North Africa, whose most outstanding features are the prefix n- for the first person singular of the imperfect and a vowel system characterized by elision of short vowels in open syllable. Maghrebi Arabic shows less variety than do Middle Eastern dialects and has been influenced by only two substrate languages, Berber and Latin (the latter especially in Mediterranean coastal towns). All Maghrebi dialects have far fewer Turkish loanwords than do Middle Eastern dialects. On the other hand, French influence on the vocabularies of Tunisian, Algerian, and Moroccan dialects is strong, and code-switching between Arabic and French common in North African language use (except in Libya and Malta). Diachronically, Maghrebi Arabic dialects are divided into two types—pre-Hilālī and Hilālī— depending on whether they go back to the first or the second wave of the Arabization of North Africa.

scholarly journals Review on the genetic history of Algerians within North African populations from the HLA point of view

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (13) ◽  
pp. 140-162
Author(s):  
Abdellatif Moussouni
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
North African ◽  
Mediterranean Populations ◽  
Genetic History ◽  
African Populations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Allele Variation

This article aims to take stock of knowledge on the history of the human settlement of North Africa and the genetic history of Algerians within North African populations by gathering the most important published results related to HLA allele analysis. These results revealed a strong genetic relationship between studied North African populations (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia). Such evident genetic affinity between North African populations, also proved by the use of other powerful autosomal markers, agrees with historic data considering North African populations as having similar origins. HLA allele analysis also indicated a genetic link between North African populations (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco) and the populations of the South-Western Europe particularly the Basques and Spaniards. This would reflect a Neolithic relationship between Iberians and the natives of North Africa (the Berbers). However, other results showed a genetic distinction between samples from North African populations and Middle Eastern populations (Arab-Palestinians, Lebanese’s and Jordanians). Beside these results related to Mediterranean populations, the HLA allele variation was analyzed at the world scale showing low genetic differentiations among the three broad continental areas, with no special divergence of Africa. Keywords: Genetic diversity; Molecular Anthropology; Genetic History; HLA genes; North Africa; Algeria

scholarly journals Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmood Tara ◽  
Taweel Adel ◽  
Alhuwail Dari ◽  
Dena A. Al Thani ◽  
Eiman Al-Jafar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Health Informatics ◽  
North African ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
Common Basis ◽  
African Health ◽  
The Common ◽  
Regional Work

The unforeseen pandemic of COVID-19 forced all countries worldwide to appreciate digital solutions and their potential contributions in managing such outbreaks. Countries began to share their knowledge and ongoing experiences on how to employ the latest technologies to trace infected cases, warn people on potential danger, increase social and population awareness, and how to provide effective and efficient telehealth services. MENAHIA (The Middle East and North Africa Health Informatics Association), established in 2018, as a new IMIA regional chapter which has started regional work in several areas of collaboration and knowledge sharing, particularly focused on the common basis of MENA countries’ needs towards health informatics solutions regarding COVID-19 crisis management. This article briefly presents health informatics activities and prospects by countries of the Region with a non-exclusive focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Needless to say, not all the countries have reported using this platform, and some may have reported through other venues.

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