scholarly journals Being Woman in the Land of Shari‘a: Politics of the Female Body, Piety, and Resistance in Langsa, Aceh

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ansor

<p>This study investigates the dynamic of institutionalization of Shari’a in Aceh, which focuses on analysis of the patterns of Langsa women’s resistance against religious leaders and state interpretations of the dress standards in the public space. This matter emerged because the implementation of Shari’a has been supported by local people, but the standard of Islamic dress that should be applied is still debatable among various groups in Aceh that have varied understandings and different religious visions. The regulation of dress code has been an issue for religious leaders, intellectuals, and Moslem activists. The resistance of Langsa women against the politics of body discipline could be open and secret. To analyze the forms of women’s resistance, the researcher applied James C. Scott’s hidden transcripts theory. Inspired by this theoretical framework, the researcher found that Langsa women, intellectuals, and religious leaders expressed their resistance over how women should dress in public space. In collecting the data, the researcher used observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. Accordingly, the research shows how Langsa women express their resistance towards religious hegemony and state interpretation of Islam.</p><p>[Tulisan ini membahas dinamika pelembagaan syariat Islam di Aceh dengan fokus resistensi tersembunyi perempuan Langsa terhadap penafsiran elite agama dan pemerintah perihal pembakuan standar pakaian di ruang publik. Meskipun implementasi syariat Islam Aceh mendapat dukungan masyarakat setempat, tetapi ketika sebuah tafsir tertentu tentang pakaian Islami dibakukan dalam regulasi (Qanun), muncul perdebatan dari sebagian muslim yang berpola pemikiran dan visi keagamaan berbeda. Bukan hanya perdebatan di kalangan elite agama, intelektual, maupun aktivis, perempuan di berbagai daerah di Aceh pun mengekspresikan resistensi, baik secara terbuka maupun tersembunyi. Peneliti menggunakan teori hidden transcripts sebagaimana dikemukakan James C. Scott untuk menganalisa resistensi tersebut. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi, wawancara mendalam, serta diskusi kelompok terfokus (FGD). Penelitian ini memperlihatkan bagaimana perempuan Langsa mengekspresikan resistensi tersembunyi atas hegemoni elite agama dan pemerintah dalam menafsirkan Islam].</p>

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-56
Author(s):  
Mary P. Corcoran ◽  
Jane Gray ◽  
Michel Peillon

This article aims to demonstrate the significant role children play in new suburban communities, and in particular, the extent to which their circuits of sociability contribute to social cohesion in the suburbs. The discussion is located within the field of sociology of childhood, which argues that children are active agents who help to create and sustain social bonds within their neighborhoods. Drawing on focus group discussions and short essays by children on “The place where I live,” we paint a picture of how suburban life is interpreted and experienced from a child's perspective. We argue that children develop a particular suburban sensibility that structures their view of their estate, the wider neighborhood, and the metropolitan core. Although children express considerable degrees of satisfaction with suburban life, they are critical of the forces that increasingly limit their access to suburban public space.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-210
Author(s):  
Addiarrahman Addiarrahman ◽  
Illy Yanti

This study seeks to understand the pragmatism of the development of sharia economic law, and its implications for Islamic financial products in Indonesia. The data comes from the results of interviews and focus group discussions with key informants from academics, practitioners, authorities, and the public. This research finds that pragmatism in the development of Islamic economic law is an approach that still dominates the DSN-MUI fatwas. The pragmatism style used is complex-eclectic pragmatism which is represented through makhārij al-fiqhiyyah, which is to choose a mild opinion by sticking to the strongest method or also called "taysīr al-manhajī". The use of this method is intended to ensure that the fatwa is truly able to answer the needs of the business world, as well as being in line with sharia principles. DSN-MUI also does not use maslahah as a legal consideration in a free or liberal way. Rather, it returns maslahah in consideration of the method, so that it is permissible to use the bay’ al-'inān contract only in a forced state (ḍarurah).


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. e000822
Author(s):  
Robert C Hughes ◽  
Patricia Kitsao-Wekulo ◽  
Sunil Bhopal ◽  
Elizabeth W Kimani-Murage ◽  
Zelee Hill ◽  
...  

IntroductionThe early years are critical. Early nurturing care can lay the foundation for human capital accumulation with lifelong benefits. Conversely, early adversity undermines brain development, learning and future earning.Slums are among the most challenging places to spend those early years and are difficult places to care for a child. Shifting family and work structures mean that paid, largely informal, childcare seems to be becoming the ‘new normal’ for many preschool children growing up in rapidly urbanising Africa. However, little is known about the quality of this childcare.AimsTo build a rigorous understanding what childcare strategies are used and why in a typical Nairobi slum, with a particular focus on provision and quality of paid childcare. Through this, to inform evaluation of quality and design and implementation of interventions with the potential to reach some of the most vulnerable children at the most critical time in the life course.Methods and analysisMixed methods will be employed. Qualitative research (in-depth interviews and focus group discussions) with parents/carers will explore need for and decision-making about childcare. A household survey (of 480 households) will estimate the use of different childcare strategies by parents/carers and associated parent/carer characteristics. Subsequently, childcare providers will be mapped and surveyed to document and assess quality of current paid childcare. Semistructured observations will augment self-reported quality with observable characteristics/practices. Finally, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with childcare providers will explore their behaviours and motivations. Qualitative data will be analysed through thematic analysis and triangulation across methods. Quantitative and spatial data will be analysed through epidemiological methods (random effects regression modelling and spatial statistics).Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been granted in the UK and Kenya. Findings will be disseminated through journal publications, community and government stakeholder workshops, policy briefs and social media content.


Human Affairs ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olayinka Akanle ◽  
Olanrewau Olutayo

AbstractUnderstanding the selves, situations and actions of Africans can never be comprehended outside kinship. Local and foreign worldviews are first pigeonholed into culture and defined within kinship realities in Nigeria and Africa. There have been studies on kinship in Africa. However, the findings from such studies portrayed the immutability of African kinship. Thus, as an important contribution to the on-going engagement of kinship in the twenty-first century as an interface between the contemporary Diaspora, this article engaged kinship within international migration. This is a major behavioural and socio-economic force in Nigeria. Methodological triangulation was adopted as part of the research design and primary data were collected through in-depth interviews (IDIs), and life histories of international migrants were documented and focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with kin of returnees. The article found and concluded that while returnees continued to appreciate local kinship infrastructures, the infrastructures were liable to reconstruction primarily determined by dominant support situations in the traditional African kinship networks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Justin Raycraft

This paper addresses how Makonde Muslim villagers living on the Swahili coast of southern Tanzania conceptualize and discuss environmental change. Through narratives elicited during in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, I show that respondents associate various forms of environmental change—ecological, climatic, political, and socioeconomic—with God’s plan. Respondents had a sound grasp of the material workings of their lived realities and evoked religious causality to fill in the residual explanatory gaps and find meaning in events that were otherwise difficult to explain. Such narratives reveal both a culturally engrained belief system that colors people’s understandings of change and uncertainty and a discursive idiom for making sense of social suffering. On an applied note, I submit that social science approaches to studying environmental change must take into account political and economic contexts relative to local cosmologies, worldviews, and religious faiths, which may not disaggregate the environment into distinct representational categories.


Refleksi ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-180
Author(s):  
Media Zainul Bahri

This article explores the insights of inclusivism and tolerance in Islamic religious education (PAI) textbooks in Brawijaya University (UB) Malang. This article is the result of research by reading textbooks, interviewing six PAI lecturers and focus group discussions (FGD) at UB Malang in December 2018. In general, there are many material aspects in the textbooks that encourage students to be open, respect for diversity and behave tolerant of different Islamic schools of thought. This is emphasized by the PAI lecturers since UB is a public university belong to the public and because in Islam itself there are many different understandings and schools of thought. The spirit of inclusivism, cosmopolitan and tolerance is seen explicitly in PAI UB’s textbooks and becomes the vision of PAI lecturers. If there is a deviation from the book tends to be a closed ideology, intolerant, and against the Republic of Indonesia, then it can be ascertained because of the “lecturer initiative” personally, and do not represent Lembaga Pusat Pembinaan Agama (the Central Institution of Religious Development).


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Muslimah Muslimah ◽  
Dian Ayubi

Measles and Rubella (MR) is a disease that is highly contagious and usually occurs in children aged 9 months until the age of 15 years. One effort that can be done to reduce the incidence of the disease is through health promotion about the importance of immunization. Purpose the promotion was packaged in the form of advertisements on electronic media with the aim of building perceptions that the importance of immunization for public health. Methods this research was a qualitative study with a method of collecting in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The number of informants in this study was 19 mothers who had children aged 0.9 to 15 years in one of the Puskesmas work areas in Merangin District, Jambi Province. Before the data collection process, all informants were asked to see two MR immunization advertisements. Results that immunization advertisements are interesting and contain humor. Meanwhile, informants who did not give MR immunization to their children tended to be negative towards MR immunization advertisements and tended to ignore the effects that arose if they did not give immunizations to their children. The recommendation that MR immunization advertisements should avoid using the fear arousal method and use the pay off idea method in those ads


2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 377-388
Author(s):  
Annastasia Ipinge ◽  
Cathrine Tambudzai Nengomasha

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the recognition of record management profession in the Namibian Public Service. The objectives of the study are to determine appreciation of the importance of records record management; establish policies that support records management; find out the promotion of the records management function in the public service; establish training and job opportunities available for the record management professionals; and come up with recommendations on how the recognition of the record management profession could be enhanced in the public service of Namibia. Design/methodology/approach This case study used qualitative data collection methods, namely, focus group discussions and interviews. The two ministries and records keeping staff who took part in the focus group discussions were conveniently selected, whereas the two government offices where one key informant each was interviewed were purposively selected. Findings This study revealed that the records management profession was not well recognised in the public service of Namibia. The hiring of staff with low educational qualifications and the hiring of records keeping staff with some Diploma qualifications into the same positions as those without qualifications were all evidence of this. In addition to these was the failure to re-grade the records keeping staff through the establishment of a records management cadre. Practical implications The study recommends the creation of record management units in all offices, ministries and agencies headed by qualified record managers supported by qualified records management staff, finalisation and implementation of the records management policy, as well as the creation of a records management cadre. Originality/value The findings of the study on which this paper is based could inform policy for decision makers, and for the records management keeping staff, a strategy for advocating for recognition of their profession was planned.


Author(s):  
Joseph M. Zulu ◽  
Patricia Maritim ◽  
Adam Silumbwe ◽  
Hikabasa Halwiindi ◽  
Patricia Mubita ◽  
...  

Background: Surgery for hydrocele is commonly promoted as part of morbidity management and disability prevention (MMDP) services for lymphatic filariasis (LF). However, uptake of these surgeries has been suboptimal owing to several community level barriers that have triggered mistrust in such services. This study aimed at documenting mechanisms of unlocking trust in community health systems (CHS) in the context of a LF hydrocele management project that was implemented in Luangwa District, Zambia. Methods: Qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (n=45) in February 2020 in Luangwa District. Thirty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with hydrocele patients, CHWs, health workers, traditional leaders and traditional healers. Two focus group discussions were also conducted with CHWs who had been involved in project implementation with seven participants per group. Data was analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Results: The use of locally appropriate communication strategies, development of community driven referral systems, working with credible community intermediaries as well as strengthening health systems capacity through providing technical and logistical support enhanced trust in surgery for hydrocele and uptake of the surgeries. Conclusion: Implementation of community led communication and referral systems as well as strengthening health services are vital in unlocking trust in health systems as such mechanisms trigger authentic partnerships, including mutual respect and recognition in the CHS. The mechanisms also enhance confidence in health services among community members.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
George Kojo Scott

This research analysed how the public expenditure management as practiced in the District Assemblies of Ghana affect service delivery. The research adopted a mixed-method research approach where qualitative and quantitative data were gathered using questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. Multistage sampling was used to pick the respondents for the questionnaires, key interview informants and the participants in the focus group discussions. Thirty four out of 170 district assemblies which existed by 2008 were sampled. Participants in the study included 612 District Assembly (DA) officials, 1020 citizens, 28 national/regional officials and 20 participants in focus group discussions. Quantitative data, measured by using scaled-items, were analysed using descriptive statistics and regression while qualitative data were examined thematically. The study established that expenditure management practices had positive significant influence on service delivery. The study recommends that, the DAs should prioritize expenditures to key service delivery areas such as; those that enhance poverty reduction, improve on Human Capital index and strengthen Innovations practices. DAs should strengthen electronic, automation and appropriate technologies for better expenditure management and service delivery. There should be laws to ensure stiffer penalties and enforcement of sanctions on those involved in malpractices in public expenditure management practices, while persistent efforts are made to implement recommendations of Auditor General’s reports on DAs expenditures management practices.


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