Evaluation of MENA refugees’ attitudes towards patient autonomy-based ethics of informed consent

Background The objective of this study was to identify refugees’ attitudes concerning the autonomy-based ethics of informed consent and to determine whether these attitudes varied by gender. Methods A quantitative methodology was adopted for this study. Questions were scored using a Likert-type scale and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 610 refugees who had migrated to Turkey from MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries. Results Refugees from eleven countries participated in the survey, of whom the majority were men (62.5% male versus 37.5% female). Reasons for migration include war/security, poverty, and persecution (67.3%), and wanting to live in developed countries (81.1%). The decision to migrate was mainly decided upon either solely by males (as stated by 46.1% of participants) or by the family as a whole (39.0%). Regarding competence in spoken Turkish, most participants (58.5%) were judged to be at a moderate level. A plurality preferred to follow their doctor’s advice for treatment (42.6%), while nearly one-third deferred to the male authority figure in the family (33.1%). A majority stated that they were unaware of the concept of informed consent (63.3%). There was a significant difference between the responses of men and women with respect to the eight questions concerning informed consent. Conclusion Autonomy is a fundamental principle of human rights and medical ethics. Refugees from MENA countries, where the concept of autonomy is contrary to deeply-help traditional religious views of much of the population, in general, have a poor grasp of informed consent as a patient right. Traditional religious/cultural values steeped in patriarchy constitute an obstacle to women making decisions regarding their own lives in MENA countries. Therefore, the practice of informed consent is of critical importance in helping to reduce gender differentials in health care.

The Romance

This chapter demonstrates how nineteenth-century literature transcended religious frameworks and questioned the nature of male authority and feminine purity. Although the houri may have been based on assumptions about Islam, the term “houri” eventually was applied to Jewish and Christian women. The chapter surveys mentions of the houri in the form of the “Oriental tale” and argues that writers made use of the figure of the houri to present their own ideas of idealized Christian and Jewish women. Texts in the chapter include poems by Byron, Ivanhoe, Jane Eyre, Algerine Captive, Book of Khalid, engravings, and American monthly magazines for ladies.

Otoritarianisme Pemahaman Keagamaan: Melacak Akar Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan dalam Rumah Tangga

The phenomenon of violence against women in Indonesia is always increasing and leaves a devastating impact on various fronts. Every woman with various backgrounds has the same vulnerability to become a victim. The causes of violence against women are as diverse as patriarchal culture, labeling of women with weak physical conditions, to gender-biased interpretation of religious texts. The practice of religious interpretation which tends to position the text as a rigid and final entity is certainly not relevant to the spirit of Islam in realizing general prosperity, especially between men and wives. The text is also seen as justification for personal interests and even groups. This imbalance then gives birth to what is called authoritarianism. The practice of religious authoritarianism eventually raises the problem of injustice and even violence that often makes women or wives victims. In religious discourse, historically the root of violence in originated from the paradigm of human creation. Women are considered as complementary or subordinate creatures of men. This understanding is based on religious texts such as QS An-Nisa [4]: ​​34 which is commonly understood as a form of giving the mandate of male authority over women. Therefore, insight into authoritative interpretation is needed. Religious texts are not final entities, but always intersect with social and cultural realities.Equality, authority, Religious authoritarianism

Does childhood experience of family victimization influence adulthood refusal of wife abuse? Evidence from rural Bangladesh

This study examined how different forms of childhood family victimization are associated with the attitudinal (not actual action) refusal of wife abuse among women and men in rural Bangladesh. It included 1,929 randomly selected married women and men. Of the sample, 31.3% (Men = 49.3%, Women = 13.5%) attitudinally refused overall wife abuse, 38.5% (Men = 53.2%, Women = 23.8%) refused emotional abuse, 67.0% (Men = 82.5%, Women = 51.6%) refused physical abuse, 78.0% (Men = 88.6%, Women = 67.4%) refused abuse on wife’s disobeying family obligations, and 32.3% (Men = 50.3%, Women = 14.6%) refused abuse on challenging male authority. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that the odds ratio (ORs) of the attitudinal refusal of overall wife abuse were 1.75 (p = .041) for the childhood non-victims of emotional abuse and 2.31 (p < .001) for the victims of mild emotional abuse, compared to the victims of severe emotional abuse. On the other hand, the ORs of the overall refusal of abuse were 1.84 (p = .031) for the non-victims of physical abuse and 1.29 (p = .465) for the victims of mild physical abuse, compared to the childhood victims of severe physical abuse. Data further revealed that the childhood non-victimization of physical abuse increased all types of attitudinal refusal of wife abuse, e.g., emotional abuse, physical abuse, abuse on disobeying family obligations, and abuse on challenging male authority. Compared to the childhood experiences of severe emotional abuse, data also indicated that childhood exposure to mild emotional abuse might increase the attitudinal refusal of wife abuse on a few issues, e.g., abuse on disobeying family obligations, abuse on challenging male authority, and physical abuse. It appeared that childhood experiences of family victimization greatly influence different types of attitudinal refusal of wife abuse. We argue that the issue of childhood victimization should be brought to the forefront in the discourse. We recommend that state machinery and social welfare agencies should expend significant efforts to stop child abuse within the family and in other areas of society in rural Bangladesh.

Gender, Sexuality, and Identity in 20th-Century Costa Rica

Proposals challenging male authority gained strength in Costa Rica during the 20th century and, especially at the turn of the 21st century, and questioned naturalized sexual and gender identities. The effects of these discursivities are varied. The experience of feminists, of middle-class women outside these discursivities, and of women of the subaltern classes demonstrate the plurality of meanings attributed to gender relations as filtered through subjective experience. The introduction of alternative identity proposals destabilizes the established parameters of sexual and gender identities, but, at the same time, produces new conservative discursivities that limit the potential for change. Two feminist movements, one that reached its peak in the 1920s and a second that arose in the final decades of the 20th century, brought about substantive changes in female identities, revealing the power relations that underlie the discursive representation of patriarchal power as eternal and immutable. An assessment of contemporary feminism based on the experiences of its protagonists shows the movement’s significant gains as well as the challenges and weaknesses it has faced over its history, the most important of which may be how to reach beyond the sphere of well-educated, heterosexual, middle-class women. In conclusion, public discourses that have politicized gender and sexuality in Costa Rica are creatively constituted in the social world, according to what changes appear attainable at different moments of history. Carved out by actors committed to change, these discourses have achieved substantive transformations in institutional structures and subjectivities. However, present experience shows clearly that every affirmation of identity is precarious, and that the gains achieved require the ongoing, active engagement of civil society.

Public Masculinities at the Feast

This chapter takes readers on processions through Williamsburg, focusing on a trio of ritual spaces in feast geography: the Questua, the Line of the March, and the parish’s shrine. It explores the hierarchy of masculinities within this Catholic community and how those are performed in how men navigate neighborhood space. Manhood, masculinity, and male authority are contingent on props, stuff, clothing, and setting but are also institutionally granted and achieved in the eyes of other men. Men aspire to and achieve manhood through lifelong involvement with the feast. This chapter examines how life stage matters to ideals of manhood and masculinity and how fatherhood represents the promise of new generations dedicated to the feast and parish. It argues that heterosexuality is central to the community’s vision of a thriving feast and examines the marginalization and excision of gay men from that vision.

Implementing the Law of khulʿ in Egypt

This article aims to contribute to the growing scholarly literature on the implementation of shariʿa-based family law codes by describing and analyzing the gender implications of religiously inspired judicial activism in relation to judicial divorce through khulʿ. The article highlights two functions played by family court judges and other legal professionals. First, I argue that Egyptian family court judges and other court personnel, such as court experts and court-appointed arbiters from al-Azhar, enjoy considerable discretion in interpreting and implementing the personal status codes. Second, the article argues that legal professionals sometimes use the court and other legal spaces as a platform to articulate alternative visions of family and marriage, as well as to voice anxieties over a perceived increase in female-initiated divorce. The article situates these contradictory practices against the background of the contestation of early twenty-first-century reforms, which challenged male authority in the family, in particular the 2000 law of judicial khulʿ.

Posthumanism and Gender, or the Fall Back into Nature

Engaging with the scientific theories and popular concerns of the late nineteenth century, Strindberg’s naturalist plays enact the anxiety related to the renegotiation of the status of the human following the publication of Darwin’s work. The loss of human exceptionalism in the natural sciences intersects with the socio-political crisis of symbolic male authority in democratic modernity. An emerging posthumanism and the crisis of gender, i.e. ontological and socio-political questions, converge. Strindberg’s work problematizes the modern biopolitical, immunitarian lines of separation in terms of sexual difference, along a threatened binary gender distribution. While Strindberg’s work is part of the naturalist “dramatic” theatrical tradition -- a representationalist tradition centrally based on human dialogue and therefore generally considered “anthropocentric,” this chapter argues that Strindberg’s naturalist work, thematically if not yet formally, marks the intra-action of gender with a beginning posthumanism.