Uncovered and disrespected. A qualitative study of Jordanian women’s experience of privacy in birth

BackgroundPrivacy is related to a person’s sense of self and the need to be respected and it is a key factor that contributes to women’s satisfaction with their birth experiences.AimTo examine the meaning of privacy for Jordanian women during labour and birth.MethodA qualitative interpretive design was used. Data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 27 Jordanian women. Of these women, 20 were living in Jordan while seven were living in Australia (with birthing experience in both Jordan and Australia). Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.ResultsThe phrase ‘there is no privacy’ captured women’s experience of birth in Jordanian public hospitals and in some private hospital settings. Women in public hospitals in Jordan had to share a room during their labour with no screening. This experience meant that they were, “lying there for everyone to see”, “not even covered by a sheet” and with doctors and others coming in and out of their room. This experience contrasted with birth experienced in Australia.ConclusionsThis study explicates the meaning of privacy to Jordanian women and demonstrates the impact of the lack of privacy during labour and birth. Seeking a birth in a private hospital in Jordan was one of the strategies that women used to gain privacy, although this was not always achieved. Some strategies were identified to facilitate privacy, such as being covered by a sheet; however, even simple practices are difficult to change in a patriarchal, medically dominated maternity system.     

Green supply chain management: the case of the construction sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Restraining the negative environmental impacts of the construction sector constitutes one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century. However, efforts to address it have been largely fragmented. With environmental consequences of a construction project typically dispersed across its life cycle, i.e. from design through to end-of-life, greening this sector requires a supply chain wide focus inclusive of all key stages and stakeholders; also, all relevant aspects such as the nature of green practices implemented and associated drivers, barriers and performance implications need to be considered. This forms the focus of the present study where a comprehensive, green supply chain management oriented understanding of the construction sector is developed through the context of the UAE construction sector, and incorporating inputs from all key stakeholders, i.e. Developers, Architects/Consultants, Contractors and (material) Suppliers. The study contributes to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of greening of the construction sector.     

阿拉伯国家现代信息技术的发展与挑战

以计算机、互联网和卫星通讯为代表的现代信息技术自20世纪七十年代开始在全球飞速发展。信息全球化正改变着人们以往的生产和生活方式，发达国家凭借信息技术优势优先享有信息全球化带来的诸多裨益，而处于先天弱势的发展中国家如何面对信息不对称竞争已成为所在国文化安全战略的重要考量。同样，阿拉伯国家虽然与发达国家在该领域存在差距，但为了建立符合本国利益的信息化社会，这些国家正加大对信息技术的投入，一些依托自身优势条件发展信息产业的阿拉伯国家已崭露头角。     

阿中友好关系中的民间外交

本文旨在探寻中国和阿拉伯民族民间外交的古代历史源头，并进一步探讨中国和阿拉伯民间外交关系在现当代的形成与发展，主要解答以下几个问题：中国和阿拉伯历史上民间外交先驱所付出的努力是否为双方外交关系的建立起了铺路奠基的作用？民间外交工作的本质及其开展形式如何？双方民间外交的现状怎样，如何拓展民间外交在当今社会的发展空间？在建立阿中双方全面、富有成效的战略伙伴关系过程中，民间外交能发挥多大的作用？本文还对如何进一步开展阿中民间外交提出了一些建议。     

透视阿拉伯移民在欧洲社会的历史嬗变

阿拉伯裔穆斯林早在中世纪就已在欧洲存在,而今穆斯林族群已成为欧洲社会第二大族群。“9·11”事件使欧洲传统多元文化体系受到冲击,世人将目光聚焦伊斯兰和穆斯林。“3·11”、“7·7”、法国“头巾法案”、丹麦“亵渎伊斯兰教先知漫画”等一系列事件又使阿拉伯裔穆斯林移民问题成为国际关注热点。是同化吸纳还是割裂分离是欧洲各国政府当前移民政策中的最大困惑,是封闭自我还是融入当地社会也成为阿裔欧洲穆斯林当前的艰难抉择。妥善处理阿拉伯移民和欧洲主流社会的关系,已成为欧盟各成员国政府和穆斯林移民团体面临的重要问题。     

阿拉伯国家支持巴勒斯坦事业的双重性

基于阿拉伯民族主义共同利益，阿拉伯国家均支持巴勒斯坦人事业，这为巴勒斯坦人的长期斗争提供了可能。然而，在支持巴勒斯坦人的同时，阿拉伯各国又有着不同的利益考量，这对巴勒斯坦问题产生了一些消极影响。阿拉伯国家对巴勒斯坦问题的政策，在深层次上反映了阿拉伯民族主义和地方阿拉伯民族主义之间的关系，即阿拉伯民族主义往往是实现地方阿拉伯民族主义利益的一种工具或手段。     

美国中东政策调整与中、美、阿关系互动

迫于国际形势和国内外舆论压力，布什政府从2007年开始调整中东政策，把遏制伊朗作为政策重点。为此，美国重新扮演了巴以和平调解人的角色，主动缓和与阿拉伯国家关系。美阿关系的发展对正在积极参与中东事务的中国具有重要意义。未来中东仍是美国对外战略关注的重点，“美国因素”在中阿关系中会更加频繁，三者互动将更为密切。中国对中东问题的积极立场及对中东事务的主动参与，对于推动中、美、阿关系的良性互动将产生深远影响。     

New avenues to be opened for social protection in the Arab world: the case of Egypt*

This article looks at social protection in the Arab world. Giving the example of Egypt, it asks why poverty is so widespread and why – despite the country's numerous social protection systems – social risks are a major contributing factor to it. It concludes that reforms are due. The existing systems are well funded but inefficient and more to the benefit of the better‐off than the poor. A reform approach is proposed which builds on both conventional and more innovative strategies: campaigns should be launched to raise public awareness of social risks; social assistance spending should be increased; and the operating public pension schemes should be reformed. At the same time, new avenues have to be opened to meet the specific needs of informal sector workers who have extreme difficulty in being covered by social insurance or social assistance. To this purpose, micro‐insurance is a promising approach for the Arab‐world region.     

The Aftermath of Shelter: Abused Arab Women in Israel

Shelters for battered women play a major role in combating abuse against women. Extensive research has dealt with various aspects of shelters, including professional and ideological perceptions and the women’s experiences. However, scarce research exists on women’s coping following shelter-stay, especially research on the meaning of shelter-stay for women from collectivist societies. In the present study, we focused on how Arab women who had lived in a shelter coped after returning to the community to begin independent lives. In the Arab society in Israel, Arab women who live in shelters are perceived as violating a cultural norm. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 Arab women aged between 25 and 42, who had stayed in a shelter for Arab women for at least six months.

The major themes that emerged from the interviews revealed changes in perception of self and of social environment, including a self-transformation from weakness to strength, from perceiving themselves as devoid of rights to the development of an identity of entitlement. Through their release from weakening cultural systems, they were transformed from familial and societal victims to empowered beings, and moved from negative gender self-awareness to an empowered gender self-perception. These changes helped the interviewees to cope with stresses and to live independently. The findings are conceptualized in the discussion using relational-cultural theory.     

Recent European fertility patterns: Fitting curves to ‘distorted’ distributions

Recent patterns of fertility in Europe show marked differences between countries. Recent United Kingdom and Irish fertility curves show ‘distortions’ in terms of a ‘bulge’ in early age fertility, distinct from the smoother curves of other European countries. These patterns may not be adequately described by mathematical functions used by previous studies to model fertility curves. A mixture model with two component distributions may be more appropriate. The suitability of the simple and mixture Hadwiger functions is examined in relation to the fertility curves of a number of European countries. While the simple Hadwiger model fits recent period age-specific fertility distributions for some countries, others which display a ‘bulge’ in early age fertility require a mixture Hadwiger model. Some of the parameters of the Hadwiger models appear to be related to familiar demographic indices. The simple and mixture Hadwiger models appear useful in describing and comparing fertility patterns across European countries.