43 research outputs found
Re-thinking the Veil, Jihad and Home in Fadia Faqir’s Willow Trees Don’t Weep (2014)
No full textDallel Sarnou Published Online: 2017-10-12 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2017-0014. Abstract In her latest novel Willow Trees Don’t Weep(2014), the writer Fadia Faqir decided to go against the grain as a Muslim woman coming from the Middle East but lives in Britain and write about jihad, terrorism and Taliban. In this novel, the author negotiates meanings of secularism, fundamentalism, jihad, fathering, women and wars. The novel’s protagonist, Najwa is torn between her mot..
Diaspora poetics of Fadia Faqir, a daughter of Allah
No full textAo nos decidirmos, inicialmente, por um levantamento arqueológico de mulheres escritoras árabes/muçulmanas para uma escolha posterior de obras que nos levassem a um maior conhecimento dessa literatura, deparamos com a escassez de traduções e publicações no Brasil, em comparação com o grande número existente em outros países, principalmente da Europa e da América do Norte. Acreditamos que isso se deva a maior presença dessas mulheres escritoras em tais continentes, gerando um fascínio pelo exótico, mas também um misto de atração e repulsão, sempre acompanhado de estereótipos, já enraizados pelo orientalismo. No Brasil, no entanto, salvo raras exceções, as editoras voltaram-se quase que exclusivamente para as autobiografias de mulheres que tecem duras críticas aos seus países de origem, às suas leis, à situação e normas de conduta para as mulheres, na maioria restritivas e opressoras, reafirmando uma imagem já impregnada de preconceitos. Vemos assim que a oferta de publicações em nosso país também nos impede uma visão mais abrangente e nos força a ratificar impressões essencialistas que em nada contribuem para o conhecimento e possível fruição da literatura produzida por essas mulheres, agora veladas, inclusive, por questões mercadológicas que camuflam e perpetuam as mesmas visões engessadas. Na tentativa de fugir desses relatos, sempre carregados de perseguição e dor, priorizamos para o nosso estudo o romance Meu nome é Salma, da autora jordaniano-britânica Fadia Faqir pois sua narrativa, produzida em língua inglesa, envolve outros dilemas, característicos da literatura diaspórica. Paralelamente, por ser o intuito desta dissertação propor um primeiro mapeamento acadêmico no Brasil sobre a produção de autoras árabes/muçulmanas, outras obras entram em diálogo com a obra de Fadia Faqir, procurando identificar possíveis convergências entre elas, sem deixar de observar, naturalmente, a especificidade de cada obra. Partindo de uma perspectiva libertária e procurando verificar as maneiras pelas quais algumas mulheres empregam suas narrativas em transformações de paradigmas discursivos e escópicos que tentam apreender a mulher árabe/muçulmana, veremos também as obras Miragem da autora egípcio-americana Soheir Khashoggi e Vida dupla da autora saudita Rajaa Al-Sanea a fim de verificarmos, como delineado pela ginocrítica de Elaine Showalter, outros fatores que são determinantes literários tão significativos quanto o gênero, pois refletem aspectos culturais fixados nos textos de maneira indelével e suscitam questões fundamentais para a nossa compreensão. Pensamos que através deste exercício crítico que traz essas escritas à tona, poderemos dissipar os arraigados estereótipos e alcançar uma melhor compreensão do mundo islâmico e da mulher muçulmana, muitas vezes exilada, na confluência entre Ocidente e Oriente.When deciding, initially, for an archaeological survey of Arab/Muslim women writers for a later choice of works which would lead us to a greater knowledge of this literature, we faced the scarcity of translations and publications in Brazil, in comparison with the large number which exists in other countries, mainly in Europe and North America. We believe that this is due to the greater presence of these women writers in such continents, creating a fascination with the exotic, but also a mixture of attraction and repulsion, always accompanied by stereotypes, already rooted by Orientalism. In Brazil, however, with a few rare exceptions, publishers turned almost exclusively to the autobiographies of women who harshly criticize their countries of origin, their laws, the situation and rules of conduct for women, most of which are restrictive and oppressive, reaffirming an image already steeped in prejudice. We thus see that the supply of publications in our country also prevents us from taking a more comprehensive view and forces us to ratify essentialist impressions which in no way contribute to the knowledge and possible enjoyment of the literature produced by these women, now veiled, by marketing issues which camouflage and perpetuate the same plastered visions. So as to escape these accounts, always laden with persecution and pain, we prioritized the novel My name is Salma, by the Jordanian-British author Fadia Faqir because her narrative, written in English, involves other dilemmas, such as those of diasporic literature. At the same time, as the aim of this dissertation is to propose a first academic mapping in Brazil on the production of Arab/Muslim authors, other works enter into dialogue with Fadia Faqir’s narrative, as we seek to identify possible convergences between them, while naturally observing the specificity of each work. Starting from a libertarian perspective and trying to verify by what means some women use their narratives to transform the discursive and scopophiliac paradigms which try to apprehend the Arab/Muslim woman, we will also be using the works Mirage by the Egyptian-American author Soheir Khashoggi and The girls of Riyadh by Saudi author Rajaa Al-Sanea in order to verify, as outlined by Elaine Showalter’s gynocritics, other factors that are literary determinants as significant as gender, for they reflect cultural aspects indelibly fixed in the texts and raise fundamental questions for our understanding. We assume that through this critical exercise which elicit these writings, we will be able to dispel ingrained stereotypes and to achieve a better understanding of the Islamic world and the Muslim woman, often in exile at the confluence between West and East.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)88887.191124/2018-0
Cultural Dilemma of The Arab Woman Expressed through Nature Imagery: An Ecocritical Study of Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt
No full textThe Arab community is essentially a patriarchal one with a history of women being subjected to various kinds of afflictions and oppression under cultural, religious and societal laws. Though there is a collective consciousness now regarding the position of the Arab woman in the Arab world, with significant progress being made to emancipate and empower them, much needs to be done still. Set in the mid-20th century Jordan, Arab Anglophone author Fadia Faqir’sPillars of Salt portrays the tragic plight of Arab women at the hands of the traditional patriarchal Arab communities of Jordan. Nature plays a significant role in Faqir’s narrative wherein much of the miseries faced by the women characters are conveyed through rich nature imageries and analogies. This renders the novel the identity of an eco-fictional work and provides scope for analysis based on the ecological approaches as perceived in Emerson’s Nature to the more recent theory of Ecocriticism formulated by William Rueckert. This paper explores an ecocritical approach towards the position of women in the Arab society as expressed through profound eco-comparisons, imageries and analogies in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt
Re-thinking the Veil, Jihad and Home in Fadia Faqir’s Willow Trees Don’t Weep (2014)
No full textIn her latest novel Willow Trees Don’t Weep(2014), the writer Fadia Faqir decided to go against the grain as a Muslim woman coming from the Middle East but lives in Britain and write about jihad, terrorism and Taliban. In this novel, the author negotiates meanings of secularism, fundamentalism, jihad, fathering, women and wars. The novel’s protagonist, Najwa is torn between her mother’s secularism and her father’s religious fundamentalism. In her homeland, Amman, Najwa is different from many other girls of Amman because she does not wear the headscarf that represents hijab, a religious garment, in many Muslim countries. However, when she travels to Afghanistan to trace her father, Najwa meets women wearing the burqaa, a head-to-toe veil. This might be an unexpected re-consideration of this garment as a symbol of freedom because she met veiled women who are self-determined and emancipated from within. Therefore, this article sets out to explore how the novel’s protagonist re-considers the veil, home and self-discovery
Re-thinking the Veil, Jihad and Home in Fadia Faqir’s Willow Trees Don’t Weep (2014)
No full textAbstract
In her latest novel Willow Trees Don’t Weep(2014), the writer Fadia Faqir decided to go against the grain as a Muslim woman coming from the Middle East but lives in Britain and write about jihad, terrorism and Taliban. In this novel, the author negotiates meanings of secularism, fundamentalism, jihad, fathering, women and wars. The novel’s protagonist, Najwa is torn between her mother’s secularism and her father’s religious fundamentalism. In her homeland, Amman, Najwa is different from many other girls of Amman because she does not wear the headscarf that represents hijab, a religious garment, in many Muslim countries. However, when she travels to Afghanistan to trace her father, Najwa meets women wearing the burqaa, a head-to-toe veil. This might be an unexpected re-consideration of this garment as a symbol of freedom because she met veiled women who are self-determined and emancipated from within. Therefore, this article sets out to explore how the novel’s protagonist re-considers the veil, home and self-discovery.</jats:p
S-nitrosylation in brain of mice exposed to low or high doses of gamma rays: a bioinformatic investigation of the modulated pathways
No full textExtensive experimental studies and several human epidemiological surveys have revealed that exposure to high doses of ionizing radiation (>100 mSv) causes significant adverse health outcomes. The mechanisms underlying these effects have been well characterized. In contrast, the biological effects and health risks of exposure to low doses of radiation (<100 mSv) continue to be unclear and are a current subject of conflicting considerations. Due to insufficient statistical power in the limited number of available epidemiological studies evaluating health risks of human exposures to effective doses less than 100 mSv, mechanistic studies in cultured cells and animal models have been considered to be vital for understanding biological effects, and reducing the uncertainty in predicting health risks. This project builds on the body of studies characterizing the biochemical and biological effects of low dose ionizing radiation, but the emphasis is on characterizing post translational modification of proteins, namely S-nitrosylation, an area that is under-studied, even though it could greatly impact radiation sensitivity. Here, changes in S-nitrosylation were studied following in vivo exposure to either a low (0.1 Gy) or high doses (4 Gy) of 137Cs g rays, which mimics doses received in diagnostic and therapeutic radiation, respectively. The goal was to investigate whether similar or distinct S-nitrosylation events are induced in brain tissue following low and high dose g ray irradiation to test the following hypothesis: “Depending on radiation dose, S-nitrosylation triggers groups of proteins into participating in specific pathways that are protective (e.g. DNA repair, antioxidation reactions) or detrimental (loss of healthy cells, oxidative stress)”. Young adult C57BL/6J male mice were exposed to either 0, 0.1 or 4 Gy of Cesium- 137 g rays delivered uniformly to the whole body. Thirteen days after irradiation, the animals were euthanized, and the brains were harvested. The proteins were immediately extracted and processed for mass spectrometry analyses of global changes in Snitrosylation. Using Bioinformatic tools, the mass spectrometry results were analyzed by the R/Bioconductor statistical package. Several clustering approaches were used in order to create groups of proteins showing similar levels of S-nitrosylation for dose independent responses to radiation exposure, and dissimilar levels of S-nitrosylation for dose dependent responses. Clustering methods used a range of methods from purely mathematical to more intuitive manual approaches with somewhat arbitrary cutoff to analyze the proteomic data from irradiated and control samples. Additional clustering techniques like k-means and hierarchical clustering with several different numbers of clusters were applied to eliminate the cutoff bias. In addition, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software package was used to elucidate biological significance of the different groups of proteins. Depending on the clustering approaches used, several significant pathways were identified. For example, relative to control, the neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) pathway showed inactivation under low dose irradiation and activation under high dose irradiation. This pathway is under control of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activity, which becomes hyper-activated under high dose irradiation resulting in neurotoxicity. In conclusion, our results suggest that mouse exposure to low doses of Cesium-137 g rays may result in modulation of signaling pathways that promote protective effects through S-nitrosylation of certain key proteins and de-S-nitrosylation of others. This is an area that needs further investigation to elucidate the exact mechanism by which Snitrosylation occurs, and to confirm the role of the modulated pathways suggested by IPA in regulating cellular/tissue responses that impact sensitivity to radiation.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Fadia Nicola
Revising Trauma Theory: Trauma as Identity Construction and the Discontented Self in Fadia Faqir’s My Name is Salma (2007)
No full textThis essay will examine the concept of traumatic identity in My Name is Salma, exploring theories of traumatic identity and their relationship to the self in Arab Literature, the social context of the text and its historical resonance, and representation and identity via the female traumatic experience. The analysis will seek to reflect upon the impact and convergence of feminism, trauma and post colonialism within issues like the construction of the self, belonging, and the juxtaposition of homeland and exile. This essay argues, in part, that Arab women writers embrace trauma in their texts, while simultaneously critiquing the effects of trauma on the construction of personal identity. In particular, the work of Jordanian author, Fadia Faqir, in her novel, My Name is Salma (2007), provides a first-person narrative of the narrator and protagonist, Salma, who defines her personal identity as constructed from trauma, yet who is unable to process, mediate, or overcome her traumatic past. As she nevertheless attempts to construct a coherent narrative of self, the character of Salma allows readers insights into her thoughts, actions, and the way she views herself. This essay asserts further that the types of trauma that inform Salma’s narrative of self also speak to the experiences of many women in Arab states, such as the social stigmatization of so-called illegitimate birth, the violence of honour killing, racial abuse, Othering, and the dire circumstances and suffering inherent in life as a refugee
Sectoral allocation by gender of Latin American workers over the liberalization period of the 1990s
No full textThe recent restructuring of Latin American economies has renewed interest in the effects of trade liberalization, on labor markets, and on the gender division of labor. The author does not attempt to establish casuality between economic reforms, and the types of jobs that men and women hold. Instead, she provides a detailed description of the trends in male, and female formal, and informal sector participation during the economic reform period in Argentina, Brazil, and Costa Rica. The author first compares the gender composition of the formal, informal wage, and self-employment sectors in a year before reforms (1988 for Argentina, 1989 for Brazil, and Costa Rica), and a year after reforms implementation (1997 for Argentina, 1995 for Brazil and Costa Rica). Although women continued to be more likely than men to work in the informal wage sector, there is no trend of"masculinization"or"feminization"of the informal sector, or any other. Instead, in Argentina men have overtaken women as the most prevalent workers in the informal wage sector, while in Brazil, the opposite has occurred (as men move into self-employment). In Costa Rica there have been no statistical, observable changes. The author then considers the distribution across sectors within each gender group, to identify whether men, and women are more likely to select different sectors in the post-reform period relative to the pre-reform period. Among both men, and women in all three countries (except Brazilian men), workers have become more likely to hold informal wage jobs, and less likely to hold formal sector jobs. Trends in human capital accumulation explain these changes for both men, and women, while changes in gender roles, primarily in homecare and marriage, do not seem to have an effect.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Labor Policies,Population&Development,Public Health Promotion,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Population&Development,Banks&Banking Reform,Work&Working Conditions
Breadwinner or caregiver? - how household role affectslabor choices in Mexico
No full textRecent volatility in the Mexican economy, has required households to alter patterns of participation in the labor force, voluntarily or not. The author uses panel data to examine patterns of labor force entry among adult men, and women with different household responsibilities, asking whether gender is a primary determinant, shaping these patterns. She finds that labor supply patterns are driven more by household role, than by gender. Heads of households, regardless of sex, behave similarly. Women who have neither spouses, nor children behave more like men, than like married women. They are also more likely than any other group to have inflexible, higher-paying jobs in the formal sector - which raises the question: Do employers discriminate, based on gender, or on household structure? She also detects a strong added-worker effect among secondary workers, a result not detected in the labor markets of developed countries that have social insurance programs. Finally she finds that wives'choice of sector during downturns, is subject to the households'earning needs, that husbands use informal wage, or contract employment as an employer of last resort, only in response to negative income shocks to the household, and that single mothers do not select the informal sector over the formal sector in response to either expected, or realized negative income shocks. The policy implications? Interventions that target women aren't necessarily appropriate, because women are heterogeneous. And programs that aid household heads - male or female - should be directed toward employment that will last beyond the economic shock.Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Markets,Educational Policy and Planning,Labor Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Labor Markets,Educational Policy and Planning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation
The Ethics and Aesthetics of Humour in Contemporary Transcultural Migration Narratives: Melatu Uche Okorie’s “This Hostel Life”, and Fadia Faqir’s “Under the Cypress Tree”
No full textThe voice of the immigrant in Western societies is being heard in the first person in contemporary literature. Therefore, the experience of emigration is no longer or, at least, not necessarily told from the privileged perspective of the white man or woman. And the short story is being a recurrent favourite genre for sharing with readers the diverse causes that force a man or a woman to abandon his/her native land, as well as the conflicts that emerge in the countries of reception. Collections such as The Things I Would Tell You (2017) by Sabrina Mahfouz, or This Hostel Life (2018) by Melatu Uche Okorie, among many others, are offering interesting examples of transcultural renderings of the experience of migration. The purpose of the present contribution is to focus on the use of irony and humour as ethically committed strategies for deploying the possibilities as well as the limits of conviviality in contemporary societies. I study the representative examples of two stories, Melatu Uche Okorie’s “This Hostel Life” (included in the homonymous collection by the author), and Fadia Faqir’s “Under the Cypress Tree”, published in Mahfouz’s collective volume. These two stories are aesthetically brilliant instances of the ethical potential of humour when offering a transcultural view of contemporary migrations that overcomes the limitations of traditional multicultural and intercultural treatments of the topic
