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AbstractFamily and household compositions are highly varied in contemporary Syria. The variation is to a large extent related to rural-urban habitation, class background, and ethnic or religious affiliation. Rural, poor, and Sunni Muslim Syrians, for example, tend to have larger families and economic interdependencies, while urban, better off, and minorities tend to have smaller and more independent family and household units. But despite such differences there's a general understanding and acceptance that marriage and parenthood is how women and men become adults. Many Syrian families and households do not, however, conform to these norms. In this article empirical material collected in northeast Syria since the late 1970s will illustrate the differences between an urban and a rural family. The case of each family illustrates the great heterogeneity of doing and talking family in contemporary Syria but also shows how local family ideals are reaffirmed.

The globe is estimated to have 6 billion people today. The rapid increase of the human population has for decades been a common Western bogeyman. Now, at the turn of the millennium, the threat is brought out again. Today "the human time bomb" connotes uncontrolled fecundity in the Other, the non-Western or non-European. Demographic research shows that many countries in the Middle East and North Africa have among the highest rates of population growth in the contemporary world. Unlike Europe, where the nightmare of demographers and politicians is the aging and decreasing population, the Middle East still has a rapidly increasing and young population. Quite clearly, many politicians in the European Union are worried about the "uncontrollable overflow" of populations over its borders from the southern and eastern Mediterranean shores.

Data collected during fieldwork, 1978-1991, are drawn on to discuss the highly gendered nature of civil society & the private-public dichotomy in Jordan & Syria. Middle Eastern states have traditionally reinforced the strict division between male/public & female/private spheres, &, in times of political upheaval, women have been able to exploit their traditional absence in the public sphere by participating in protests & performing tasks that would have led to death for men. However, recent attempts at political & economic liberalization have complicated these traditionally gendered conceptions of the public & private spheres, & women are increasingly called on to contribute to national political & economic growth. Despite the limited symbolic gains associated with such efforts, women have been (1) depicted as backward & detrimental to growth, (2) required to serve the public interests while maintaining all of their private duties, & (3) made even more dependent on male breadwinners. It is concluded that meaningful participation in civil society still eludes most Syrian & Jordanian women. 34 References. T. Sevier

«Det är av yttersta vikt att vi i vår relation till den muslimska världen söker tillräcklig kunskap om muslimska utgångspunkter så att vi kan bemöta muslimer med respekt och förståelse. Utskottet menar att vi därför bör söka olika sätt att öka förståelsen och bygga broar mellan våra kulturer. I detta arbete vill utskottet understryka att den kulturella och religiösa dialogen inte försummas.» (Utrikesutskottets betänkande 2005/06:UU8 s.1)