Suchergebnisse

What is the impact of almost a decade of war (IraqIran war), followed by 13 years of sanctions and then an occupation that is now in its fifth year? Ask women, as we did in a research project initiated in 2004 that asked Iraqi women to reflect on the course of turbulence and change
in Iraq over their lifetimes. Invariably, we found, they focused on the Iraqi household, a level of analysis seldom addressed in all the literature on Iraq generated over the last decade or so which generally focuses on the macro level of institutional change, not the micro level of household
change. Because of the centrality of the household in the social and cultural construction of Iraqi society, the assessment of change at the household level is central to any assessment of the impact of turbulence on Iraqi society. This essay is based on analysis of interviews with Iraqi women
conducted between 2005 and 2007. Nested in a grounded theory methodology, the interviews were conducted face-to-face. Intended to be in-depth, unstructured and open-ended, the interviews focused on exploring significant events in the women's lives.

Over the latter half of the twentieth century, Iraqi women enjoyed a substantial expansion in their opportunities and rights. Where the reforms of the latter half of the twentieth century freed women from the bondage of tribal and feudal forces, the American occupation of 2003 has jolted
Iraqi women back into the bondage of reactionary forces. In addition to the general horrors that have come to dominate Iraqi life, Iraq's women have become the target of a campaign of sexual terrorism by the Anglo-American occupation regime in addition to the criminal and sectarian elements
that were unleashed by the occupation. This article studies the shifting status of women in modern Iraq, and considers the various forms of oppression that held Iraqi women in thraldom (tribal, sectarian, neo-feudal). Finally, the article considers the place of women within the emerging
international environment of corporate neo-feudalism.

The relationship between knowledge & power is examined in terms of the social science literature base on Arab countries. It is argued that knowledge imposes normative constraints on the exercise of power, & the exercise of power is dependent on the lack of knowledge. The knowledge base on Iraq & Palestine, the two countries in the Arab world most decimated in the post-WWII era by the exercise of external power politics, are focused on. Three phases are analyzed: (1) delimiting the population of scholarly literature in the social sciences on the Middle East by country; (2) drawing representative samples of scholarly literature on Iraq & Palestine from this population; & (3) content analysis of the samples. 9 Tables, 4 References. Adapted from the source document.