On December 9, 2009, a Lebanese criminal court sentenced a Lebanese woman to 15 days in jail for repeatedly beating Jonalin Malibago, her Filipina maid, three years earlier. Lebanese newspapers hailed the case a landmark victory for the country’s estimated 200,000 migrant domestic workers (MDWs), many of whom report abuse at the hands of their employers. The case illustrated the positive role that the judiciary can play in protecting MDWs, even though the sentence was lenient given the violation. But it also raised at least one significant question: was the Malibago verdict a rare instance of...
IFI Working Paper Series #4 | July 2010
Media Habits of MENA Youth: A Three-Country SurveyJad Melki
This pilot study surveyed 2,744 university and high school students in Jordan, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. It asked about their media consumption and production habits, and about their attitudes towards certain media.
Among the significant findings, the survey found the participants highly adept at using new media. They spent considerable time consuming new and traditional media, but much less time producing media content. For instance, the vast majority of participants indicated...
ورقة خلفية | حزيران 2010
الشباب البحريني والهويةفاطمة علي
في عامنا هذا (2010) يكمل مصطلح ”الهوية“ ستين عامًا منذ بدء المحاولات الاولى لتوظيفه في المجال التداولي كمصطلح يدل على نوع من فهم الخصوصية لدى الفرد عن نفسه أو الجماعة عن نفسها في مقابل خصوصية الآخر (أبيه، 2004،صفحة 65). غير أن اللافت أن كل هذا الوقت لم يكن كفيلا بمعالجة الغموض الذي يشوب مسألة الهوية ومعانيها المختلفة
وإذا كان خطاب الهوية قد شغل العالم الغربي منذ انتهاء الحرب العالمية الثانية فإن العالم العربي لم ينشغل بهذا الخطاب إلا حديثا، أو فلنقل فقد غزت خطابات الهوية المكتبة العربية، بدءا من التسعينات وحتى الألفينات غزوا، حيث جرى...
Background Paper | June 2010
Dilemmas of Identity and Cultural Diversity among Ammani YouthYazan Doughan
This report is an overview of the research conducted as part of Takween’s project on Identity & Cultural Diversity in the city of Amman. Using the method of discourse analysis, it investigates the politics of identity among Ammani youth, particularly those from marginalized ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Our research focuses on anxieties around issues of ethnic and national identity among this group and detects shifts in identity politics from older to younger generations in the city...
Background Paper | June 2010
Dilemmas of Identity and Cultural Diversity among Ammani YouthYazan Doughan
This report is an overview of the research conducted as part of Takween’s project on Identity & Cultural Diversity in the city of Amman. Using the method of discourse analysis, it investigates the politics of identity among Ammani youth, particularly those from marginalized ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Our research focuses on anxieties around issues of ethnic and national identity among this group and detects shifts in identity politics from older to younger generations in the city...
Background Paper | May 2010
“Scratch the Past – This is OUR Soundtrack: Hip Hop in Lebanon”Angie Nassar
In Lebanon’s cultural politics of music, hip hop emerges as an instrument for contesting inherited forms of meaning by socializing alternative discourse - with its own ideological terms, creative yearnings and lexicon of ideas - into the public sphere. Perhaps only a small interruption against the repetitive, exacting beats of the social order, but this is not about volume or even flow. It is about testing the limits and pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. Hip hop in...
Background Paper - May 2010
Youth Mobilization in Egypt: New Trends and OpportunitiesDina Shehata
Civic participation among youth in Egypt is alarmingly low. According to a recent survey, which confirms the findings of various earlier surveys, only 2% of youth are participating in volunteer work, only 5% participate in youth centers and sports clubs, political parties, unions and associations and housing and school boards, and only 16% of all eligible young voters voted in a previous election (The Population Council, 2010).
In spite of these grim statistics, there are some indications that...
Key Findings of Research Paper Produced as Part of the AUB Tobacco Control Research Group | April 2010
The Economics of Tobacco in Lebanon: An Estimation of the Social Costs of Tobacco Consumption (Key Findings)Jad Chaaban, Nadia Naamani, and Nisreen Salti
This document presents the key findings of the social costs of tobacco consumption in Lebanon.
This document is the outcome of a workshop organised by UNRWA on the 31st of March 2010 on “Community of Practice in Building Referral Systems for Women Victims of Violence”.
Executive summary of a survey conducted by UNICEF. Objectives of the study: - To assess the magnitude of the problem of violence at home, in schools, in institutions and in the neighborhood of camp environment.
هذه الدراسة تم انجازها عام 2010، من قبل عزّة شرارة بيضون، بدعم من منظمتي أوكسفام برطانيا(OXFAM) و كفى عنف و استغلال و بتمويل من UNTRUSTED FUND ضمن إطار مشروع "تطوير مقاربات و استراتيجيات العمل مع الرجال لمناهضة العنف المنزلي في الشرق الاوسط".
Around the world, gender-based violence (GBV) reflects and reinforces inequalities between men and women. It is entrenched by power relations and control, cultures of silence and denial, political and cultural apathy, and affects men and women throughout their lives.
Parliamentary elections of 2009 and the year 2008 in review. The evenings of tuesday and Wednesday, April 7/8 marked the last day to register as a candidate for the Lebanese Parliamentary Elections scheduled on Sunday June 7, 2009.
مذكرات للباحثين و صناع القرار #1 | تشرين الثاني 2008
شباب مصريون يعيدون اكتشاف المشاركة المدنية، ويؤسسون لأشكال جديدة من الخدمة العامبربارة إبراهيم
يمثل جيل الحركات الشبابية المصرية الحالي أكبر المجموعات الشبابية التي تخوض معركة اثبات الوجود في العالم العربي. أدواتهم تتراوح بين الخدمات الاجتماعية التقليدية، و تقنيات الاتصال الجديدة في سبيل مواجهة الحظر المفروض عليهم من قبل الأنظمة السياسية والعائلية. وهذه الحركات هي التجربة التي سلطت الضوء عليها الدكتورة بربارة ابراهيم ومجموعة أخرى من الباحثين في مصر
ويسود في عالمنا ”اجتاه لمعاملة الشباب وقضايا الشباب بطريقة جد موعظية، ومبسطة،“ بحسب إبراهيم،...
Research and Policy Memo #1 | November 2008
Young Egyptians reinvent civic engagement, leading to new forms of public serviceBarbara Ibrahim
As the largest ever cohort of young people in the Arab World struggles to find its place in society, youth are forging arenas for public participation that draw upon new media and traditional social service. Initiated by young people, this movement responds to the exclusion they feel from family and state structures that block their public participation. It is a new brand of youth movements that Dr. Barbara Ibrahim and other researchers have identified in...
ان كتاب " العنف القانوني ضد المرأة في لبنان قوانين الأحوال الشخصية والعقوبات" هو عبارة عن ثلاثة دراسات قانونية تم تنفيذها من قبل باحثات قانونيات بالتعاون مع التجمع النسائي الديمقراطي اللبناني في اكتوبر 2008، و هدفها تسليط الضوء على مواضيع العنف ضد المرأة في قوانين الأحوال الشخ
Events and experiences over the past years have confirmed that Lebanon is not a "country" in the legal and political context of the term but an "agreement" between 18 confessions to live on one land and find an appropriate framework (the state) to deal with their differences.
This report, compiled by Pernilla Ouis and Tove Myhrman, is a comparative situation analysis of honour violence, early marriages and sexual abuse in Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Yemen.
The impetus for this case study arose in the “Advocacy for Reproductive Health” project, funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and implemented by The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), a non-governmental organizat