Prior research on fundamentalist religious movements has focused attention on the complicated relationship among gender, family, and religion. Using data from a nationally representative survey of 30,000 Hindu and Muslim women, this study compares the daily public and private behaviors of women in India to examine how gender and family norms are shaped in the context of communalized identity po...

OBJECTIVE to explore what role religious beliefs of pregnant Muslim women play in their decision-making on antenatal screening, particularly regarding congenital abnormalities and termination, and whether their interpretations of the religious doctrines correspond to the main sources of Islam. DESIGN qualitative pilot study using in-depth interviews with pregnant Muslim women. SETTING one m...

BACKGROUND Islam clearly exempts fasting in Ramadan during sickness, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. Yet, some women prefer to fast despite realizing their increase in nutritional demand during pregnancy. Nurses and other healthcare providers face a difficult task of providing appropriate medical advice to Muslim women regarding the safety and impact of their fasting. The present study was conduc...

RESULTS : Significant differences existed in availing of delivery care services among various segments of the population. Women residing in rural areas were less likely than urban women to use the health care services (P<0.001). Both economic and educational status of women were positively associated with use of medical facilities (P<0.001). Christian and Sikh women utilized the reproductive he...

OBJECTIVES We explored Muslim women's attitudes to self-sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV) in the context of cervical cancer screening and their responses to two self-sampling devices. SETTING A Muslim community centre in north-east London. METHODS Following a talk given on the subject of cervical cancer and HPV at the community centre, 28 women were recruited to take part in three foc...

Bangladesh has experiencing a fertility decline over the last few decades. Although many factors have been shown to influence women’s childbearing but socioeconomic factors such as education and religion are some of the prime factors that mainly influence women’s fertility in Bangladesh. So, it is important to know how education and religion determine women’s mean no of children and women’s age...

As European nations grapple with when and how to extend inclusive citizenship to their Muslim minorities, the parameters of Muslim women’s citizenship have jumped to the forefront of feminist concern. Much of the debate internationally has revolved around veiling, but we argue that this is only one element of how ethnic, religious, and other differences among women are addressed. In this paper,...

This article explores the ethics of the current "War on Terrorism, asking whether anthropology, the discipline devoted to understanding and dealing with cultural difference, can provide us with critical purchase on the justifications made for American intervention in Afghanistan in terms of liberating, or saving, Afghan women. I look first at the dangers of reifying culture, apparent in the ten...

The interpretation of the verses of the Qur’an regarding women’s rights, role, and leadership is a challenge and much debatable subject. In Islam, the Qur’an is seen by almost all Muslims as the words of Allah (swt). The majority Muslim exegetes interpreted the verses of the Qur’an by applying a method of literal reading. In modern context, Muslim feminist interpreters of the Qur’an have applie...