This paper explores women’s entrepreneurial activities in the Oman and Qatar in light of the state attention given to promoting entrepreneurship in the region over the past decade. In the Gulf Arab... Show moreThis paper explores women’s entrepreneurial activities in the Oman and Qatar in light of the state attention given to promoting entrepreneurship in the region over the past decade. In the Gulf Arab countries, like in many rapidly developing economies, neoliberal growth discourse abounds. Along with this, the promotion of entrepreneurship and embrace of individual enterprise is paramount. Despite the dominance of the state in political and economic spaces, Gulf governments have embraced the rhetoric of the market and entrepreneurship. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation conducted between 2011 and 2015, this paper examines this phenomenon. In a region stereotyped with weak gender development outcomes, female entrepreneurship is largely cast as a positive development aimed at liberating and empowering women through individual enterprise. In contrast, this paper finds that the same forces that are meant to empower women often reproduce or reinforce certain gender norms while introducing new forms of dependency. Gulf female entrepreneurs confront competing tensions within three intersecting political economy logics: the structural logic of the economy, the logic of development narratives, and the logic of socio-economic organisation. Show less
Le Quellec, Jean-Loïc; Duquesnoy, Frédérique; Charpentier, Vincent; al-Mashani, Ali 2018
This article examines global social policy formation in the area of skilled migration, with a focus on the Gulf Arab region. Across the globe, migration governance presents challenges to multiple... Show moreThis article examines global social policy formation in the area of skilled migration, with a focus on the Gulf Arab region. Across the globe, migration governance presents challenges to multiple levels of authority; its complexity crosses many scales and involves a multitude of actors with diverse interests. Despite this jurisdictional complexity, migration remains one of the most staunchly defended realms of sovereign policy control. Building on global social policy literature, this article examines how ‘domestic’ labour migration policies reflect the entanglement of multiple states’ and agencies’ interests. Such entanglements result in what we characterize as a ‘multiplex system’, where skilled-migration policies are formed within, and shaped by, globalized policy spaces. To illustrate, we examine policies that shape the nursing labour market in Oman during a period when the state aims to transition from dependence on an expatriate to an increasingly nationalized labour force. Engaging a case-study methodology including a survey of migrant healthcare workers, semi-structured interviews and data analysis, we find that nursing labour markets in Oman represent an example of global policy formation due to the interaction of domestic and expatriate labour policies and provisioning systems. The transnational structuring of policy making that emerges reflects a contingent process marked by conflicting outcomes. We contend that Oman’s nursing labour market is an example of new spaces where global social policies emerge from the tension of competing national state and market interests.Show less
Hemoglobinopathies (HBP) are the most common autosomal recessive genetic disorder in Oman. Carriers are usually asymptomatic but carrier couples are at 25% risk of getting a severely affected child... Show moreHemoglobinopathies (HBP) are the most common autosomal recessive genetic disorder in Oman. Carriers are usually asymptomatic but carrier couples are at 25% risk of getting a severely affected child. Public health authorities have focused not only on state of the art management and patient care but also on prevention. The focus of this thesis is to study the molecular spectrum of HBP and the associated genetic determinants to work towards the development of prevention strategies for severe HBP__s in Oman. We have defined the molecular spectrum of the disease all around the country, including beta, alpha and delta globin gene mutations. Furthermore, genotype/phenotype correlation studies were investigated in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) by looking at determinants such as haplotype/sub-haplotype, alpha thalassemia and hydroxyurea response based on XmnI polymorphism. Identifying genetic determinants is necessary for prognostic purposes, accurate diagnosis and planning for the best tailored treatment to the affected patients. While providing tools for a better care and a better insight on the management of these severe diseases in Oman, the results from this thesis will help to facilitate the prevention of HBP in the country. Show less
This book presents an in-depth grammatical description of Kumzari, a mixed language of the Musandam Peninsula in northern Oman. Not mutually intelligible with adjacent languages Persian or Arabic,... Show moreThis book presents an in-depth grammatical description of Kumzari, a mixed language of the Musandam Peninsula in northern Oman. Not mutually intelligible with adjacent languages Persian or Arabic, Kumzari has a mixed heritage of both language families and bears features of developments from Middle Persian and Semitic. Although the present work is synchronic in perspective, the introductory chapter includes a study of the history of the language from known sources, crucial for understanding Kumzari’s mixed nature. It follows with chapters on each constituent of the grammar: phonology, noun, verb, existential, modifier, evidential, preposition, clause, negation, and discourse. The twelfth chapter extends the analysis to the rhetorical aspects of the language, concerning the structures in Kumzari’s narrative oral tradition. The appendices provide transcripts of Kumzari texts and a lexicon. Of note are the descriptions of the mirative verb form, the wide-ranging role of the subordinator, evidentials, and the distinct word class of deverbs. From a comparative perspective, post-verbal negation is unique to Kumzari among Iranian languages. Rare also are Kumzari’s emphatic consonants, which occur even in words of non-Semitic origin. Rich in examples drawn from natural speech gathered in the field, this description situates linguistic data in its cultural context. The work documents a little-known language spoken in remote villages accessed only by boat, and it is of particular interest to scholars of both Iranian and Arabian languages as well as linguistic typology. Show less
As a result of increasing globalisation the public sphere has expanded over the recent decades. Consequently Qur'an translations exhibit a highly pluralised concept of religious authority,... Show moreAs a result of increasing globalisation the public sphere has expanded over the recent decades. Consequently Qur'an translations exhibit a highly pluralised concept of religious authority, demonstrating an eclectic use of sources as authors respond simultaneously to local and global discourses. This paper shows how the commentary in a popularising Swahili tafsir by the preacher Said Moosa al-Kindy on two particular Qur'an verses, Q. 2:185 and Q. 2:189, cannot be understood as the outcome of theological and linguistic considerations only, but rather as a multi-epistemic, socially embedded product. Q. 2:185 and Q. 2:189 are often used to endorse particular viewpoints in East African moon sighting debates. This discourse revolves about the question of whether to accept a crescent sighting report from anywhere in the world to determine the beginning of the lunar month or to wait for a visible moon from a more restricted locality. This paper situates al-Kindy's translation within the wider field of Swahili Qur'an commentaries, and compares his treatment of these verses to that in two scholarly products from outside the established genre of tafsir. One is the polemical discourse on this subject by an Ibadi intellectual writing in Swahili and the second is the lunar calendar and website produced by a Tanzanian book trader. In all three of these works Qur'anic authority is paramount, but if we want to understand the diverse mediations of the Qur'anic message in a specific milieu we should not only look at the influence of exegetical traditions but also focus on social actors and their very personal, localised experiences. Show less
