Sexuality and Religion: A Source of Conflict in Egyptian Life

Sexuality and Religion: A Source of Conflict in Egyptian Life Sexuality and Religion: A Source of Conflict in Egyptian Life Egypt is one of the oldest cultures on earth. Part of that culture is the religion of Islam. The practices of Egypts modern society, including sexuality, are deeply rooted in both its religious and secular history. Yet, like any modern society, the Egyptian people are exposed to the influences of the rest of the world. It is a world with much different values and practices than those of the Prophet Mohammed and previous generations. Regarding sexuality, the combination of duty to tradition and desire for liberation represents a serious struggle in daily Egyptian life. The Quran and Islamic law heavily influence civil law and social practices in Egypt. This influence started in the middle of the seventh century A.D., when the Arabs conquered Egypt. At the time, Egypt was ruled by the Byzantine Empire and was suffering religious persecution under them. The Egyptians welcomed the Arab invaders and, over the next several centuries, gradually converted to Islam. This eventually led to the current religious makeup in Egypt today of about 90% Muslim and 10% other, mostly Coptic Christians (US Central Intelligence Agency). The Islamic law or sharia practiced today is not just a restatement of the Quran. Rather, it is a mix of those verses, observations of the behaviors of Mohammed (sunnah) and interpretations of Mohammeds teachings developed over the centuries by Islamic legal scholars. But, how many of these laws does the average Egyptian citizen know? As in most societies with numerous and complicated laws, the average persons legal knowledge comes mostly from verbal instruction and hearsay. This leaves compliance with the law open to misunderstandings and manipulation. For the individual, this causes uncertainty and anxiety. In compliance with Islamic beliefs, sexual relations in Egyptian society are only allowed between a legally married couple. A high value is placed on virginity at the time of marriage. However, lifelong celibacy is discouraged. Extraordinary measures, by Western standards, are taken to uphold the societys moral standards. These measures fall generally into the categories of avoiding unsupervised contact between genders and avoiding arousal of sexual urges. Since Egypt is a male dominated society, the responsibility for avoiding premarital relations rests predominately with the female. Egyptian society assigns stereotypical roles to men and women. The men are the breadwinners and protectors, while women are expected to maintain the household and raise the children. Since the men need to move about freely to fulfill their role, women are required to curtail their travels to avoid arousing the men. Ideally, when leaving the house, a responsible male from her family, typically a brother or her father, should accompany an unmarried woman. However, in modern Egypt many young women attend college or have jobs where constant family supervision is impractical. Also, when outside the house, a woman is expected to wear modest clothing and cover all exposed skin except face and hands. Again, the purpose of this is to avoid the sexual arousal of the males who may see her. Egyptian womens efforts to avoid attracting male attention are not working well. Sexual harassment is prevalent in Egypt. In an interview with the Washington Post, one Egyptian woman commented, â€Å"The more women veil the less men learn to behave as decent and civilized members of society and the more women are harassed, the more they veil thinking it will protect them (Knickmeyer). In a travel advisory, the US Department of State says that a 2008 survey of Egyptian men determined that 78% had sexually harassed women. Harassment experiences create anxiety and internal conflict in Egyptian women. They are making a sincere effort to avoid the problem by covering up. Yet, they are unsuccessful and have been raised to believe that such problems are their fault. The practice of avoiding encounters between genders for unmarried people creates a huge problem. Courtship as known in Western culture, including hand holding, hugging and kissing, is prohibited. Thus, it is difficult for a couple to fall in love and get to know each other well enough to consider marriage. The historical answer has been for the family to assist their children in finding suitable mates. Families identify perspective mates for their children and arrange meetings in the presence of the womans family. However, this environment limits the extent to which the couple can get to know each other and results in less certainty in compatibility than would be expected in societies that permit unsupervised courtship. It also contributes to internal conflict in the individuals involved. That is, personal uncertainties about the potential mate conflict with family expectations for young people to marry by a certain age. In recent years, the high cost of getting married and economic conditions in modern Egypt have made it difficult for Egyptian men to afford marriage. In Egypt, the groom and his father pay for the wedding and must give a dowry or mahr to the bride. For the typical wedding, this cost amounts to several years wages of both the groom and his father (Singerman, 21-22). This is forcing young Egyptians to put off marriage until they can save the required money. For people living by the Islamic rules and avoiding premarital sexual relations, this waiting increases sexual frustration and can lead to depression. The impact of high marriage costs on a young couples finances and a weak courtship procedure contribute to a high failure rate for Egyptian marriages. Egyptian government statistics show that 34.5% of marriages fail in their first year (Al Khamissi). For comparison, in the US approximately 70% of couples married between 1990 and 1994 were still married ten years later (US Census Bureau). An alternative to the high cost traditional marriage is an urfi (secret) marriage. In this form of marriage, the couple draws up a marriage contract and verbally declares that they are married. Typically the contract is not registered with the government and the couples families are not informed. While this type of marriage is inexpensive and allows them to have sexual relations, it can create other problems for the couple. If the sexual relations result in a pregnancy, it becomes difficult to keep the marriage secret. The couple must either disclose their marriage or get an illegal abortion. Also, the couple must still deal with the stress and anxiety associated with keeping the marriage secret. They must find places to meet and justify the time spent apart from their families. People who arent able to get married may look for alternative outlets for their sexual needs. Typical possibilities include Internet pornography, masturbation and prostitution. None of these are looked upon favorably in Egyptian society. Thus, the person is faced with another conflict; endure the sexual frustration or the guilt and risk associated with these other sexual outlets. According to Google Trends, Egyptians are among the world leaders in seaching for the word â€Å"sex† on the Internet. However, viewing pornography violates Islamic law set forth in the Quran. â€Å"Lo! Allah enjoineth justice and kindness, and giving to kinsfolk, and forbiddeth lewdness and abomination and wickedness. He exhorteth you in order that ye may take heed (Pickthall: Quran 16:90).† Therefore, by choosing this behavior the person is choosing one banned act over another (sex outside of marriage). Conclusions Past generations of Egyptians accepted the sexual restrictions imposed by law and tradition because they were raised in that environment, learned that concept of self and had little opportunity for comparison to practices in other cultures. However, improved communications through the Internet and other media have raised questions in the minds of Egyptian youth about these customs. They see premarital sex and publicly expressed sexuality in Western media and desire those freedoms and pleasures for themselves. For now, the conflict between individual sexual desires and societys restrictions on sexual activity occurs mostly within the individuals in Egyptian society. However, as Western culture and values influence more and more young Egyptians, it is likely that a more visible struggle for increased sexual latitude will develop between them and the fundamentalists, who demand to retain the old customs.

How to refine Tai Lin Radio Service Ltd to the market leader position in the electrical appliances retail industry :: Strategic Business Management Strategy

1.0 Executive Summary Electrical appliances are an indispensable part of our daily. Hong Kong's electrical appliances retail trades vigorous development in recent years, because present is age of technical and information, many technical products arose at this historic moment. They are providing a wide array of quality and fashionable digital products, including consumer electronics, computers and communication items, enabling trend-seeking customers to enjoy a vibrant digital lifestyle. In the electrical appliance stores, the product type are more and more on selling, as the same time, the electrical appliance outlet or specialty shop are rapid increase. Which making tomorrow’s dream of smart living today’s reality for people in Hong Kong. Recently, electrical appliances store mostly with chain management, also have the magnificent decoration and be stationed in Hong Kong or Kowloon each famous plaza or shopping mall. These forces the electrical appliances retail trade arrive to a period which â€Å"The powerhouse retains, the weak one eliminates† .Many old shops replaced by new competitor or reformed because they are lack of reform. This report based on the Tai Lin Radio Service Ltd present condition, though the multiple analyses and the suggestion, hope this marketing plan creates a long-term growth model for their retail success. 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Company background and highlighting Tai Lin Radio Service Limited had it's beginnings in 1946, being one of the earliest electrics appliance store in Hong Kong. By serving the communities for sixty years, Tai Lin has established trust and esteem with customers. Retailing and repairing radios were the core early stage business of Tai Lin, by growing of the business, product range expanded broadly to televisions and electronic appliances. In 1975, Tai Lin even introduced the first stereo Hi-Fi to Hong Kong. In order to cope with the rapid growing populations in the 60's, Tai Lin broadly expanded their business by opening shop outlets in different areas of Hong Kong and varies shopping arcades. Tai Lin Radio Service Limited was officially trademarked in 1976 and as their name implied "Service Orientated" as the company's focal point. For the generations to come, Tai Lin would carry on their aim serving the communities with the latest electrics and the greatest sincere. Year 2006, Tai Lin is going to celebrate their 60th anniversary. By renovating their branches, rearranging the products mixture and opening more shop outlets in the near future, Tai Lin is going to present a completely revitalized new appearance. Nowadays, Tai Lin Radio Service Ltd has 10 branch stores in 8 locations - Tsuan Wan, Yuen long, Sha Tin, Mong Kok, Jordan, Kwun Tong, Causeway Bay and Central.

Retaining Top Performers During Change

According to Judith Ross, â€Å"coping with change is a permanent part of the manager’s job†. Since this is an established fact, one would expect that manager would strive at retaining the top performers – those that have been instrumental to the growth of the company before the period of change. However, it would be shocking to note that often times than not, these top performers are not retained. The question here is why do managers fail to retain these strategic employees?Generally, one thing that happens when there is a change in the organization, the leaders or managers are often â€Å"too busy† handling matters that concern the paper work. Thus, they rarely communicate the essential information these top performers who in turn make different interpretations to what they are seeing. In periods of change, the managers are under pressure and they seem to worry more on the structure rather than those employees that made the structure.Therefore, Top perfo rmers are left to navigate their way through the happenings in the company and because these set of employees are passionate about their careers; they are forced to look elsewhere because they see no future, assurance in the restructuring. Furthermore, when managers do not communicate effectively to their employees, especially those top performers, there are unintended consequences. From my experience from the paper, I discovered that in times of change, when managers do not communicate the specifics to their employees, they are forced to imagine the worst that can happen and decide on this.These consequences should be a source of concern to organizations because these top performers are the backbone of the organization. Personally, if I were the manager in my organization, whenever there is change, the first people I would do is to sell the change to my top performers. I would explain the why, the how, and the specifics. I would immediately involve them in the change. Reference: Ro ss, J. (2006). Retaining top performers during change. Harvard Business Review.

Changes in the American Government Essay - 948 Words

Throughout the lifespan of the American government, there have been changes to the different branches. One cannot simply claim that they are exactly as the Founding Fathers had designed them and pictured them; they have become so much more. Among these changes are the adoption of the 17th Amendment, the general surrender of control of power to the executive branch, and the centralization of power to a couple of congressional leaders in recent years. These are some of the most important changes that have altered the Congress and the American government in general. One of the essential changes that was mentioned near the beginning of the course was that of the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. The Founders†¦show more content†¦3, 4). The Framers had intended the government to function in a certain manner, but subsequent generations began to alter this view in order to adopt a more democratic form of government (Rossum 2003, para. 3). Therefore, society is now left with a directly elected Senate that is not fulfilling the role intended by the Framers of the great experiment. Another of these monumental changes would be the surrender of the control of power from the legislative branch to the executive branch. Over the twentieth century, this became an increasing reality as the focus shifted from Congress to the president (Cooper 2009, 388). While this development has many different advantages in the American government system, there are disadvantages as well, such as a decrease in stability (Cooper 2009, 379). The role of the president has become more important because of the changes that have led to the modern world (Cooper 2009, 388). This has occurred because of a number of reasons, such as â€Å"substantial increases in the responsibilities of the federal government, the stakes of politics, and the ease of communication and travel† (Cooper 2009, 388). Furthermore, in recent years, Congress has not worked hard in certain circumstances to protect their rights but have surrendered to the executive branch (Davidson, Oleszek, and Lee 2010, 498). It isShow MoreRelatedTo What Extent Did the American Revolution Fundamentally Change American Society?851 Words   |  4 PagesSeptember 24, 2012 DBQ: To what extent did the American Revolution fundamentally change American society? In your answer, be sure to address the political, social and economic effects of the Revolution in the period from 1775 to 1800. After the American Revolution, Americans, who were free of British control, started to reevaluate politics, the economy and society. After breaking away from what they thought was a corrupt and evil government, Americans changed how they wanted to govern their societyRead MoreThe American Revolution Was A Political Revolution1322 Words   |  6 Pagesand led the colonies to declare independence. 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