Ḣarim and Ḣijab: Seclusive and exclusive aspects of traditional Muslim dwelling and dress

Architectural constructs of the family dwelling and styles of women's outer garments for public wear are intricately intertwined with the sociocultural framework within which both women and men function. Although conventionally regarded as restrictions on women's free movement in society, it is also apparent that in the Muslim world dwelling and dress may be, and indeed are, used to advantage by women as a means of retaining privacy from male intrusion and for exerting power in a society ostensibly controlled by men.     

The behavioral and cognitive effects of two benzodiazepines associated with drug-facilitated sexual assault

Recently, sexual assaults have included the use of benzodiazepines to impair the victim. Our aim was to examine the physiological, cognitive, and behavioral effects of flunitrazepam (FN) and clonazepam (CLO). In the first study, ten healthy volunteers received a single oral dose of 2 mg of FN. Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), behavioral reports and staff observations were then collected. In the second study, ten healthy volunteers received a single oral dose of 3 mg of CLO. Vital signs, performance on the MMSE and Digit Symbol Substitution Test, and behavioral changes were examined. FN significantly decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure 4 h post drug ingestion with diastolic remaining low at 6 h. CLO was associated with changes in temperature and decreased systolic pressure. FN affected memory and attention 4 h following ingestion. CLO affected memory and attention throughout the study (6 h), and psychomotor performance was decreased 2 h post ingestion. In both studies, subjects were disinhibited and did not perceive their own impairment.     

‘Free from all uninvited touch of man’: Women's campaigns around sexuality, 1880–1914

The history of sex in the last 100 years has generally been represented as a triumphant march from Victorian prudery into the light of sexual freedom. From a feminist perspective the picture is different. During the last wave of feminism women, often represented as prudes and puritans by historians, waged a massive campaign to transform male sexual behaviour in the interests of women. They campaigned against the abuse of women in prostitution, the sexual abuse of children, and marital rape. This article describes the women's activities in the social purity movement, and the increasingly militant stance taken by some pre-war feminists who refused to relate sexually to men, in the context of the developing feminist analysis of sexuality. The main purpose of the paper is to show that in order to understand the significance of this aspect of the women's movement we must look at the area of sexuality not merely as a sphere of personal fulfilment but as an arena of struggle in which male dominance and women's subordination can be most powerfully reinforced and maintained or fundamentally challenged.     

What Body Parts Do We Owe Each Other?

The American experience in organ transplantation illuminates the attitudes and practices that underlie the ongoing failure to establish a national health insurance system. In both spheres, the public makes a sharp divide between the well-being of intimates and the well-being of strangers. Private and public duties remain distinct; obligations recognized on a personal level do not expand public commitments. As a result, individuals must shift for themselves, whether they require an organ donor or a doctor. In the world of transplantation as in the world of health care more generally, we are all on our own.

Russia's Twentieth Century in History and Historiography

Discussions of Russian history have frequently been marked by a preoccupation with the question of Russian 'backwardness', or, during the Soviet period from 1917 to 1991, with its obverse: the claim of the Soviet Union to play a vanguard role in world history. This paper offers a critical survey of twentieth-century Russian and Soviet history, and of its often highly politicised historiography, in the light of these debates. The extent to which the Soviet 'building of socialism' represented a project of modernisation will be considered, along with differing interpretations of this project by both Western and post-Soviet Russian historians. While the work of the new generation of post-Soviet historians promises substantive advances in our knowledge of the Soviet past, it is suggested here that debates on Russia's past are once again being overshadowed by old concerns about Russia's backwardness vis-à-vis the West.     

Urban ethnic politics in the post‐modern city: Comparing Miami and Toronto

This paper synthesises variants of post‐modern political theory in order to examine contemporary urban ethnic politics in Miami, Florida, and Toronto, Ontario. Cities in general, and Miami and Toronto in particular, are conceptualised not as foundational entities to be excavated in search of pre‐given data, but as texts—configurations of signs, symbols and codes to be read, interpreted and analysed. The focus is on race and ethnicity as socially constructed and political contested imageries, but the approach, aptly described as empirical post‐modernism, has even broader implications for the study of power and identity politics in contemporary world cities.