*Pic. 1

 

Group members: 

• Lea Divjak
• Maja Pavlin
• Karmen Požaršek
• Katja Ribič
• Eva Suchy
• Manca Vovko

 

 

Distribution of roles

• Leader: Katja
• Secretary: Eva
• Progress chaser: Lea
• Time-keeper: Manca
• Reserve persons: Karmen & Maja

 

 

TITLE: Women in Islam: Circumcision and abortion

 

*Pic. 2

 

Definition:

 

In Islam it is a rule that all women must be circumcised so that they would not enjoy having sexual intercourse. This also decreases the chance of women cheating on their husbands.

The attitude towards abortion is also a problem in Islam. Because the society is generally against it, women do not have a choice, whether they want to keep the baby or not. It is pre-determined that they will keep it.

 

 

Research questions:

 

• Was the Islamic religion the reason of beginning of the women cirumcisions?  MAJA
• In which countries is the circumcission of a woman the most endemic/rife? MAJA

• What was the general point of view of circumsition of women about 100 years ago? MANCA

• How is the younger generation of Islamic people looking on the circumcission - are they still traditional like their parents or is their point of view more modern? 

MANCA

• What is the standpoint of Koran (Quar'an) on abortion and contraception? EVA

• Is abortion murder of a human being or a free choice? EVA 

• What are the circumstances that allow abortion in Islamic religion (rape, deformality of a foethus)? LEA

• How is abortion practiced in rural areas such as in Burkina Fasso? LEA

• Who has the right to decide over women's fertility and/or life of a foethus? KARMEN

 

 

List of literature:

• Abortion: Questions and Answers. Accessible on : www.islamawareness.net/FamilyPlanning/Abortion/abortion_qanda.html (March 17. 2010).

• Bowen, Donna Lee (1994) -  Abortion, Islam, and the 1994 Cairo Population Conference. International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (May, 1997), pp. 161-184. Published by: Cambridge University Press.

• Hedayat K. M., Shooshtarizadeh P. and Raza M. (2006) - Therapeutic Abortion in Islam: Contemporary Views of Muslim Shiite Scholars and Effect of Recent Iranian legislation. Journal of Medical Ethics, Vol. 32, No. 11 (Nov., 2006), pp. 652-657. 

• Islam - resnica. Accessible on : http://www.islam-resnica.20m.com/catalog_1.html (March 17. 2010). 

• Makhlouf Obermeyer, Carla (1992) - Islam, Women, and Politics: The Demography of Arab Countries. Population and Development Review, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Mar., 1992), pp. 33-60.

• Morgan, Peggy, Lawton, Clive (ur.) (1996): Ethical issues in six religious traditions. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press. 

• Waris, Diries (2003) - Puščavska roža. Tržič: Učila International.

 

 

GLOSSARY

 

• prepuce – kožica klitorisa, prepucij
• labia – sramne ustnice
• female genital mutilation (FGM) – žensko spolno pohabljenje
• clitorodectomy – kirurška odstranitev klitorisa
• labiaplasty – odstranitev ženskih zunanjih spolnih organov
• premarital chastity – predporočna spolna vzdržnost
• virtue – krepost, vrlina
• sanctity of life – svetost življenja
• ensoulment – ko zarodek dobi dušo in se ga obravnava kot živo bitje
• unanimity – soglasnost

 

 

 

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MINUTES

MINUTES OF THE 1ST MEETING FOR THE PBL PROJECT

(held on March 2nd, 2010 via MSN messenger)

 

Present: Katja, Eva, Lea, Manca, Karmen, Maja

Absent: /

 

Agenda: 

1. Topic discussion and selection

2. Distribution of tasks

3. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: We decided to combine our PBL project with the Sociology of religion's term paper, therefore our topic must be connected with religion and sociology. Katja suggested that we could write about women and Islamic religion. Our topic was still a very broad concept for our research and that is why we had to find a more specific one. We mutually agreed that we want to do something about a role of women in Islamic religion. Maja suggested that we could do comparison of the position of women in society between different Islamic countries. But because the role of women in everyday life is very broad concept, we mutually decided that we will research only the circumcision of women in Islamic religion.

Decision: We all liked the selected topic so we agreed that we will use it for our project in English and Sociology of religion class.

 

Item 2:

Discussion:  We had to choose one member of our group who will write the minutes on the wiki and choose the date of our next meeting. We also agreed that we will contact professor Smrke (after his classes) and ask him if we could merge our PBL project with the term paper for Sociology of religion.

Decision: We agreed that Katja will be the leader, Eva will write the minutes of our first meeting on the wiki, Lea will make sure that we follow the set up agenda, Manca will make sure that our meetings do not take too long, and Karmen and Maja will step in when one or two group members will be absent.

 

 

Item 3:

Discussion: We discussed about where we could find some literature which could be relevant for our project and we also discussed the possible definition of our problem, but we did not form any real questions and definitions.

Decision: We agreed that we will discuss this task more specifically on the next meeting when we will know if our topic and title are appropriate and most importantly if prof. Smerke accepts our theme and joint term paper. We decided that Eva, Manca and Lea will contact prof. Smrke and then notify the rest of the group about his answer.

 

Minutes taker: Eva

Chair: Katja

 

 

MINUTES OF THE 2ND MEETING FOR THE PBL PROJECT

(held on March 18, 2010 in FDV library)

 

 

Present: Katja, Manca, Lea, Eva, Karmen, Maja

Absent: /

 

Agenda: 

1. Research question

2. Discussion and selection of 10 working questions

3. Discussion and selection of  our literature

4. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion:  As we have to narrow our topic, oppression of women in Islam, we decided to make a comparison between circumcision and abortion in Islam. A part of this decision was based on, that professor Smrke would not let us be in one group, because there were too many of us.

Decision:We all agree on the research question/topic as it was also a smart distribution and an interesting comparison for later presentation.

 

Item 2:

Discussion: Because we have to set ten working questions for this assignment, we decided that we set approximately a half for each of our two topics. Each of us gave some suggestions for questions. Maja, Manca and Katja  suggested some questions regarding cirumcision as: when was it started, where are this rituals most present, how did the view on it change through history and what could be done about it nowdays. Lea, Karmen and Eva  suggested questions regarding abortion in Islam, how is it seen in Quar'an, islamic ethical standards that undermine it, how is it practiced and who should decide on it.

Decision: We all agreed on the questions we made, but we only choose ten of them because we had them too many.

 

Item 3:

Discussion:While talking about literature list Eva said, she contacted professor Smrke about  this issue via email. He gave her a link to a site that talks about abortion in Islam, the name of a book that could help us in our research and a hint to look for literature in JSTOR portal for more articles.Katja also decided to use a book she once already read.

Decision: We colected internet articles, books and internet sites for our literature, as it was said between us and recommended by professor Smrke. 

 

Item 4:

Discussion: As we have a comparison  in our term paper we decided to have three girls that will do more research work on circumcision and three more on abortion. We decided for the third on wednesday after class. 

Decision:We set our research field regarding our interests so we are all happy with the distribution of work. Katja, Maja and Manca were more interested in circumcision so this is their field of work and Lea, Eva and Karmen will work on abortion in Islam. Our third meeting is on wednesday.

 

 

Minutes taker: Karmen

Chair: Katja

 

 

MINUTES OF THE 3RD MEETING FOR THE PBL PROJECT

(held on March 26th, 2010 via MSN messenger)

 

Present: Katja, Eva, Lea, Manca, Karmen, Maja

Absent: /

 

Agenda: 

1. Distribution of research questions

2. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: Our task for this week was to distribute research questions between us so that each member would be assigned one or two questions to work on. Manca suggested that each member is assigned the questions that they contributed in the previous week. Katja, Eva, Lea, Karmen and Maja agreed with the suggestion.

Decision: We have decided that Maja will be appointed to the questions “Was Islamic religion the reason of  beginning of the women circumcisions?” and “In which countries is circumcision of women the most endemic/rife?”, Manca will be appointed to “ What was the general point of view of circumcision of women about 100 years ago?” and “How is younger generation of Islamic people looking on the circumcision?”, Katja’s research question will be “What are the main solutions about the problem of circumcision?”,  Eva’s research questions will be “What is the standpoint of Koran on abortion and contraception?” and “Is abortion murder of a human being or a free choice?”, Lea will be appointed to “What are the circumstances that allow abortion in Islamic religion?” and “How is abortion practiced in rural areas such as Burkina Fasso?” and Karmen will be appointed to the question “Who has the right to decide over women’s fertility and life of a foethus?”.

 

Item 2:

Discussion:  We need to correct our definition of the problem we are going to research. Therefore Katja stepped forward and volunteered to correct and rewrite it.

Decision: We agreed that Katja will correct our definition of the problem.

 

Minutes taker: Manca

Chair: Katja

 

 

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Sources:

*Pic. 1: © Žito d.d. Prehrambena industrija, accessible on: http://www.sumi.si/, (accessed Februar 28 2010).

*Pic. 2: Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, accessible on SodaHead: http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/obama-wants-all-women-to-register-for-selective-service-in-the-armed-forces-do-you-agree-with-barac/question-171362/ (accessed March 13 2010).

 

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