Islamophobia and Arab and Muslim Women's Activism

The aim of this article is to compare women’s activism in Diaspora communities in Muslim majority countries, such as Iran, with some of the experiences of women activists in Western counties such as Australia. This is by no means a definitive account of Arab and Muslim women’s activism in either country but an attempt to raise some questions and provide a framework in order to understand some of the issues facing Arab and Muslim activists today. I believe that it is important to look at these issues in a way that is contextualized in terms of the material circumstances in which women living in Diaspora communities find themselves. In doing so, I hope to reveal the complexity and dynamism of women’s activism and to take on critically, Orientalist, essentialist and racist arguments regarding the nature of Arab and Muslim women’s role in opposing war and neo-liberalism and in the struggle for gender equality. As Edward Said argues, exile forces us to “see things not simply as they are, but as they have come to be that way. Look at situations as contingent, not as inevitable, look at them as a series of historical choices made by men and women, facts of society made by human beings not as natural or God-given, therefore unchangeable, permanent, irreversible.

Adapted Extended Baum-Welch transformations

The discrimination technique for estimating parameters of Gaussian mixtures that is based on the Extended Baum-Welch transformations (EBW) has had significant impact on the speech recognition community. \ud In this paper we introduce a general definition of a family of EBW transformations that can be associated with a weighted sum of updated and initial models. We compute a gradient steepness measurement for a family of EBW transformations that are applied to functions of Gaussian mixtures and demonstrate the growth property of these transformations. We consider EBW transformations of discriminative functions in which EBW controlled parameters are adapted to a gradient steepness measurement or to the likelihood of the data given the model. We present experimental results that show that adapted EBW transformations can significantly speed up estimating parameters of Gaussian mixtures and give better decoding results

Reformism, Economic Liberalisation and Popular Mobilisation in Iran

Whereas in other MENA countries the impact of neo-liberal policies has been the subject of intense debate, there are at present few voices that directly analyse or critique its social and political consequences in Iran. This article seeks to address this lacuna by analysing the dynamics of reformism, economic liberalisation and popular mobilisation in Iran. It charts the country’s move from a post-revolutionary populism to a liberalised yet increasingly exclusivist model of politics and compares this to trajectories of economic liberalisation in Egypt. Two distinct outcomes of economic reform are analysed in the first part of the article: Socio-economic exclusion; and the contraction of political rights. In the second half, I investigate the ways successive post-war governments in Iran have packaged neo-liberal reforms, and how their re-imagining of the role of the state has led to differing levels of popular resistance. Finally I argue that under the present administration, political elites increasingly are oriented toward strengthening the state and seeking to limit opposition to their policies. However, the absence of neo-liberal hegemony in Iran means that growing mobilization on socio-economic issues is challenging these policies. The Right in Iranian politics is utilizing this mobilisation to present a populist challenge to the reformists in power

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

The Iranian women's movement in its regional and international context

Since its development in the 1990s the contemporary Iranian women’s movement has become one of the most important movements for change in Islamic societies and one of the large-scale and popular women’s movements in the world. Iranian women have fought for legislative, political and democratic reforms in their country and have been successful in achieving important reforms, particularly in the area of family law. They have also played a crucial role in fostering a vibrant civil society where women lead and work in NGOs, groups and associations in different fields and have contributed to the struggle for the expansion of democracy in Iran. The active and visible participation of women in contemporary politics in Iran has had an impact on perceptions of that country and on debates around Islam, gender and democracy at both a regional and an international level. In the West, the existence of this movement presents a challenge to dominant views of Iran as a conservative, religious society. It also defies the idea that the Western world has a monopoly on concepts such as women’s rights and democracy, which in the post-11 September 2001 era have been utilised in order to justify Western military interventions, invasions and occupations of countries in the region. The Iranian women’s movement has also had an impact on the struggles for democracy and reform that continue to take place in other Muslim-majority countries. Dynamic interpretations of the role of women in Islamic history and the active participation of women in Islamic societies today can be seen as part of a shared legacy of religious reformism and political activism which forms a vital part of contemporary religious and political discourses in Muslim-majority countries in the region and among Muslim minorities in the West

The Women’s Movement and Neo-Liberalism in Iran: Between Accommodation and Resistance

Purpose This chapter analyses the strategies employed by women and youth political activists in Iran in the context of changes engendered by the neo-liberal policies pursued by successive governments since the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Design/methodology/approach The analysis in this chapter is based on semi-structured interviews conducted by the author with women and youth activists in Iran in 2015. This qualitative data is contextualised within a theoretical discussion of the nature of the Iranian state, the impact of neo-liberal policies, and debates surrounding gender and neo-liberalism. Findings Contrary to the view of politics in Iran as a battle between hard-line religious fundamentalists and moderates, this chapter argues that it is not the religious nature of the state but its neo-liberal policies that have made it more difficult for women and youth activists to mobilise against the exclusionary policies of the state. In response activists in Iran have developed and articulated strategies of resistance to and accommodation with the Islamic Republic’s neo-liberal project. Originality/value The chapter breaks with prevailing socio-cultural analyses of women’s rights in Iran and provides a critique of prevalent ideas of women’s rights as innately connected to liberal and specifically neo-liberal forms of politics and governance

Social Movements in Egypt and Iran

This book is about social movements in Egypt and Iran. It analyses sectors of the reform movement in Iran and the groups and organisations that have formed the basis of the Egyptian opposition movement since the early 1990s in their historical contexts. It argues that movements seen on the streets of the region in the early 21st century have not arisen out of a vacuum. Indeed they represent the culmination of over twenty years of mobilisation by social movements. This mobilisation is itself part of a history of struggle in the region that dates back over a century