Islam and Woman in the Contemporary Arab World: An Interpretation of Rajaa Al-Sanea’s Girls of Riyadh from Islamic Feminist Perspective

The present position paper explores to examine Rajaa al-Sanea’s“Girls of Riyadh” (2005) from the Islamic feminist perspective. Also, the study highlights the model of western feminism epitomised in the narrative under reference, vis-à-vis the Islamic concept of feminism. Islamic feminism grants equal rights to women and ensures its implementation in the Islamic state and society, whereas Western-sponsored feminism dwells on the archetype of women’s liberalism. That, in turn, leads to an anarchic and chaotic society, because of its believing in bringing women not only equal to men but superseding them in socio-cultural positioning. In the existing situation, the novel decries phallocentric society of Saudi Arabia and aiming at replacing it by the sensate-secular feminism that believes in the undue autonomy of the women. In order to investigate the presence of overwhelming patrilineal mores, the study pursues Islamic feminism as a theoretical model and employs reader’s response technique as a methodology. More far the findings of the research are concerned, the researchers conclude that replacing the patriarchal autonomy in the said society by Islamic feminism is befitting and benefitting than to replace it by the western feminism.

Development of a Group Nonverbal Intelligence Test for Youth

Intelligence is an all encompassing ability of human personality with myriad implications on the overall success of life outcomes including academic achievements, professional success, quality of life and social wellbeing. The concept of right person for the right job is the real essence of ability testing and human resource induction as the evaluation of true potentials can help placement of individuals according to their intellectual functioning to improve their chances of success in life. A critical challenge, in assessment of intelligence has been the level of educational background, language proficiency and age specification. Thus, in order to develop a culture fair and culture free test, nonverbal intelligence testing has been acclaimed a psychometrically viable method in the field of intelligence testing and measurement. The present study was therefore, designed to develop a group nonverbal intelligence test for Pakistani youth with age ranges 15 to 24 years and labeled as Group Nonverbal Intelligence Test for Youth (GNVITY). Guided by the theoretical model of fluid intelligence given by Cattell in 1965, the Group Nonverbal Intelligence Test for Pakistani Youth comprised of five subtests: Matrices, Odd one out, Similarities, Series and Analogies, each subscale comprising of geometric and figurative materials; shapes, patterns, symbols and designs. In order to develop a standardized psychometrically sound group nonverbal intelligence test for the measurement of nonverbal intelligence test, four studies were planned following the methodological framework of Hinkin, Tracy, and Enz (1997) for construction of a scale. Study 1 was conducted to generate the items for GNVITY; ascertaining the difficulty level, discrimination power, and to determine the time limit for the administration of the test. In first phase, ability areas, test format and test draft was finalized. Initially 200 items were generated and 150 items were shortlisted in the light of expert opinion, qualitative and content analysis. In second phase, item analysis was carried out to estimate the difficulty level, discrimination power and distracter analysis and thus 54 items were discarded. In third phase, items with difficulty level below 0.30 and above 0.70, discrimination values lower than 0.30 and item to total correlation value less than 0.30 were discarded. This exercise resulted in the final selection of 80 items. In fourth phase, estimation of time limit was carried out and decided to be 30 minutes. xi Study 2 was conducted to find the factorial validity and reliability analysis. The principal axis factoring yielded a single factor loading for five subscales with estimated values; .764, .692, .747, .795, and .735 for Matrices, Odd one outs, Similarities, Series and Analogies suggested uni dimensionality of test. Item total correlation and matrix of correlation showed significant high positive results at p < .001. The reliability studies showed that the three reliability indices: Cronbatch alpha (.92), split half reliability (.90) and test retest reliability (.92) are highly significant at p < .001 indicating that the proposed group nonverbal intelligence test is highly reliable and consistent measure of nonverbal intelligence for the youth. Study 3 was conducted to establish the validity of group nonverbal intelligence test for youth by administering the test on 400 secondary school level students at Inter Services Selection Board (ISSB). The convergent validity was established by correlating the Group Nonverbal Intelligence Test for Youth (GNVITY) scores with Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM), Verbal Intelligence Test (VIT) and Nonverbal Intelligence Test (NVIT) being used for intelligence testing and screening of candidates for armed services. Results yielded highly positive correlation coefficients all significant at p < .001. The discrimination validity of the test was established by correlating the GNVITY scores with Individual Obstacles (IOs), a measure of physical agility and endurance used at ISSB. As anticipated, no significant results were found between the two measures. The significant high positive correlation between the students test scores and marks in their intermediate and equivalent level examinations give evidence of criterion validity. The F values for three age and grades showed highly significant results at p < .001 supported the hypothesis that there are significant differences in three groups. Study 4 was conducted to establish the norms and grading system. The test was administered on 2000 college level students all over the Pakistan. The mean score of the test was 42.82 and standard deviation was 10.341. Three types of within group norms Percentile, Standard Sores and Deviation IQ were derived and grading system was devised for interpretation of results on comparative grounds. xii Overall the findings show that test is a good measure of nonverbal intelligence for Pakistani youth. Test has good potentials for human resource induction, educational and clinical institutions for estimation of cognitive functioning of Pakistani youth. The GNVITY is relatively free from the confounding of education, language and acculturation, has group administer ability advantage and provides standardized norms for grading and interpretation of results.