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.

A Critical Study of the Problems of Educational Management in Private Sector Relating to Elementary Education in the Province of Sindh

Education, being the third eye, not only differentiates living being from dead, but also brings rapid growth and development. No nation can progress in globalization without education. Education has become an investment in this era. Private and public sectors are jointly making investment in education in most of the countries of the world to maximize the human source production. They face many problems in this process. The central theme of the research is to analyze the problems of educational management in private sector relating to elementary education in the province of Sindh. The sampling procedure adapted in this study was that of random cluster sampling procedure. A sample of 400 head teachers was randomly selected from 200 schools of Sindh. The data were collected through closed ended and open ended questionnaire, interview and observation tools. Chi-square was used to test the major hypothesis. It was found that head teachers had low academic and professional qualifications. Most elementary schools were established by the individuals for self employment or commercial purpose. The majority of privates schools were unregistered and working without any legal authority. The unregistered schools faced more problems than registered ones. The head teachers / owners had faced many problems in getting schools registered due to lengthy and complicated registration process, harsh attitude of registration officers and delays made by registration authorities. The students leaving private school used to face lot of problems due to diversity in syllabus of private and public school. Many schools were facing the problems of non-availability of textbooks. The head teachers used to hire the services of the staff at any time as per need, without advertising the posts and interviewing the candidates. While making appointments, the professional qualifications of candidates were not taken into consideration. The appointment was purely temporary with no job security to teaching and non-teaching staff. The head teachers did not Problems of educational management in private sector nominate / depute teachers for teacher training. The most of schools did not have their own building with sufficient number of classrooms and proper seating arrangement. Many schools were running in rented houses. The schools running in rental house faced more problems than schools running in their own building. The furniture and fixture was not adequate in most of the schools. The position of availability of basic facilities like play ground, boundary wall, assembly place, science lab, water room, lavatories and computer labs was not satisfactory. The schools did not have transport facilities. There was no arrangement of professional guidance and counseling. The schools did not have medical checkup arrangements. There was bottom up (decentralized) approach in most of schools. In most of the schools fee was the only source of finance of school and they often used to increase fee, recruit and terminate staff without seeking government permission. The schools did not receive any kind of encouragement and support from government functionaries to implement school development plans. There was no monitoring and evaluation mechanism to enhance the teacher effectiveness and performance. The rural area schools had more problems than urban area schools. Similarly the management problems were more in schools headed by owners than schools headed by experienced professionals. The owners did not have proper knowledge about planning, staffing, organizing, controlling, supervising and budgeting. Finally, suggestions are given at the end of paper.