Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper, based upon field research conducted in Tajikistan, sets out to elucidate the problem of wife abuse in Tajikistan, a post-soviet Islamic society, and provide a critical analysis of the cultural and institutional factors that enable the perpetration of wife abuse and serve as barriers for victims seeking-help.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This interpersonal communication study probes on how Muslim and Christian wives create, express, interpret and negotiate their communicative interactions with their husbands. It looks at how these wives came to construct the concept of being wife and how they felt themselves changed through being wives. Grounded on Social Construction Theory, the study reveals that Muslim and Christian wives have various aspects of convergence in terms of the use of verbal communication, concept and understanding of their roles of being wives, attitude towards conflict and how they manage it. To boot, husbands and wives define their power positions in marital partnerships through interaction and communication. Thus, a wife who negotiates gets more influences, however issue of religion still controls over connubial affairs.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Controversy regarding whether domestic violence is sanctioned under Islamic law stems from confusion over multiple interpretations of Chapter 4, Verse 34 in the Koran, which seems to refer to "wife-beating." Through analysis of scholarly interpretations of multiple translations of the verse, this paper argues that domestic violence is not sanctioned under Islamic law. Additionally, through discussion of countries whose criminal justice systems misinterpret Islamic law, the paper shows how culture and patriarchal values rather than religion contribute to the confusion regarding whether domestic violence is sanctioned under Islamic law. In other words, lack of awareness of women's rights under Islamic law contributes to the privatization of domestic violence within Muslim communities. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding how this information might be utilized when working with Muslim domestic violence victims in the United States.

Author Information: Christine DeCleene is a law student at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has conducted research for the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women and the Hague Domestic Violence Project at the University of Minnesota.

Publication Type: Abstract Proposal
Abstract: Numerous studies have been devoted to the examination and analysis of royal titles and epithets. In 1995, for example, Ronald J. Leprohon clearly elucidated the link between the royal titulary of Twelfth dynasty kings and their political programs. But while it has long been recognized that the God’s Wives of Amun of the Twenty-third to Twenty-sixth dynasties (c. 740-525 BC) had acquired certain aspects of the royal titulary, to date, a similar study of their titles is still lacking.

This paper examines the names and titles of five royal princesses, who, consecutively, held the title of God’s Wife of Amun during that period. All five princesses acquired a prenomen upon assuming office and enclosed their two names in the royal cartouche. Occasionally, they also used other royal epithets, such as “(female) Horus” and “Mistress of the Two Lands.” It will be argued that their carefully formulated titles were intended to: (1) proclaim their special status and intimate relationship with various deities; (2) assert their link to certain revered historical figures; (3) and usher new political (or religious) policies.

Publication Type: Roundtable
Abstract: This paper compares the findings of two national studies of service provision to survivors of wife rape by battered wome's shelters, rape crisis centers and combination (DV/RCC) programs. The goal was to assess how service provision has changed from 1994 when the original study was conducted to 2004 when the second round of surveys was distributed. Despite a decade of work on raising awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence in intimate partnerships, there is much work to be done. While a greater number of programs currently provide shelter to survivors of wife rape and routinely ask women about their experiences of sexual assault in intimate partnerships, fewer programs currently provide training to staff and volunteers about wife rape and very few programs offer counseling services specifically for survivors of this form of violence. The implications of these findings and future directions will be discussed.