Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Geographies of Identities: Reading Gender and Space in British Muslim Women’s Writing(Saudi Digital Library, 2024-09-22) Alahmadi, Hanan; Abram, Nicola; Brauner, DavidAbstract This thesis examines the interaction between geography and women’s identities and experiences as portrayed in four texts by British Muslim women writers: Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003), Leila Aboulela’s Minaret (2005), Fadia Faqir’s My Name is Salma (2007), and Sabba Khan’s The Roles We Play (2021). These novels engage with the concepts of space and place as fundamental to the construction, negotiation, and contestation of female migrant identities and everyday experiences in Britain. The thesis draws on feminist geography to theorise key concepts such as ‘the right to the city’, ‘embodied identities’, ‘intersectional embodiment’, ‘moral geographies’, and ‘third space’ in analysing women’s spatial experiences. The discussion of these four texts is structured around three main lines of argument. First, I argue that gendered spatial relations shape women’s access to and use of certain spaces, as well as their freedom, behaviour, and representations of their bodies in public, work, and leisure environments. Second, I contend that Muslim women’s experiences of space as gendered intersect with other forms of social inequalities, including class, race, religion, and migration status. Finally, the third argument focuses on women’s resistance to and negotiation of these intersecting forms of marginalisation through the construction of new, hybrid, and creative identities. These in-between spaces are not static blends of two cultures, but dynamic, ambiguous, and continually evolving contexts for identity formation.21 0Item Restricted Gender and intersectionality: Understanding and Addressing Women's Mental Health and Mental Health Policy within the Cultural Context of Saudi Arabia(University Of Glasgow, 2024-02-06) Alghamdi, NadiaAhmed Alhamd; Melville, CraigBackground: Intersectionality concerns the interconnected nature of social categories (e.g., race, gender, age, education) and how these ‘intersect’ to produce privilege and oppression. In the current context, this helps to understand women's mental health in socially disadvantaged positions, especially how intersections among gender inequality and factors such as socioeconomic status contribute to women’s mental health inequalities and experiences. Yet this remains an under researched area. This study’s overarching aim concerns understanding Saudi Arabian women’s mental health disorders, risks, challenges, and issues. For this, it has three objectives: to review the effects of intersectionality on this group within extant quantitative literature; to identify and explore the significant interactions among variables relating to this population’s social disadvantage and mental ill-health (e.g., gender and the risk of depression); and to analyse Saudi Arabia’s current mental health policy and gender equality. This study’s more specific aims involve furthering understanding of the effects of content, context, and actors behind mental health policies and programmes on Saudi women to help address their mental health needs. It takes the form of three studies. Study 1. This systematic review investigated quantitative methods used to study the intersectionality of multiple social disadvantages in women with common mental disorders. It reviewed studies on the intersectional effects of gender with multiple social disadvantages from the PROGRESS-Plus inequity framework and examined the quantitative methods these studies employ. The most common and means of studying intersectionality in mental health studies in the included studies was statistical interaction analysis. Other methods such as multilevel modelling and mediation decomposition analysis were also used. These robust statistical methods facilitate research on intersectional effects on mental health and improve understanding of the complex intersection of gender and other social disadvantages concerning women’s risk of common mental disorders. Study 2: This study analysed the National Survey of Saudi Food and Drug Authority dataset, a nationally representative sample of individuals aged 18–88 in Saudi Arabia (3,408 participants: 1,753 males and 1,655 females). Evaluating variable risks of depression using the PHQ-2 screening questionnaire, it found significant correlations between depression risk and the variables of gender, education, family income, and employment status. Although a subsequent multivariate analysis found the only significant predictors of depression risk to be female gender and education below the bachelor level. No interaction effects were observed, implying an additive effect of gender and education on the risk of depression. Study 3: This study analysed Saudi Arabia's mental health policies and gender equality. Using Walt and Gilson's health policy analysis framework, it highlights the need to address gender inequalities in the country's mental health policies. It provides evidence-based mental health policy recommendations relating to women in Saudi Arabia about enhancing their mental health and well-being and establishing an equal health system. Conclusions: Examining women’s mental health through an intersectionality lens can help policymakers address Saudi Arabian women’s mental health issue . To reduce inequalities, advances must be made in women’s education, training, employment, socioeconomic status, access and participation, equality, and overall independence. However, this must take place within a wider targeted and tailored reform agenda (legal, policy, political, PR, cultural, religious, economic, careers, educational) within which women must actively participate. Urgent inclusive, deep, and far-reaching intersectional initiatives, adjustments, research and reforms are needed to elevate Saudi women’s circumstances, experiences, and mental health and thereby address the current issue and ultimately improve society overall.42 0