Portrayal of Female Harassment Issues in TV Dramas Essay

The values of gender equality are promoted among all countries all over the world. Women have become more economically strong and independent even in South Asian region. Media has played a vital role in molding the opinions and providing a sigh of relief to the suppressed women folk. The relationship of women and media is very important as media transforms the real picture of women and their core issues in front of the public through its programs and TV dramas. Media broadcasts important messages on women harassment issues, domestic violence, gender bias, stories of mental torture and gender norms through various TV dramas, talk shows and magazine shows. Keywords: Domestic violence, mental torture, gender harassment, faith, religious strength, patience, tolerance. Introduction Pakistani media has become very liberal, moderate and independent since 2001. Media has played a vital role in molding the opinions of the people and providing a sigh of relief to suppressed women of our society. The relationship between woman and media is very important as media presents the real picture of women issues among of the public. Pakistani media is growing with 60 private TV networks and 12 FM radio channels. Media transmits women domestic harassment, violence, mental torture, rape cases through talk shows and TV dramas. Our TV channels represent all cultural and social bindings of women so the audience can digest them without criticism. In some TV dramas, the Islamic values and trends are also projected. Mostly Pakistani dramas are centered especially on ‘women’ shown as mothers, sisters and wives. Women are critical to almost each and every story. Majority of Pakistani dramas today are a strange mix of growth and regress while some serials do carry a liberal, progressive and gender-sensitive messages. Most of them strengthen the patriarchal values and criticize orthodoxy in the same stride. It is very difficult for the general public to understand the conflicting messages behind several storylines in the modern-day drama. Working women are depicted as strong and independent but also negatively is portrayed by their cunning and vampire-like nature. Women are shown being maltreated by men i. e. slapped, beaten up, humiliated, abused and conversely, men are depicted as the exclusive decision-makers who simply order the women in their lives around, telling them what to do or what not to do. One point is extremely worrying about such scenes depicting male dominance and male chauvinism as they invoke similar negative behavior especially among males in the general public. The ordinary man or woman becomes subject to this reinforcement of stereotypical images of women and adapts and accepts these stereotypes as normal and natural. Honour is depicted often in highly distorted contexts. A brother’s or father’s reaction when a sister or daughter is suspected of immorality is portrayed in such a manner that the crime is glorified and the victim condemned. Very rarely, do these serials convey the idea that ‘honour’ does not have a physical manifestation and is purely related to a person’s character. Honour can never be taken away by the use of force. Overly negative emotions attached to having a daughter-in-law. Words and phrases constantly refer to the presence of a daughter-in-law as an individual who will take far away son from his parents. The expressions of insecurity is attached with parents as they do not want to lose their boy after getting married neither they want to allow him being very close to his wife. Connected to this patriarchal approach is the issue of a divorced woman. The blame is placed squarely on the woman for not being able to keep her marriage intact or her husband happy. A woman who asks for a divorce is portrayed as committing an unpardonable act. In some cases, divorced is given by husbands on suspect of shaky character of women at family level. In Pakistan even today, young girls are forcefully married to old men under the tradition of ‘Family Marriages/Vani’. Sometimes girls are married with old men as their brothers or father has killed someone in bridegroom’s family due to enmity i. e. Fata, North Waziristan, South Waziristan. The top most watched TV channel is GEO TV Network owned by Jang Group of Publications and was launched in 2002. Geo TV is news based and an entertainment channel. Rationale The present paper will highlight the relationship between gender and media with reference of Pakistani TV Drama Serial titled as â€Å"Meri Zaat Zarra-e-Benishan† that went on air on GEO TV in 2009. The rationale of carrying out this research on this play is as follows: Domestic (married) woman portrayal in media? How religion can be used for woman harassment in domestic affairs and consequences? How human relationships can be disturbed by telling lies, taking fake oaths on Holy Books and putting allegations on innocent people? Sometimes woman fights against many strange persons and situations to safe her martial life or relationship besides having feelings of self-pity and self-assassination. What are the reasons behind it? Domestic violence on women Pakistan is counted among those countries that falls in the headlines due to domestic and gender-based harassment issues. The ratio of sexual harassment victims is alarmingly getting high in Pakistan. Domestic violence is physical, sexual, psychological or financial violence that takes place within an intimate relationship and forms a pattern of coercive and controlling behavior.  This can include ‘forced marriage’ and ‘honour crimes’. * Pakistan is an Islamic state where 70 percent girls are forced to get married on their parent’s choice in rural and urban areas and choice marriages are still rare due to prevailing feudal culture of the society. Culturally and ethically, women are bound to pass their lives as per their husbands will and under his supremacy and authority. * Divorce in any case is not tolerable even in well-educated and sophisticated families and a divorce woman cannot pass a ‘stable’ life ahead. Choice marriages (boy/girl) are considered as a severe crime. * Repression of women continues even after marriage at the hands of husbands or in-laws. The worst form of married woman’s conflict is with her mother-in-law. In most of the divorce cases, mother-in-law or sister-in-law have played a primary role. * The husband or any close relative from the family can show doubts on woman’s character/ extra-marital affair. In some cases, husbands are found killing or divorcing t heir wives on these issues. Concept of Oath-taking on Holy Book Religious aspect is also very important in our society. Sometimes, woman has to justify herself in front of the whole family by taking an oath on ‘Quran’ which is considered as giving decision of conflict in Allah’s Almighty’ s hand. This custom is called as â€Å"Quran Uthana† in our society commonly practiced in four provinces of Pakistan. If the oath is completely based on truth, it will save her life forever but if the oath taken on Quran will be on false statement; the situation will be vice verse. I will mention a saying of Hazrat Imam Hussain (AS) â€Å"Do not be aggressive towards a person who has nobody to defend against you except Allah†. Never take a false oath by Allah as a witness keeping hand on Quran, as it is one of the major sins in Islam. Do not make your oaths a means of deceiving one another or your foot will slip after it was firmly placed and you will taste evil for barring access to the way of Allah and you will have a terrible punishment. (Quran: Nahl, 16:92) Those who sell Allah’s contract and their own oaths for a paltry price, such people will have no portion in the next world, and on the ray of rising Allah will not speak to them or look at them or purify them. They will have a painful punishment. (Quran: Al Imran, 3:77) Methodology: This study is an attempt to examine the relationship between gender and media as well as media dependency on religious norms of the society. It focuses on the female gender harassment at domestic level by giving religious justifications. This issue has been depicted brilliantly in one of the Pakistani TV drama serials â€Å"Meri Zaat Zara-e-Benishan† in 2009-2010. For a purposeful study, this play, its dialogues, scenes, characterization, religious aspects, impact on female viewers has been studied and deeply reviewed by the researcher under the methodology of content analysis and survey.

Blood Donation

Imagine a happy healthy teen. He does well in school and is easy to get along with. Imagine he is diagnosed with leukemia and requires daily platelet and blood transfusions just to stay alive. Now, imagine he has a rare blood type that requires him to be moved to a larger hospital for treatment. This is just another thing for him and his family to worry about. Similar stories happen every day in the United States. It is estimated that every three seconds a patient in the U. S needs a blood transfusion. Donated blood saves 4. 5 million lives in America each year. Yet only 5% of the eligible U.  S population donates blood in any given year. This is a sad fact considering healthy donors are the only source of blood. Since it can not be made or harvested, there is no substitute. The blood supply in the US is consistently low, and the demand for it increases each year. Everyone in good health should donate blood at least once a year. There are many reasons why people should donate. First you should know that it is a safe and healthy thing to do. Not only do you get a free mini physical, including blood pressure check, heart rate, temperature and iron levels, but it is the fastest way to lose a pound! Also, disasters like car accidents, fires, and other trauma cases happen every day and these patients need blood, and rarely do they need only one pint. A bleeding trauma victim can run through 100 units of blood in no time. And because of our growing and aging population, as well as the huge expansion of health care facilities, our blood usage is growing at three times the national rate, and the usage of it outpaces donor collections. With it estimated that up to 85% of us will need blood in our life time it is unlikely that the 5% donating now can sustain the rest. Many people who do not donate give the same reasons. Number one is they do not like needles or are afraid to do so. Nearly everyone feels that way at first. However, most donors will tell you that you feel only a slight initial pinch, and 7-10 minutes later, you are finished. The second is that they did not know or were never asked to donate. More than 38,000 donations are needed every day in communities across the U. S. So it is important to spread the word. Another common excuse is fear of diseases. It is good to know that it is not possible to get AIDS by donating blood to the American Red Cross. A new sterile needle is used for each donor and discarded afterwards. So as you can see, it is safe, simple and most importantly it can save someone's life. If you do not know what is required of you, it is very simple. Anyone who is at least 17 years of age, weighs at least 110 pounds, and is in good health, can donate. The donation process, from the time you arrive until the time to you leave, is only about an hour. Less than one pint is taken during a donation and it is replaced naturally by the body within 24 hours. If you take the time to make one donation, you will wonder why you ever hesitated. If you are not convinced, image again the teen, fighting for his life. Now give him a face, a name; he is your cousin, your brother, your best friend. It could even be you. My question to you is why not? Blood donors are true heroes. In fact, your one blood donation will be broken down into several components, enabling you, with just one donation, to save up to three lives. If you know someone who donates blood regularly, I urge you to go with them next time, or even on your own, and do the same.

Adolf Hitler And The Nazi Party History Essay

Adolf Hitler And The Nazi Party History Essay Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party wholeheartedly believed that by applying a selective breeding scheme encouraged by social Darwinism, that the human genome could be greatly improved – similar to applying this notion towards breeding superior strains of dog and cattle as seen today. Although it is may be difficult to comprehend the true nature to why Hitler formulated and articulated the ideas of racial policies, in which is now commonly referred to as Nazi ideology; it is widely acceptable that Hitler and the Nazi’s developed and implemented such doctrines in order to protect what they believed to be ‘the superior race’. However, this foolishness resulted in the ‘final solution’, it justified the genocide of approximately â€Å"11 million European Jews†Ã‚   [ 1 ]   in which the Nazi’s judged as ‘the inferior race’. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, coined the survival of the fittest was observed and appli ed to the diversity and complexity of life on earth. However, Hitler crudely manipulated this concept in order to protect and encourage the breeding of the Aryan ‘master race’   [ 2 ]   . The Nazi party â€Å"†¦went further, convincing themselves that, as mankind had become the dominant species through strengthening the features that distinguish humans from lesser beings and handing them down to succeeding generations, so it would be possible to enhance the race by deliberately choosing to breed from men and women whose qualities you wanted to see preserved. The corollary was the suppression, by extermination or enslavement, of people whose undesirable characteristics would pollute the mix†Ã‚   [ 3 ]   . This entailed preventing those perceived as the ‘inferior race’ from assimilating with those believed as superior or Aryan, gifted above all other races – thus effectively reducing the contamination of their gene pool. The notion wa s justified as it was seen to be employing ‘the laws of nature’, as outlined by Hitler in his political autobiography, Mein Kampf or translated to ‘My Struggle’ in which he stated that through the evolution of life, natural selection favoured the breeding of superior organisms and subsequently races. â€Å"No more than Nature desires the mating of weaker with stronger individuals, even less does she desire the blending of a higher with a lower race, since, if she did, her whole work of higher breeding, over perhaps, hundreds of thousands of years, night be ruined with one blow†Ã‚   [ 4 ]   . As such, Hitler who came to power in 1933, by this time he had been undoubtedly convinced that he had found the solution for a better future for the Aryan race as he believed that a person’s characteristics, attitudes, abilities, and behaviour were determined by his or her so-called racial makeup†Ã‚   [ 5 ]   and thus also determined whether or n ot their loyalties lied with Germany. Therefore by intermingling with those believed to be of inferiority; Hitler and the Nazi’s viewed this as the dilution of ideal characteristics and the inconceivable distribution of poisonous genes, with dire consequences to those judged superior. â€Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦he will remain the master as long as he does not fall a victim to defilement of the blood. The result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following:

Philosophy 101 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Philosophy 101 - Essay Example Thus, he began to doubt his beliefs on sense perception, material objects and physical sciences, for these all depend on our senses, which are by nature, deceptive. Furthermore, he doubted mathematics, for the reason that there perhaps may be an evil deceiver that deceives him to fall into error. Herein, Descartes uses this evil deceiver in attaining his permanent truth. I quote: â€Å"Even though there may be a deceiver of some sort†¦ who bends all his efforts to keep me perpetually deceived, there can be no slightest doubt that I exist, since he deceives me; and let him deceive me as much as he will, he can never make me be nothing as long as I think that I am something† (Descartes 82). This is Descartes absolute and certain truth. For, inasmuch as he would doubt all the beliefs he has ever had, there is one thing, which he cannot doubt, i.e. that he exists. For to claim that he cannot tell the difference between a dream and reality, or to claim that an evil deceiver de ceives him to fall into error, is not possible without him existing. In order for doubting to take place, a doubter must exist. In order for Descartes to be deceived to fall into error, he must exist. Therefore, Descartes arrives at his foundational truth: â€Å"I exist.† Works Cited Descartes, R., 1960.

Ebay Case Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ebay Case Analysis - Assignment Example These include SWOT analysis, STEEP analysis, competitor analysis, and financial comparison. These analysis will enable the management determine whether the company has the prospects of growth and success in its operation and will assist in the formulation of policies required in overcoming the threats and the challenges (Campbell and Craig 73). The tools further reveals the opportunities and the strengths that eBay must continue to pursue to remain a market leader. In as much as eBay recorded growth since inception, recent growth rate has slowed and revenues have declined for the first time. The company growth was achieved because of the strategic alliances and acquisitions that were entered into by the company. Acquisitions and strategic alliances is a faster way of entering new markets and increasing the market share. eBay has started losing market its market share to new innovative competitors and is faced by a host of challenges. Through analyzing the case Donahoe, the company pr esident, aims at determining the following: The greatest opportunities and threats that faces eBay external environment eBay’s greatest weaknesses and strengths whether eBay purpose statement is sufficient in directing the management in making important decisions. Whether shifting of eBay shift from the core competencies is a right strategy for the company’s success. ... STEEP analysis will help in determining the competitiveness of eBay. Factors considered in this analysis are the social, technological, economic, environmental, and political environment. The social factors provide eBay with an opportunity to increase its returns and performance. With an increasing number of people using the internet, eBay is in a position to attract new entrants and increase the number of people buying through the company market place. The youthful population access most of the information online and eBay management can capitalize on this to market their products on face book, twitter, and even Skype. This will reduce marketing costs and further increase the scale of operation. The increasing aging population on the other hand will likely to hamper the performance of eBay because it reduces the company’s primary customers. Economic factors also influence the operations and performance of eBay. First, the economic downturn provides eBay an opportunity to incre ase the number of buyers. With the decline in the disposable income, increased unemployment, and mortgage crisis will make customers look for discounts and therefore prefer eBay as a market place (Campbell and Craig 76). On the other hand, economic downturn also poses a threat on eBay competitiveness as it could result into fewer buyers and force the company to lower the fixed prices by more than 70% to become competitive. This could therefore shrink the revenues and profits of thee business. Furthermore, the fees on charged on infrequent sellers could have a negative impact on the revenues. In addition, the expansion of developing countries would give eBay an

Literature Review of Health Literacy and HIV Treatment Adherence Thesis

Literature Review of Health Literacy and HIV Treatment Adherence - Thesis Example Health Literacy and HIV/AIDS-----------------------------------------------------------8 5. Why is Treatment Adherence Important for HIV/AIDS-----------------------------10 6. Health Literacy and HIV Treatment Adherence--------------------------------------11 7. Strategies to Improve Treatment Adherence in Low Literacy Subjects-----------15 8. References---------------------------------------------------------------------------------19 Abstract The only effective treatment for HIV/AIDS is regular medication with anti-retroviral therapy (ART). Regularity in timing and dosage of medication is essential not only for the improved health of the subject but also to prevent the emergence of resistant strains of the virus. Non-adherence to the treatment is one of the biggest hurdle in tackling the AIDS pandemic. Among the different factors contributing to non-adherence, health literacy is considered one of the major players. We carried out a literature survey using search terms â€Å" †Å"Health literacy† and HIV†, â€Å"Treatment adherence and HIV†, â€Å"Literacy and Treatment Adherence† and â€Å"Literacy treatment adherence HIV) in the databases of OVID and Pubmed. The relevant articles were reviewed. Any new articles that were encountered amongst these articles in their citations were retrieved and also reviewed. We found that there are a fair number of articles dealing with various aspects of health literacy, educational literacy and HIV/AIDS. However, there are very few articles on interventions designed to improve treatment adherence in low literacy patients. Health Literacy and Treatment Adherence Health Literacy According to Healthy People 2010, health literacy is defined as â€Å"the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions†. Apart from the healthcare aspect, where the focus is on communication betwee n healthcare providers and patients, explaining and obtaining informed consent and managing patient’s treatment regime, an extremely important facet of health literacy is in the field of public health. As per the CDC data, the American patient obtains information and makes his or her treatment decision based on the feedback received from the home or the community, while spending just about an hour a year in the medical care provider’s premises. Health Literacy and Health-Related Behavior and Outcome The Council of Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association states that poor health literacy is â€Å"a stronger predictor of a person’s health than age, income, employment status, education level, and race†. The Institute of Medicine reports that nearly half of the US population, about 90 million individuals, have poor health literacy. This culminates into poor understanding of their health status and its treatment, poorer health status, irregularity in d osage consumption, sub-optimal use of health services, inability to understand the do’s and don’t of medication consumption and a higher hospitalization rate. Poor health literacy creates barriers to fully understanding an individual’s health, illness, treatment and medication management. The population at risk includes the elderly (older than 65 years), minorities, immigrants, economically challenged and those suffering from chronic ailments. Not only are these individuals unable to decipher the instructions accompanying

Human Resources Development in Qatar Petroleum Research Proposal

Human Resources Development in Qatar Petroleum - Research Proposal Example On the other hand, there are some difficulties that are commonly experienced by all employees and they have difficulties in dealing with such issues. Such difficulties include but are not limited to limited funds of the organization, unequal distribution of resources at all levels in the organizational structure, and the criteria of eligibility established by the organization to consider providing the employees with opportunities of development. The target of this report is to offer a clear and practicable technique on managing career development in the organizational context of Qatar Petroleum (QP). QP has developed a Strategic Qatarization Plan where employees within the organization can be trained and developed so that they are equipped with the skills needed to achieve the goals of the business and address the needs of competencies and capabilities in Qatar labor market. It will be a quantitative research in which data will be collected from the employees of QP through questionna ires consisting of both open and closed questions. Closed questions would be used to collect the demographics of the survey respondents whereas open-ended questions will be asked to explore their views about effective ways to manage career development (Qatar Petroleum, 2013). Qatar Petroleum (QP) is a well-known organization in Oil and Gas industry. QP is focusing on achieving their objectives; such as long-term strategic targets such as developing their employees in order for them to achieve higher positions and improve their performance in work. To achieve this, QP offers good opportunities for employment and development to all employees in general and the Qatari employees in particular because they have been highly recommended by H. H. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani who is the Emir of the state of Qatar and upon the recommendation the Minister of Energy and Industry (Qatar Petroleum, 2013). The idea started when the numbers of Qatari employees serving at