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This paper argues that interreligious dialogue through study and friendships across the religious divide makes participants less susceptible to religious and cultural misinformation that is often used to maintain social bubbles, in which members draw clear boundaries between "us" and "them". Differences between social groups can culminate in a struggle between "good" and "evil" that can escalate into tension and violence. Preventing tensions and conflicts requires respect for differences, willingness to engage in dialogue, and a sound understanding of what religion is and the historical processes that have determined its development, distinguishing between empirical facts and images to which believers adhere. Because the author is a Dutch sociologist turned journalist from a conservative Christian family involved in interreligious dialogue in the Netherlands, Israel, and Egypt, the literature review presents contemporary religious developments in all three countries. The literature review is flanked by the author's personal narrative on the events that changed his views on truth and spirituality, making him more aware of the commonalities between peoples of different beliefs and leading him to a lifelong commitment to interreligious and intercultural dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper focuses on a material culture approach in order to explore multiple dimensions in the production of denim in an export dominated assembly plant in Port Said, Egypt. Ethnographic data are analyzed to highlight the interplay between the surfaces and tools used in garment making and the skills and strategies deployed by factory workers, so elucidating some of the less immediately visible nuances in the turbulence of daily life on the production shop floor. Contrary to the common view that dismisses production tasks as repetitive and boring, these processes reveal the technical structures, skill hierarchies and uses of shop-floor language that give shade and variation to the skills attributed to different stages of "made-to-order" garment assembly work. These dynamics become more significant within the specific context of global and local competition for orders in which denim is established as the definitive fabric and brand through which reputations are made and sustained-for workers, for firms and for the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Education - Sohag University is the property of Journal of Education - Sohag University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cairo Station/Bab al-Hadid (1958) is widely considered to be Youssef Chahine’s signature piece. For Chahine (1926-2008), Egypt’s most celebrated director, as well as most critics and viewers the filmic images became iconic. Yet because of its daring break with certain studio conventions, the film reaped negative reviews and public hostility upon its release. Despite its rediscovery in later years, it remains a film that is difficult to categorize, not quite neo-realist and not quite revolutionary, due to a strong melodramatic streak and a startling psycho-sexual, rather than political focus. This essay re-examines the classic film as the work of an artist struggling to bend genre conventions while exploring the kaleidoscope of a metropolis undergoing rapid sociological and political transformation. It explores the history of Cairo, and of Cairo’s central rail station, the claustrophobic epicenter of the story – a site of constant motion, to and from the city, of youthful hope and, all too often, of shattered, and at times, demented dreams. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines growth in the extent of Cairo's urban area and changes in population distribution between 1986 and 1996. It includes a quantitative assessment of urban growth and changing patterns of population density in the city's administrative sub-districts. In a unique contribution to the available research on Cairo, the population density for the built-up area of the census units is calculated, giving much greater insight into the city's growth than previous research that calculated density based on census units in their entirety. The study finds significant population decentralisation taking place and discusses the possible implications if this trend continues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egypt witnessed in the last decade, as in many Southeast Asian mega-cities, the reshaping of public space through the creation of new shopping malls and recreation places. This went hand in hand with the 'gentrification' of certain areas of the city of Cairo, which is continuing at the expense of pushing away the poor. The 1980s and 1990s also witnessed increasing prosperity among certain classes and the appropriation of new consumer lifestyles. This article attempts to look at the variations of shopping malls in Cairo and the new phenomenon of hybridization of tastes. One can observe the creation of 'chic' shopping malls functioning parallel to popular and working-class malls which are frequented by different classes, depending on the various districts of Cairo. These newly created public spaces are gendered. The malls provide new outlets for deprived youth to experience mingling and flirting, in other words, these spaces offer new forms of 'mixity' between sexes. A glimpse at the ' grands magasins' is brought up in relation to the history of consumerism in Egypt. This article also analyses the government's official discourse which alienates those living in unplanned and scattered construction as 'violent' and unruly and relates it to the new remaking of the town of Cairo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the arguments expounded by some theorists who study the position of women in the Muslim Arab world, women in Egypt have been economically active in all facets of the national economy throughout history. Their labour force participation and social status have been determined by their class and according to the five phases of economic development in Egyptian history. Previous to the rule of Mohammed Ali, women of the upper socio-economic stratum had limited labour participation, while peasant women were economically active throughout the five phases. The reforms of Mohammed Ali initiated a process in which it became a new ideal for women to be educated workers, beginning with the upper strata, and is now also a source of striving for women of the lower classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]