Jordanian Context Research Articles

Video Reflexive Ethnography for Social Sciences Research in the Middle East

Background: Humanistic approaches to healthcare are required to facilitate positive patient-healthcare provider relationships and health outcomes. Researching these humanistic approaches can be challenging as social interactions are complex by nature. Recognition of complexity in social interactions requires a move away from simple, linear methodologies towards methodologies that can embrace and harness complexity to answer research questions. Video Reflexive Ethnography: Video Reflexive Ethnography (VRE) is a novel and proactive research approach which recognises the complexity of everyday social situations. VRE aims to not only generate understanding but also improves practice. It does this by engaging participants and researchers in a collaborative process of reviewing video footage to gain new insights and interpretations about everyday practices. This process can empower participants to improve and change their practices. VRE has not been widely used as a research approach in the Middle East and the acceptability of these techniques for participants in the Middle Eastern context is unknown. At The Hashemite University in Jordan, we used VRE to explore medical students’ practices of receiving feedback about their clinical communication. We will detail the principles of VRE using the research from Jordan as an illustrative example. Principles of Video Reflexive Ethnography: VRE does not have a prescriptive set of procedures but allows for flexible application of four VRE principles to guide the research process: • Exnovation (a combination of the words excavation and innovation) – watching video-footage turned medical students’ and our attention to habits - purposeful or unconscious - that inform behaviours during feedback interactions about clinical communication simulations. • Collaboration – working collaboratively with medical students allowed for different perspectives to be fully explored in the research. This resulted in co-construction of the research and knowledge generating process. This approach was empowering and gave meaningful results to the medical students themselves. • Reflexivity – video footage enabled a complex activity, such as feedback, to be re-played and viewed by medical students and ourselves. Familiar routine activities could be seen as unfamiliar activities of interest. Multiple meanings and interpretations were found as medical students viewed themselves as others might and discussed what was shown and what they saw. Reflexivity has the potential to improve feedback practices and to give medical students increased agency to change behaviours of which they were not previously aware. • Care – maintaining respect and considering emotions and power dynamics for medical students and ourselves throughout the research process, to facilitate honest discussions about video footage. Conclusion: We found VRE to be a useful, acceptable research approach for healthcare education research in the Middle East context. Medical students engaged with the research process, consented to be video recorded and eagerly contributed to discussions when reviewing video footage. Notably, certain feedback practices were highlighted by reviewing video footage, that students mentioned that they would use in future feedback encounters. Using VRE in the Jordanian context generated new understanding and also facilitated learning, as students engaged with the process, and moved towards change in feedback practices.

Preventive and Avoidant Behaviors Followed by Jordanians During COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), individuals' compliance with protective behaviors was the most effective strategy to break the infection chain and prevent disease spread, even with vaccine availability and use. Understanding protective behaviors within the Jordanian context will shape health promotion campaigns and guide decision-makers to facilitate required resources and support Jordanian citizens. The objective of this study was to identify personal protective (preventive and avoidant) measures used by the Jordanian population during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect themselves from infection. A cross-sectional study with an exploratory, descriptive design was used to collect data using an online self-reported questionnaire from Jordanian people. The survey included the Protection from Infection Scale and the Infection Avoidance Scale. A total sample of 1053 Jordanian citizens was included in the study. The participants exhibited a moderate level of self-care behaviors and high levels of protective and infection avoidance behaviors. Their most common behaviors were getting enough sleep, wearing masks, washing hands, and avoiding travel to infected areas. Contrariwise, the least adopted behaviors were exercising, wearing gloves, and leaving their jobs or schools. During pandemics, policy-makers must understand public concerns and protective behaviors, then provide them with tailored education through health promotion campaigns to enhance healthy behaviors.

The type and function of metaphors in Jordanian economic discourse: A critical metaphor analysis approach

While conceptual metaphors yield various linguistic expressions that reflect conceptual mappings between the source and target domains, there is another type of metaphor which is also constructed cognitively except that these metaphors are “single”, in the sense that they are not reflected by several metaphorical expressions. These metaphors do not constitute a conceptual scheme in which many metaphorical expressions enforce the association between the source and target domains. On the basis of Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach, this paper systematically analyses the types and function of metaphor used in a specialised corpus containing 9.5 million words collected from two Jordanian newspapers to describe economic concepts in the Jordanian context. It also explores the interaction between conceptual and single metaphors, on the one hand, and conventional and novel metaphorical expressions, on the other. The results reveal that conceptual metaphors and conventionalised metaphorical expressions in Jordanian economic discourse perform a function that can be distinguished from that of single metaphors and novel metaphorical expressions. I argue that the use of the latter seems to be a matter of ‘luxury’ rather than ‘necessity’ where luxury refers to linguistic creativity.

Evaluating social sustainability in Jordanian residential neighborhoods: a combined expert-user approach

Neighborhood sustainability has assumed a pole position as a topic of interest in the past years, addressed through dedicated strands of most of the globally adopted sustainability rating tools, such as LEED and BREEAM. Considering sustainability assessment, the social sustainability of neighborhoods assumes a certain particularity, not only in terms of its high context dependence pertaining to its locality, but in its means of assessment as well, with people as a key potential evaluator for matters that are not bound to quantitative aspects. This research focused on developing a framework for rating social sustainability in neighborhoods, utilizing a quantitative approach that builds upon insights obtained by an extended group of experts and end users. It combines the Delphi and AHP techniques along with the case study approach to develop a framework that suits the Jordanian local context, where a particular neighborhood, Dahiyat Al Hussein in Amman, is used for validation. The research revealed that rating the social sustainability of neighborhoods is not only highly guided by the local context it addresses, but is also reliant on the level of understanding and adoption of the concept itself as attained by the people.

Investigating antecedents of mobile payment systems’ decision-making: a mediated model

PurposeThe increase in mobile telephone penetration has offered new opportunities for technology to improve payment operations all over the world. Little research has examined the issues related to the decision-making (DM) of mobile payment systems usage in the Jordanian context. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that may have an influence on the adoption of mobile payment systems. This study has empirically tested the expanded unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) together with awareness (AW), trust (TR), security (SE) and privacy (PR) as independent variables to explain the mobile payment system adoption in Jordan.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 270 employees participated in a field survey questionnaire from the public sector in Amman city, the capital city of Jordan. Data were analyzed through a quantitative approach of partial least squares–structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results mainly showed that the determinants of DM to use mobile payment system are price value, social influence, performance expectancy, AW and TR. All of these determinants explained 60.2% of the variation of DM. In total, 72.2% has been explained as the TR to use m-payment system by SE and PR. Furthermore, the results revealed that TR mediates the association between SE as well as PR and the DM to use mobile payment system.Originality/valueInterestingly, these new variables were found to be important and contribute to the UTAUT2 model. Consequently, the decision-makers in the Central Bank of Jordan should consider all these factors when re-upgrading a Jordan Mobile Payment system in the near future.

The Jordanian translator in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: Challenges and perspectives

COVID-19 is an unprecedented global health and socio-economic crisis, with cascading effects. In a bid to combat the pandemic, Jordan has imposed extreme measures, including border shutdowns, declaring a state of emergency, and a lockdown. These measures have had an adverse impact upon businesses and professions, including translation. Translators play a significant role in disseminating health information in times of crisis. This paper reports the results of a large-scale survey of translators’ perspectives in the Jordanian context on the pandemic and its effects on their role and profession during the time of COVID-19 restrictions. A quantitative five-scale Likert questionnaire was completed by 106 in-house and freelance professional translators. The results showed that COVID-19 has had adverse effects on translators in the Jordanian context. Translators faced several challenges during the pandemic, including career change or loss, lower income, increased workload and time pressure, high-level job demands, unclear job prospects, and anxiety about their future. The results also highlighted that language service providers (LSPs) as well as translators need to play a more active role during times of crisis. The findings of this study suggest that further research is necessary to investigate the effect of COVID-19 and similar pandemics on translators’ experiences of occupational stress and job satisfaction in Jordan.

Situating zoonotic diseases in peacebuilding and development theories: Prioritizing zoonoses in Jordan.

Zoonotic diseases are projected to be a serious public threat in the coming decades. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that Jordan prioritize their list of zoonoses, partially in response to the influx of Syrian refugees. We write this paper to expand the One Health framework by situating zoonotic diseases in peacebuilding and development theories in order to prioritize zoonotic diseases in Jordan. We employ an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach to create a modified version of the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) One Health Zoonotic Disease Prioritization (OHZDP) tool. We use an integrative literature review to develop a list of zoonoses to be prioritized. We expand the One Health framework by arguing health inequity is a form of violence, and thus promotion of health equity is a form of peacebuilding. We undertake thematic and statistical analyses to assess the 12 previously published OHZDP tools to evaluate necessity for change to the process given COVID-19 and the refugee situation in Jordan. In these analyses we use drivers of health indicators as measurements for peacebuilding and development, given these drivers are related to health inequities, to guide weighting of the criteria in our tool for Jordan. We apply our modified OHZDP tool to prioritize our disease list. We find it necessary to give socioeconomic factors greater consideration and to distribute weighting more evenly among all criteria within the tool when prioritizing zoonotic diseases in better reflect the Jordanian context and incorporate the refugee population. We find the priority zoonoses within Jordan to be bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, and COVID-19, with most having a disproportionately negative impact on refugees. In Jordan's case, zoonotic diseases represent an area where promoting social equity for individuals is essential to the larger society. In this sense managing zoonoses is an area uniquely suited for peacebuilding.

The Communicative Functions of Emojis: Evidence from Jordanian Arabic-Speaking Facebookers

Purpose. This paper examines the communicative (also known as pragmatic) functions of the most common five emojis in the Jordanian context as perceived by Jordanian Facebook users. 
 Methods. The data were collected in four stages. First, the researcher shared a post on his Facebook account in which he asked his Jordanian-Arabic speaking virtual friends to report in a comment the most common emojis they use. The researcher compiled 174 comments / responses with 1716 emoji tokens. Second, the received tokens were used to identify the most common five emojis. Third, in order to identify the set of functions of each emoji, the researcher shared another post in which he asked the same previous group to report when each of them tends to press each emoji and for what purposes. Based on the received comments, a preliminary list of functions was prepared. Finally, the proposed functions were subjected to a validation process by two Jordanian-Arabic speaking linguists and three senior students from the Department of English at the University of Jordan. Most of their judgments were compatible with those of the researcher. To further validate the data, the acceptability of the identified functions were tested against the intuition of 261 Jordanian BA students at the University of Jordan. 
 Results. The findings show that the five most common emojis in the Jordanian context are (1) the Face With Tears of Joy, (2) the Red Heart, (3) the Slightly Smiling Face, (4) the Face Blowing a Kiss, and (5) the Winking Face. Furthermore, emojis are not only used to show emotions, but can also act as markers of illocutionary force, as face saving devices, and as boosters of rapport. The set of emojis examined in this study can be employed to perform 19 multiple illocutionary acts including but not limited to expressive acts (happiness, admiration, etc.), directive acts (e.g, directing the addressee to stop doing something) and declarative acts (e.g., threatening). Emojis are not solely used to convey the functions envisaged by their creators. Instead, with time, emojis start to drift extensively from their semantic import by acquiring a wide spectrum of new illocutions. 
 Conclusions. The study concludes that although emojis are evolving and developing at a rapid pace, becoming more diverse, pervasive and integral in our daily communications, sharing even some of the characteristics of human language such as arbitrariness, they remain a mode of communication within computer-mediated communication (CMC). At this stage, they can mainly play the role of non-verbal cues that help us understand the intended message and function as a parallel lingua franca limited in domains of CMC.

A Corpus-Assisted Translation Study of Strategies Used in Rendering Culture-Bound Expressions in the Speeches of King Abdullah II

Translation is defined as transferring meaning and style from one language to another, taking the text producer's intended purpose and the audience culture into account. This paper uses a 256,000-word Arabic-English parallel corpus of the speeches of King Abdullah II of Jordan from 1999 to 2015 to examine how some culture-bound expressions were translated from Arabic into English. To do so, two software packages were used, namely Wordsmith 6 and SketchEngine. Comparing the size of the Arabic corpus with its English counterpart using the wordlist tool of WS6, the researchers found that the number of words (tokens) in the English translation is more than the Arabic source text. However, the results showed that the Arabic language has more unique words, which means that it has more lexical density than its English counterpart. The researchers carried out a keyword analysis and compared the Arabic corpus with the ArTenTen corpus to identify the words that King Abdullah II saliently used in his speeches. Most of the keywords were culture-bound and related to the Jordanian context, which might be challenging to render. Using the parallel concordance tool and comparing the Arabic text with its English translation showed that the translator/s mainly resorted to the strategies of deletion, addition, substitution, and transliteration. The researchers recommend that further studies be conducted using the same approach but on larger corpora of other genres, such as legal, religious, press, and scientific texts.

Drivers of the Consumers Adoption of Fintech Services

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to explore the impact of environmental drivers and trust on consumers’ adoption of Fintech services in the Jordanian context. It had also evaluated the mediating role of trust on the relation between environmental drivers and consumers adoption of Fintech services. Background: The reviewed studies on Fintech adoption demonstrated a lack of focus on the role of external or environmental drivers on consumers’ intentions to use and continue to use of Fintech services. Amongst the analyzed studies, the majority had examined the role of consumers perception of services usefulness and ease of use while few had included some environmental variables within the investigated variables such as social influence and government support. Furthermore, shortage of Fintech adoption related research in the developing countries, especially the Jordanian context was noted. Methodology: The study conceptual model was derived from Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Technological Personal Environmental (TPE) framework. This study was a quantitative one that employed survey method to empirically address its research questions and test the proposed hypotheses. Jordanian residents over the age of 18 who are familiar with Fintech were targeted, and convenience sampling was applied to get representative sample. Data was assembled from 323 respondents using an online questionnaire. Partial Least Squares Structure Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyze the gathered data through SMART-PLS software. Contribution: This article adds to the existing literature on multiple stands, as it adds to literature related to Fintech adoption, as well as the interaction between consumer environment and their level of adoption. It also enriches the limited literature on the influence of COVID-19 to drive consumer usage of innovative services. Moreover, it supplements the scarce literature on Fintech adoption in the Jordanian settings. Findings: The main findings revealed the positive influence of both environmental drivers and trust as predictors of consumer intention to use Fintech services. It had also asserted the positive mediating effect of trust on the relationship amongst environmental drivers and consumer usage intent. Recommendations for Practitioners: By understanding the importance of consumer environment and trust on encouraging consumer to adopt Fintech services, governments, policy makers and practitioners can utilize this knowledge to adopt their offered services. They need to work on enhancing the technological infrastructure, as well as establishing general technological knowledge. They also need to highlight the role of Fintech service in fighting Covid-19, by adhering to the social distancing rules. Moreover, they need to guarantee the security and reliability of the developed services to increase their level of trust in the offered services. Recommendation for Researchers: This research has confirmed the positive influence of consumer environment represented by social influence, government support, technological readiness, and COVID-19 on their adoption of Fintech services. It has also established the mediating influence of consumer trust on the relation between environmental drivers and consumer intent to use Fintech services. This area is unexplored and needs more validation. Impact on Society: By understanding the factors affecting the Jordanian society in adopting Fintech services, this research provides set of recommendation to the Jordanian government and policy makers that can lead for more adoption of the developed Fintech services, which in turn would lead to better services provided to the society as well as increasing the financial inclusion level in the Jordanian society. Future Research: Future research can explore other environmental variables that were not included in the current research. Future research can also investigate the moderating effect of personal attributes such as consumer’s demographics, or more personal attributes such as self-efficacy, inherit innovativeness or risk aversion. It can also examine the moderating effect of financial literacy and/ or technological background.

The impact on bank profitability: Testing for capital adequacy ratio, cost-income ratio and non-performing loans in emerging markets

Following the methodology applied by Nguyen (2020), this paper tests for the potential impact of capital adequacy ratios on bank profitability in a Jordanian context by using static panel data for a sample of 24 banks covering the period 2008–2018. Furthermore, the study examines the viability of various potential determinants of profitability led by primary bank-specific variables: cost-income ratio, bank size, debt ratio, and non-performing loans. The main objective is to assess if and how capital adequacy ratios have had any measurable effects along with other bank-specific variables on bank profitability that is determined by the return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). The study’s main takeaway is that ROA is negatively correlated with the four capital adequacy ratios. However, mixed results are observed when ROE is used as a proxy for bank profitability. ROE is positively affected by both core capital to risk-weighted assets ratio and total capital to risk-weighted assets ratio. On the contrary, ROE is negatively affected by the core capital to total assets ratio and total equity capital to total assets ratio. It can be argued that the most significant finding in this paper is that the impact on bank profitability differs according to the proxy used for capital adequacy. Furthermore, the cost-income ratio is inversely related to both bank profitability measures and both bank profitability measures are inversely affected by the non-performing loan ratio.

Can outsourcing be the answer for developing economies The case of Jordan

This study explores outsourcing activities, strategies and attitudes of firms in developing economies. The primary objective is testing whether or not outsourcing answers firms' questions in developing economies by analysing the impact of outsourcing types and levels on firms' abilities to survive and grow. A review of the outsourcing literature illustrates that firms in developing economies can apply outsourcing strategies to strengthen their limited resources and improve performance. Primary and secondary collected data from the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) listed firms during the period from 2008-2018 have been analysed. Several findings regarding the types, attitudes, motives and expected benefits of outsourcing have been identified across the sectors. Despite the strong positive attitudes toward outsourcing within the Jordanian context, outsourcing did not have a clear beneficial effect on the firms' value and/or growth across the sectors.

The effects of hedonic and utilitarian values on e-loyalty: Understanding the mediating role of e-satisfaction

The purpose of this paper is to examine effects of hedonic and utilitarian aspects of consumer behaviour toward e-loyalty and how e-satisfaction plays a mediating role between them. A survey method was adopted to test the research model. The primary data for the survey was collected during January 2021, using the convenience sampling approach, from business school students. The structural equation modelling method was used to analyse the data with AMOS 22.0 software. The measurement model was estimated through a confirmatory factor analysis before testing the structural model framework and hypotheses (response rate 94.3%, n=264). The results showed that hedonic and utilitarian shopping values have great influence in shaping e-satisfaction. The study also highlights the importance of mediating the role of e-satisfaction between shopping values and e-loyalty. This research highlights why and how ‘satisfaction with website’ matters in the contribution of shopping values to behavioural outcomes by presenting its mediating role. The study offers implications and suggestions to e-retailers by specifying characteristics that should be given more consideration in order to increase online consumer e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. It also contributes to the present body of knowledge on shopping and buying behaviour in the online context, especially for those who have theoretical and managerial interests on the subject in emerging economies like Jordan. The novelty of the paper comes from the fact that it cumulatively captures the factors influencing online consumers’ loyalty in the Jordanian context, apart from validating the mediating role of e-satisfaction.

Antecedents of e-commerce on intention to use the international trade center: An Exploratory Study in Jordan

Digital divide, trust towards e-commerce system, and facilitating conditions as the factors impacting the use intention of the international trade center were examined in this study, through a survey carried out on 500 Jordanian students. The proposed conceptual model was empirically tested, and significant impact of trust and facilitating conditions on intention to use the international trade center was affirmed. Meanwhile, the digital divide did not impact the intention to use the international trade center. Being limited to the Jordanian context, the study findings may not be generalizable to other countries.

Sustainable FinTech Innovation Orientation: A Moderated Model

Financial technology (otherwise known as FinTech) refers to a type of technology and innovation that tries to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services. Despite the importance of this technology in people’s financial transactions in improving the management of their financial operations, processes, and lives, there is a lack of empirical evidence about sustainable FinTech services in the Jordanian context. Consequently, this research examines the factors that influence the acceptance of FinTech services, which have a variety of social, environmental, and ecological benefits. This study proposes an integrated model by combining the extended technology acceptance model (TAM) with the perceived enjoyment as an independent variable and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) as a moderator variable simultaneously. A total of 304 responses from Jordanian citizens were analyzed by the quantitative method of partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The result confirmed that perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment have a significant and positive influence on users’ decision to use FinTech services. Meanwhile, eWOM is found to moderate the relationship between perceived usefulness and Jordanians’ decisions to use FinTech services. Finally, this study provides practical implications for managers to encourage them to provide adequate, reliable, and sustainable services to their customers at a reasonable cost that fit their demands and ultimately improve their living standards. Current study limitations and future research directions are presented in the last section.

The Pragmatic Functions of Facebook Likes on Status Updates: Evidence from User Perceptions

This paper examines the pragmatic functions of the like button when users interact with status-updates on Facebook. To collect the data, the researcher asked a friend who happened to be a university professor to write a post on his Facebook account in which he requested his students, colleagues and friends to report to him in a comment when each of them tends to press the like button on a status and for what purpose. The total number of the collected comments is 218. Analysis of the data reveals that in the Jordanian context, the like button is not solely used to show appreciation as originally envisaged by Facebook. Further, the findings indicate that the use of the like button has eventually developed as a graphic pragmatic marker with eight functions and illocutions ranging in purpose from showing unreserved approval and admiration of content to showing mockery of published content. Keywords: Computer-Mediated Communication; Emojis, Gestures; Like; Pragmatic Functions.

The role of brand interactivity and involvement in driving social media consumer brand engagement and brand loyalty: the mediating effect of brand trust

PurposeThis study explores central questions related to the connections between brand interactivity and involvement on brand-related outcomes (brand trust and loyalty) through understanding the role played by customer brand engagement (CBE) through social media platforms.Design/methodology/approachUsing an online survey, the data for this study were collected from 353 participants who follow Royal Jordanian Airlines on their Facebook page. A cross-sectional research approach was implemented using a partial least squares path modeling approach.FindingsThe study finds that perceived brand interactivity and involvement are positively associated with social media CBE. The authors also find that social media CBE is positively related to brand trust and that brand trust is positively associated with brand loyalty. Consequently, the authors observe that social media CBE is positively related to brand loyalty.Originality/valueThis study investigates the impact of perceived brand interactivity and involvement on social media CBE while accounting for the mediating role of brand trust through which social media CBE influences brand loyalty of airline brands in the Jordanian context. Finally, the findings have noteworthy theoretical and managerial implications.

Organizational competencies toward digital transformation at the events of disruptive changes: an operational process innovation perspective

PurposeDigital transformation becomes the future path for all organizations. Organizations are in need to progress the technology in the event of rapid environmental changes in all aspects. This implies the essential need to adapt to these changes, not only to benefit from the vast opportunities it offers yet even to stay relevant in this instability, complexity, uncertainty and vagueness environment. This paper aims to examine the impact of different variables such as disruptive change, technological process innovation and industry 4.0 (I4.0) on digital transformation. It helps identify the different capabilities needed for digitalization and digital maturity, identify the supporting methods for adopting different technologies and offer answers to overwhelmed those challenges and obstacles resulting in this environment.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach was used in conducting this research, whereas a questionnaire survey strategy was used for this investigation. In total, 450 participants have been surveyed from three major private mining organizations in the Jordanian context. Structural equation modeling was used for the analysis stage and hypotheses testing.FindingsThe results of the analysis revealed that support the direct impact of the event of disruptive change, technological process innovation on digital transformation. In addition, the results showed that there is a positive direct impact of the event of disruptive change on technological process innovation. While I4.0 was found to moderate the relationship between the event of disruptive change and digital transformation.Practical implicationsDecision-makers are responsible for directing their organization toward digitalization. This transformation needs capabilities that help organizations in competing and survive in this challenging environment. That is, it is essential to increase process innovation and moving toward more adoption of I4.0. However, the event of disruptive change should be considered as a motivation for the organizations rather than an obstacle. Moreover, different populations, methods and other variables that may affect digitalization may generate novel insights in further research.Originality/valueTheoretically, novel insights into the event of the disruptive change and its implications have been added to the literature. The models used in the current examination provide new directions for understanding and studying digital transformation and organizational capabilities that are needed for transformation. From the managerial perspective, these findings enhance understanding of practices in which the event of disruptive change supports innovation and highlight the values added through recommending more adopting of I4.0 applications to yield more innovative harvests.

Islam and Female Leadership: Insights from Women Leaders and Muslim Scholars

This paper seeks to study female leaders’ beliefs and experiences and also Muslim scholars’ views on how Islam and its interpretations impact women leaders. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 female leaders and 6 Muslim scholars in Jordan, both groups indicate that Islamic guidelines support gender equality and reforming all types of gender discrimination. The findings also show that the hindering point to female leadership is the misinterpretation and false assumptions of Islamic principles and guidelines. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt that incorporates Muslim scholars’ and female leaders’ views in gender research that is specifically designed to research the Jordanian context. The salient novelty and significance of this study were achieved through challenging the existing conception of Islam as a source that holds women leaders back and therefore, it highlights the contextual applicability and extension of the Islamic feminist theory.

Jordanian Men's Experience of Emotional Abuse in Marital Relationships: The Role of Marriage Length and Motivation.

Though emotional abuse is one of the worst and most common types of intimate partner violence, it has not been investigated in Arabic literature. Thus, this study explored the prevalence of emotional abuse among married Jordanian men. Furthermore, the moderating roles of marriage length, marriage motivation, age, and area in the path to emotional abuse were investigated. An online survey was conducted using a random sample of Jordanian married men in Amman. A total of 1,003 participants with an average age of 42.51 and a marital relationship duration ranging from 1 to 53 years were selected. The results revealed that isolation was the most prevalent emotional abuse domain, followed by degradation, property damage, and sexual coercion. However, all emotional abuse domains were more prevalent among rural rather than urban men, in both traditional and love marriages. Emotional abuse was higher among men who married for love. Younger men reported experiencing higher emotional abuse levels, which declined with age and increasing marriage length. Further research is required to explore the nature of emotional abuse forms and their underlying reasons among married men, as differences in sociodemographic characteristics could affect the identification and understanding of emotional abuse and contribute to developing an intellectual framework capable of finding solutions for abusive marital relations in the Jordanian context.