Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East

Ten academics and scholars from the U.S. and Europe contribute 11 chapters examining welfare in the Middle East from 1850 to 2005, a period characterized by colonizations, occupations, wars, and conflicts resulting in unmet needs and broken down institutions. While past and ongoing studies of welfare activities in the Middle East have focused mainly on religious doctrine and political positioning, the current text turns the reader's attention to gender, family, local practices, community and state relationships. Topics include the involvements and impact of women as active supporters and benefactors, individual responses to multinational relief, communal charitable commitments, the long historical involvements of specific families in providing local public services, the care of orphans, charitable work in Aden and the advancement of women, the UN Relief and Works Agency's gendered refugee projects, and the relations between humanitarianism and government. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Nefissa Naguib, Ph.D. is associate professor in anthropology at Oslo University College. Currently she is a researcher at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen. She is author ofKnowing Water(Oslo University College Press) and of several articles on women and war.Inger Marie Okkenhaug, Ph. D. is a researcher at the Department of Archeology, History, Culture- and Religious studies at the University of Bergen. She is the author of The quality of heroic living, of high endeavour and adventure: Anglican Mission, Women and Education in Palestine, 1888-1948 (Brill, 2002) and co-edited with Ingvild FlaskerudGender, Religion and Change in the Middle East: Two Hundred Years of History(Berg, 2005).