Health Disparities Of Muslim Women Essay

There is limited healthcare services and literature that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for culturally diverse populations. These barriers have been shown over the years to threaten how effective care is for these populations. The healthcare system depends on nurses to facilitate services, care plans and educate patients on various health issues.

However, the Muslim culture is very specific when it comes to medical examination, for example a female patient should be examined in the presence of another female. Mostly they try to ensure that there is no male in the delivery room except the husband of the patient. A male doctor may only attend to a female patient when there is an emergency situation and there is no female doctor available. Their culture recommends the same sex health care worker where possible (Ahmad F. Yousif, 2009).

In order to provide the highest quality of patient care, healthcare professionals need to understand that each patient is unique; their conditions, ethnicity and their culture. Culture seems to play a major role, especially when providing care to minorities. Somali women are an exception when providing culturally sensitive care. The sole purpose of this report is to understand the values and perception of Western medicine of female Somali patients and how healthcare professional can provide culturally competent care.

What is and what isn’t Islamophobia? The term is used to describe prejudice against, hatred towards, or fear of the religion of Islam or Muslims. It came into wide usage in 1997, upon the publication of a report by the Runnymede Trust, a nonprofit English think tank. This report described, “closed views” of Islam,

In today’s society, it is very important for the healthcare professional to be educated about the culture of their patients. It can be seen that the number of patients who are Muslim are increasing throughout the healthcare system. It is challenging for healthcare workers to care for the needs of Muslim patients when they don’t understand their cultural beliefs. Muslims don’t necessarily have the same health beliefs, outcomes, or priorities that their providers have, therefore making it more difficult to come to a final healthcare decision (Al-Oraibi, 2009.) “This intercultural gap in understanding between clients and providers may result in poor care services and low levels of satisfaction” (Al-Oraibi, 2009.) Muslims are

The themes that I thought connect to the texts and videos we have expanded on in class are Identity and Boundaries (barriers). In this essay I will group the readings and videos and explore the theme in each and relate it back to Identity and Boundaries. Then how we can perhaps use related topics to illustrate my point.

A Muslim woman was pregnant and nearing her due date. When it came time for her delivery, the only available Gynecologist was male and went through with the standard procedure and she delivered a healthy baby boy. The woman however, was shunned from her community because the doctor was a man who was not her husband. Situations such as these are important to keep in mind when providing care to patients. The Arabic family also was more open to natural medicine and homeopathic medicine and sought to find a way to cure themselves before seeking outside help at a medical facility.

unequally in marriage, in court, and in society. Difficulty through marriage for Muslim women can come from age, divorce, and having to be subservient to their husbands. Not only is there difficulty in marriage, but also in the unequal treatment in the islamic justice systems, such as when “evidence given by a female witness counts for half that given by a man” (Dargie 22). Although the societies of major Islamic countries differ, it is clear that women are not represented equally to men in any of them, for example having to dress and act certain ways so as not to attract any attention from men. However, there are Islamic women who are willing to change how their religion views females by speaking out and encouraging others to do the same.

Language issues also impact immigrant women’s abilities to develop therapeutic relationships with health care providers and express themselves effectively in healthcare settings. In an ethnographic study on communication challenges for immigrant women in rural Alberta, Higginbottom et al found that communication challenges extend beyond verbal communication and impact immigrant women’s abilities to build trusting relationships with their healthcare providers and results in miscommunications due to unshared cultural meanings of language. (HigginbottomAlberta:300-301) Reitmanova reported that, in addition to preventing access to information for immigrant Muslim women in their study, limited English fluency also made it difficult for immigrant

In today’s world hospitals are the foremost facilities of providing a varying level of care. These facilities supplies its medical professionals with the means to perform any treatment deemed necessary to regain health or save a life. However, as true as this understanding may be, there are hospitals here in the United States that are not allowed to provide certain services because of religious affiliations; meaning they must first follow a religious doctrine before implementing any medical intervention. Consequently, women may find their level of healthcare under these religious hospitals being subpar and lacking since religion has specific views on life. Most if not all religious institutions will not involve themselves in any

The term sociological imagination was a concept constructed by the American Sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959 to describe the ability to understand how our lives are affected by the historical and sociological changes around us. In order to possess the knowledge of sociological imagination, we should be able to pull away from the current situation and be able to look and think from a different perspective. C. Wright Mills defined his concept of sociological imagination as “...the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society”. We need to be able to grasp the connection between the society which is shaped by the historical events and how our personal biography is affected by these events take place everyday. To further reiterate this concept, I will attempt to discuss how social issues surrounding my gender and my religion as a Muslim woman living in the United States have changed my sociological imagination and I how I was able to shift my perspective by thinking from a different point of view thus applying the C. Wright Mills’ concept of sociological imagination in my personal life. by making references to articles, “Gender as Structure” (Ferguson, 291) and “Muslims in America” (Ferguson, 519). I will also attempt to explain the how knower and known is related to the social issues of gender and religion.

Due to the current political state of this country, the fear of Islam has been magnified especially, when the president of the United State has an anti-Islamic campaign. Islamophobia is the fear of Muslim identified individuals, this is a topic most people avoid because it is both religion and a political issue. In my time with Housing & Residential Education, I have seen many hot topics and Islamophobia is not one of those topics. The fear of Islam will be around and will not go away until we shed the light on it or bring more awareness. I am tired of feeling like a terrorist because of my identity or getting stopped at the airport because I am young, educated, and a Muslim man. My female Muslim sisters and friends have it worse than I do

Health in all cultures is an important aspect of life. A person’s cultural background, religion and/or beliefs, greatly influences a person’s health and their response to medical care (Spector, 2004). These diverse cultures guide decisions made in daily life; what food eaten, living arrangements made, medications taken and medical advice listened to. A nurse must be knowledgeable and respectful of these diverse cultures and understand their importance when providing care. This understanding helps to build a strong nurse/patient relationship, increasing patient compliance, which ensures positive outcomes are met. Patients who are satisfied

Women's Status in Islam In Islam, women and men are equal in terms of their relationship with Allah. It can be clearly seen that Allah has created men and women differently, this is so that they may fulfil different purposes in life. It is not a question of the superiority of one gender over another, rather it is a matter of role differentiation. Islam teaches that men and women complement one another and are both equally important.

          The role of woman, her position and status in society, and her nature have been issues of debate and discussion informed by religion, tradition and culture, misogyny, feminism and - many times - downright ignorance and bigotry.