No 4 (2024)

The authors examine how the armed conflict in Yemen impacted gender roles based on the concepts of freedom and equality accepted in traditional Middle Eastern societies. In the context of the Yemeni crisis, men are recruited into armed groups, suffer from arbitrary detention, violence in places of detention, including torture, degrading human dignity, as well as psychological problems related to the discrepancy between their ideas about the honor and dignity of men and the realities in which men are forced to exist during the Civil War. Women and girls are also subjected to violence based on gender and family relationships, as well as forced marriages and limited access to healthcare and education. Additionally, women have to take on unusual roles in society, such as joining security forces, armed militias, or participating in peacemaking efforts. The lack of objective data on Yemen’s situation should not surprise researchers, and Western human rights institutions’ information about women’s rights in the Middle East should be carefully verified and critically examined.

Creation of the Telangana state in 2014 coincided with an ascend to power of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that upholds Hindu nationalism. Within the recent decade, India has been witnessing the strengthening of hindutva and the rise of Hindu-Muslim controversies, while in Telangana communalism has begun to decline. As Telangana experience demonstrates, the alleviation of communalism can be achieved by means of symbolic concessions to minorities and by a dialog with their loyal representatives while keeping intact the de-facto domination of the majority in government. However, de-escalation of communal violence brings the “Muslim issue” to a new level: Muslims have put forward additional demands to the state government that go beyond security and include, among other things, the broadening of their political involvement. Muslim political representation at the state level is potentially implemented through one of three mechanisms: Muslims act as party representatives in power and governmental institutions; as an object of party politics which inspires a certain ‘Muslim discourse’; or as a collective subject that brings a party to power. The heterogeneity of Telangana’s Muslim community complicates an optimal combination of the above mechanisms within political parties and organisations. Nevertheless, the provision of political representation for Muslims is a critical task for any party aspiring to succeed in the state.

The article is devoted to a new initiative of the Chinese government – the establishment of Luban workshops – a system of workshops where future specialists are trained in production automation and even traditional Chinese medicine. The author explores the history of the organization of workshops in different countries, their characteristics and peculiarities. This initiative can be considered as a new tool of “soft power”, which appeared in response to criticism and opposition to the development of the network of Confucius Institutes and other humanitarian-educational projects. Under the national global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing is gradually laying the foundations of its new international order and shaping its institutions beyond its borders in its own image. It can be said that this Chinese brand has also made a significant contribution to the development of international co-operation in professional culture and education.

Review of the book: Đoàn Ngọc Tuán, Trân Nam Tiến. Quan hệ chính trị Việt Nam – Hoa Kỳ. Hà Nội, Chính trị Quốc gia Sự thật. 2023. 308 tr. (In Vietnamese).