CHAPTER 4 When Inequalities Interconnect: Women Scholars’ Productivity amid the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa

A Qualitative Multi-Methods Research Protocol: Applied Research Ethics in the Middle East North Africa Region

“…Previous research in Lebanon and Qatar reported on challenges in outreach and communication from IRBs (Makhoul et al, 2014) and disjunctions between IRB requirements and practice (Nakkash et al, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the focus to research proposals and resources on the that issue (Alahmad et al, 2021; Allam et al, 2020). A Scopus search on COVID-19 research in the Arab world revealed that 4.26% of global research output on COVID-19 was produced in the Arab world with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates producing the most research (Zyoud, 2021).…”

“…To minimize the risk of anonymity breach, one country focal person who was helping recruit participants suggested that members keep their cameras turned off and use pseudonyms; however, the research associate communicated her concern that requiring such measures would make the participants apprehensive and hinder the flow of the discussion. Allam et al (2020) concur that this is a challenge of online research in authoritarian contexts such as MENA where digital technologies could become means for “state surveillance and crackdowns, raising concerns surrounding the security and safety of research subjects” (Allam et al, 2020, p. 9). In this case, JM communicated with the facilitator and they both decided that she joins the start of the virtual FGD to introduce herself, personally welcome the participants and present the study.…”

Eroding Inclusions and Expanding Exclusions: Education During Pandemics

“…The longer-term impact of earlier segregation and Kozol's (2012) 'savage inequalities' based on who had the time space for adjusting to the new conditions, and who did not, became starkly evident. Equally important, as many studies on the COVID times have revealed, female workers were additionally confronted with all of the care work they were normally expected to do or had been able to outsource; now, with no separation in the time or space for their paid work and non-paid work commitments, and often without access to other feminised home-based help, the costs of care work on differently located female workers became apparent (e.g., Allam et al, 2023; see also Anandhi & Deepa, 2021).…”