Gender and urban space: the case of Sharjah, UAE

Abstract

The aim of this study is to objectively examine the effects of gender on public space use in historical core of Sharjah, the third largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates, by utilizing space syntax techniques. An earlier study, which syntactically analysed the city of Sharjah focusing specifically on the effects of the modern developments on its urban structure, has already declared the dominance of male movement in the heritage area. The current study analysed the visibility properties of the heritage area of the city of Sharjah and correlated them with the observed pedestrian movement patterns to interrogate if there is any property of space itself that correlates with the gender differences of its users. The study also aims to raise some discussions for space syntax research agenda on the topic of gendered public space use.