Tracking During Ramadan: Examining the Intersection of Menstrual and Religious Tracking Practices Among Muslim Women in the United States

Document Title

Tracking During Ramadan: Examining the Intersection of Menstrual and Religious Tracking Practices Among Muslim Women in the United States

Document Information

• Subject Area: Intersection of Artificial Intelligence, User Experience Design, and Religious Practices
• Keywords: Personal Informatics, Faith, Muslim Women, Ramadan, Menstrual Tracking, Health Tracking, Technology Design, Cultural Inclusivity, Human-Computer Interaction, Religious Well-being

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Challenges:

  • Bangladeshi women face complexities in managing multiple goals and tools while using personal informatics tools to track health and religious objectives during Ramadan.
  • Existing self-tracking tools and personal informatics research primarily focus on health, with limited exploration of technologies related to religious practices.
  • Significant design challenges arise when religious health goals intersect with personal health goals, particularly in monitoring menstrual cycles and their impact on religious obligations (e.g., fasting) during Ramadan.

• Significance:

  • Combining religious and health tracking can support Muslim women in fulfilling religious obligations while fostering healthy habits, achieving holistic health goals.
  • Researching design innovations in this domain can advance culturally inclusive technologies and address gaps in the field of religious tracking.

• Related Research and Motivation:

  • Existing studies on personal informatics and health self-tracking focus on behavior change, health gamification, and chronic disease management, but religious health tracking remains underexplored.
  • Design challenges involving ethics, privacy, and social justice require drawing inspiration from religious and cultural contexts.

Proposed Solution

• Proposed Approach:

  • The authors conducted a one-month diary study and follow-up interviews to explore the tracking practices of Muslim women during Ramadan.
  • They recommend enhancing existing health tracking technologies with personalized, culturally sensitive features to support religious goals.

• Innovative Contributions:

  • Integration of health and religious goals into tracking technologies, overcoming the separation inherent in current tools.
  • Incorporation of Islamic concepts of self-reflection (Muraqabah, Muhasabah) into design to achieve religious personal improvement goals.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  • Data collection using Qualtrics: daily logs (DL) and two reflective logs (RL) to capture participants' tracking behaviors and experiences.
  • Semi-structured interviews conducted via Zoom to explore participants' motivations, challenges, and suggestions for improvement.
  • Thematic analysis using a combination of inductive and deductive coding to identify key themes in the data.

Research Findings

• Specific Outcomes:

  • Identified two primary tracking motivations for Muslim women during Ramadan: religious motivations (e.g., maintaining consistency, reflecting on spiritual growth) and health motivations (e.g., tracking menstrual cycles to fulfill religious obligations).
  • Discovered the role of social roles, such as mothers engaging in multitasking tracking practices, and family collaborative tracking behaviors in supporting religious goals.

• Strengths:

  • This study is the first to systematically explore the intersection of religious health goals and personal informatics.
  • It provides design guidelines incorporating religious cultural sensitivity and long-term self-tracking support.

• Experimental and Evaluation Results:

  • Through qualitative analysis, the authors proposed several design directions, including extending customization features in existing trackers, creating long-term tracking models focused on religious goals, and designing educational support content to help users balance health and religious objectives.
  • Participant feedback emphasized the need for long-term tracking to build annual goals during Ramadan, while also highlighting the tension between convenience and privacy in using multiple tools.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations: The study primarily focused on Muslim women in the United States, which may not fully capture the influence of cultural contexts in other regions.
  • Future Directions: Expand the research to include Muslim communities globally, explore how long-term religious goal tracking can adapt to different cultures, examine the impact of conversion or varying durations of religious practices on tracking behaviors, and develop technologies to support collaborative family religious goals.

Overall, this study provides design insights for integrating religious and health goals through self-tracking practices during Ramadan and proposes a framework for advancing culturally inclusive technology development.