A religious edict issued by the Mufti of Tunisia regarding divorce has sparked a massive uproar over whether the move threatens gains made by Tunisian women over the last few decades.
The issue began when an unidentified woman solicited advice from Tunisia's Dar El Iftaa, the body of religious scholars which renders religious judgments on public and private issues and which reports directly to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. In a written message to Mufti of Tunisia Kameleddine Jait, the woman said her husband told her "you're divorced" three times.
According to the June 7th issue of the leftist Ettajdid Movement's Tarik Jadid newspaper, the Mufti answered the woman's question, "telling her that she could no longer live as wife with her husband [and] must proceed with the divorce". The article added, "The Mufti gave the woman a certificate to this effect."
The decision would have sparked little controversy in many Muslim countries, where sharia is applied in instances of marriage and divorce.
In a secular society like Tunisia, however, it is very different matter.
Since 1956, divorce – like marriage – has been governed by civil, not religious law. Under the Personal Status Code, divorce is only recognised when the two parties appear before a court of law to validate their separation and agree to the action, and only after the failure of judge-monitored reconciliation attempts between the husband and wife.
An official source in the Dar El Iftaa, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the issue had nothing to do with the laws of the country: "The woman's question was related to a religious matter, and the Mufti's answer was in line with Islamic sharia."
Some Tunisians have interpreted the Mufti's ruling as an attempt to circumvent the civil laws.
"[It is] a threat to the civil gains; something that would open the door for religious interpretations and fatwas at a time when we need to boost the process of modernisation, impose the respect of positive laws, and firmly establish the rule of law," Tarik Jadid editorialised.
"The Mufti of the Republic has no authority in the courts of law, and the Personal Status Code is the decisive factor in divorce issues," lawyer Kahna Abbas confirmed. She said she was concerned that the religious establishment could gradually turn into a source of legislation.
Khadija Cherif, President of the Tunisian Association for Democratic Women, which works to separate religion from state and achieve gender equality, also said she was astonished when she learned about the fatwa.
From his side, Khemais Khayati, a member of the Tunisian Association for the Defence of Secularism, said, "The Mufti of the Republic might have been correct if we had been a state governed by sharia and based on loyalty to faith. However, now that we are in a law-governed state, the Mufti has no right to breach the constitutional provisions that protect the citizens' right to safeguard their rights."
Khayati is worried that citizens "rush to the Mufti" instead of attempting to solve their own problems. "Who knows?" he asks. "They may work under the guidance of a religious state tomorrow."
Mohammed Ali Ennefzi, a young man in his 30s, welcomed the fatwa "because it makes our life easier and relieves us from the troubles of litigation and the problems of the Personal Status Code, which has turned men in Tunisia into slaves to their wives".
Manal El Hammi, a woman working in the pharmaceutical industry, commented sarcastically, "if all married women requested fatwas about the oaths of divorce they hear every week from their husbands, we wouldn't find any Tunisian women in their homes!"
-- Magharebia
Monday, June 30, 2008
Qatar: Winning MEPI Video Production
MEPI Regional Office Abu Dhabi is pleased to announce that the short video “Equal Voices, Equal Rights”, an excellent production by young Qatari citizen Ms. Nada Al Saadi, is the winner of MEPI’s first Open Video Contest. Ms. Al Saadi will receive professional digital media training, funded by MEPI, on how to produce her own Public Service Announcements (PSAs).
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Yemen: Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage in Yemen
By Robert F. Worth
JIBLA, Yemen — One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.
That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.
Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.
Together, the two girls’ stories have helped spur a movement to put an end to child marriage, which is increasingly seen as a crucial part of the cycle of poverty in Yemen and other third world countries. Pulled out of school and forced to have children before their bodies are ready, many rural Yemeni women end up illiterate and with serious health problems. Their babies are often stunted, too.
The average age of marriage in Yemen’s rural areas is 12 to 13, a recent study by Sana University researchers found. The country, at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
“This is the first shout,” said Shada Nasser, a human rights lawyer who met Nujood, the 10-year-old, after she arrived at the courthouse to demand a divorce. Ms. Nasser decided instantly to take her case. “All other early marriage cases have been dealt with by tribal sheiks, and the girl never had any choice.”
But despite a rising tide of outrage, the fight against the practice is not easy. Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee” for a good marriage.
“Voices are rising in society against this phenomenon and its catastrophes,” said Shawki al-Qadhi, an imam and opposition member in Parliament who has tried unsuccessfully to muster support for a legal ban on child marriage in Yemen in the past. “But despite rejections of it by many people and some religious scholars, it continues.”
The issue first arose because of Nujood, a bright-eyed girl barely four feet tall. Her ordeal began in February, when her father took her from Sana, the Yemeni capital, to his home village for the wedding. She was given almost no warning.
“I was very frightened and worried,” Nujood recalled, speaking in a soft, childlike voice as she sat cross-legged on the floor in her family’s bare three-room home in a slum not far from Sana’s airport. “I wanted to go home.”
As she told her story, Nujood gradually gained confidence, smiling shyly as if she were struggling to hold back laughter. Later, she removed her veil, revealing her shoulder-length brown hair.
The trouble started on the first night, when her 30-year-old husband, Faez Ali Thamer, took off her clothes as soon as the light was out. She ran crying from the room, but he caught her, brought her back and forced himself on her. Later, he beat her as well.
“I hated life with him,” she said, staring at the ground in front of her. The wedding came so quickly that no one bothered to tell her how women become pregnant, or what a wife’s role is, she added.
Her father, Ali Muhammad al-Ahdal, said he had agreed to the marriage because two of Nujood’s older sisters had been kidnapped and forcibly married, with one of them ending up in jail. Mr. Ahdal said he had feared the same thing would happen to Nujood, and early marriage had seemed a better alternative.
A gaunt, broken-looking man, Mr. Ahdal once worked as a street sweeper. Now he and his family beg for a living. He has 16 children by two women.
Poverty is one reason so many Yemeni families marry their children off early. Another is the fear of girls being carried off and married by force. But most important are cultural tradition and the belief that a young virginal bride can best be shaped into a dutiful wife, according to comprehensive study of early marriage published by Sana University in 2006.
Nujood complained repeatedly to her husband’s relatives and later to her own parents after the couple moved back to their house in Sana. But they said they could do nothing. To break a marriage would expose the family to shame. Finally, her uncle told her to go to court. On April 2, she said, she walked out of the house by herself and hailed a taxi.
It was the first time she had traveled anywhere alone, Nujood recalled, and she was frightened. On arriving at the courthouse, she was told the judge was busy, so she sat on a bench and waited. Suddenly he was standing over her, imposing in his dark robes. “You’re married?” he said, with shock in his voice.
Right away, he invited her to spend the night at his family’s house, she said, since court sessions were already over for the day. There, she spent hours watching television, something she had never known in her family’s slum apartment, which lacks even running water.
When Nujood’s case was called the next Sunday, the courtroom was crowded with reporters and photographers, alerted by her lawyer. Her father and husband were also there; the judge had jailed them the night before to ensure that they would appear in court. (Both were released the next day.) “Do you want a separation, or a permanent divorce?” the judge, Muhammad al-Qadhi, asked the girl, after hearing her testimony and that of her father and her husband.
“I want a permanent divorce,” she replied, without hesitation. The judge granted it.
Afterward, Ms. Nasser, the lawyer, took Nujood to a celebratory party at the offices of a local newspaper, where she was showered with dolls and other toys. Nujood lived with her uncle for a time after the ruling but then insisted on returning to her father’s house. “I have forgiven him,” she said. She swears she will never marry again, and she wants to become a human rights lawyer, like Ms. Nasser, or perhaps a journalist.
Despite the victory, Ms. Nasser and other advocates say they are worried about the lack of legal means to fight early marriage. Nujood’s case only reached the court because she took such a wildly unusual step and happened on a sympathetic judge.
“We were lucky with this judge,” Ms. Nasser said. “Another judge might not have accepted her in court, and would have asked her father or brother to come instead,” and Nujood would probably still be married today.
A 1992 Yemeni law set the minimum legal age of marriage at 15. But in 1998 Parliament revised it, allowing girls to be married earlier as long as they did not move in with their husbands until they reached sexual maturity.
That change reflected the triumph of northern Yemen’s more conservative Islamic culture over the secular and Marxist south after North and South Yemen united in 1990. In South Yemen, the government had passed a law in 1979 setting the age of marriage at 16 for women and 18 for men. An extensive public awareness campaign, including songs and television spots with titles like “The Victimized Daughter of the Tribe” and “Traditions and Rituals” helped educate people about the dangers posed by early marriage and pregnancy.
But in Yemen, as in Afghanistan — another country where child marriage is common — the fight against Communism ended with the triumph of a hard-line form of Islam. After war broke out in 1994, Ali Abdullah Saleh, then North Yemen’s leader, sent jihadists to fight South Yemen. Critics say he has become politically indebted to conservative Islamists.
After Nujood’s case became public, Ms. Nasser said she received angry letters from conservative women denouncing her for her role. But she has also begun receiving calls about girls, some younger than Nujood, trying to escape their marriages.
One of them was Arwa, who was married last year at the age of 8 here in the ancient town of Jibla, four hours south of Sana. As with Nujood’s case, Arwa’s situation aroused a legal and social outrage.
Standing outside a relative’s house here, her hands clasped in front of her, Arwa described how surprised she was when her father arranged her marriage to a 35-year-old man eight months ago. Like Nujood, she did not know the facts of life, she said. The man raped and beat her.
Finally, after months of misery, she ran to a hospital. Employees there took her to a police station, she said. A local judge, on receiving her case, briefly jailed the judge who had approved the marriage contract. Arwa is living with relatives while her case awaits a resolution. But her relatives rarely let her out of the house, fearing that her husband, who has refused the judge’s demands that he appear in court, may take her again.
Asked what made her flee her husband after so many months, Arwa gazed up, an intense, defiant expression in her eyes.
“I thought about it,” she said in a very quiet but firm voice. “I thought about it.”
---The New York Times, June 29, 2008
JIBLA, Yemen — One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.
That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.
Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.
Together, the two girls’ stories have helped spur a movement to put an end to child marriage, which is increasingly seen as a crucial part of the cycle of poverty in Yemen and other third world countries. Pulled out of school and forced to have children before their bodies are ready, many rural Yemeni women end up illiterate and with serious health problems. Their babies are often stunted, too.
The average age of marriage in Yemen’s rural areas is 12 to 13, a recent study by Sana University researchers found. The country, at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
“This is the first shout,” said Shada Nasser, a human rights lawyer who met Nujood, the 10-year-old, after she arrived at the courthouse to demand a divorce. Ms. Nasser decided instantly to take her case. “All other early marriage cases have been dealt with by tribal sheiks, and the girl never had any choice.”
But despite a rising tide of outrage, the fight against the practice is not easy. Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee” for a good marriage.
“Voices are rising in society against this phenomenon and its catastrophes,” said Shawki al-Qadhi, an imam and opposition member in Parliament who has tried unsuccessfully to muster support for a legal ban on child marriage in Yemen in the past. “But despite rejections of it by many people and some religious scholars, it continues.”
The issue first arose because of Nujood, a bright-eyed girl barely four feet tall. Her ordeal began in February, when her father took her from Sana, the Yemeni capital, to his home village for the wedding. She was given almost no warning.
“I was very frightened and worried,” Nujood recalled, speaking in a soft, childlike voice as she sat cross-legged on the floor in her family’s bare three-room home in a slum not far from Sana’s airport. “I wanted to go home.”
As she told her story, Nujood gradually gained confidence, smiling shyly as if she were struggling to hold back laughter. Later, she removed her veil, revealing her shoulder-length brown hair.
The trouble started on the first night, when her 30-year-old husband, Faez Ali Thamer, took off her clothes as soon as the light was out. She ran crying from the room, but he caught her, brought her back and forced himself on her. Later, he beat her as well.
“I hated life with him,” she said, staring at the ground in front of her. The wedding came so quickly that no one bothered to tell her how women become pregnant, or what a wife’s role is, she added.
Her father, Ali Muhammad al-Ahdal, said he had agreed to the marriage because two of Nujood’s older sisters had been kidnapped and forcibly married, with one of them ending up in jail. Mr. Ahdal said he had feared the same thing would happen to Nujood, and early marriage had seemed a better alternative.
A gaunt, broken-looking man, Mr. Ahdal once worked as a street sweeper. Now he and his family beg for a living. He has 16 children by two women.
Poverty is one reason so many Yemeni families marry their children off early. Another is the fear of girls being carried off and married by force. But most important are cultural tradition and the belief that a young virginal bride can best be shaped into a dutiful wife, according to comprehensive study of early marriage published by Sana University in 2006.
Nujood complained repeatedly to her husband’s relatives and later to her own parents after the couple moved back to their house in Sana. But they said they could do nothing. To break a marriage would expose the family to shame. Finally, her uncle told her to go to court. On April 2, she said, she walked out of the house by herself and hailed a taxi.
It was the first time she had traveled anywhere alone, Nujood recalled, and she was frightened. On arriving at the courthouse, she was told the judge was busy, so she sat on a bench and waited. Suddenly he was standing over her, imposing in his dark robes. “You’re married?” he said, with shock in his voice.
Right away, he invited her to spend the night at his family’s house, she said, since court sessions were already over for the day. There, she spent hours watching television, something she had never known in her family’s slum apartment, which lacks even running water.
When Nujood’s case was called the next Sunday, the courtroom was crowded with reporters and photographers, alerted by her lawyer. Her father and husband were also there; the judge had jailed them the night before to ensure that they would appear in court. (Both were released the next day.) “Do you want a separation, or a permanent divorce?” the judge, Muhammad al-Qadhi, asked the girl, after hearing her testimony and that of her father and her husband.
“I want a permanent divorce,” she replied, without hesitation. The judge granted it.
Afterward, Ms. Nasser, the lawyer, took Nujood to a celebratory party at the offices of a local newspaper, where she was showered with dolls and other toys. Nujood lived with her uncle for a time after the ruling but then insisted on returning to her father’s house. “I have forgiven him,” she said. She swears she will never marry again, and she wants to become a human rights lawyer, like Ms. Nasser, or perhaps a journalist.
Despite the victory, Ms. Nasser and other advocates say they are worried about the lack of legal means to fight early marriage. Nujood’s case only reached the court because she took such a wildly unusual step and happened on a sympathetic judge.
“We were lucky with this judge,” Ms. Nasser said. “Another judge might not have accepted her in court, and would have asked her father or brother to come instead,” and Nujood would probably still be married today.
A 1992 Yemeni law set the minimum legal age of marriage at 15. But in 1998 Parliament revised it, allowing girls to be married earlier as long as they did not move in with their husbands until they reached sexual maturity.
That change reflected the triumph of northern Yemen’s more conservative Islamic culture over the secular and Marxist south after North and South Yemen united in 1990. In South Yemen, the government had passed a law in 1979 setting the age of marriage at 16 for women and 18 for men. An extensive public awareness campaign, including songs and television spots with titles like “The Victimized Daughter of the Tribe” and “Traditions and Rituals” helped educate people about the dangers posed by early marriage and pregnancy.
But in Yemen, as in Afghanistan — another country where child marriage is common — the fight against Communism ended with the triumph of a hard-line form of Islam. After war broke out in 1994, Ali Abdullah Saleh, then North Yemen’s leader, sent jihadists to fight South Yemen. Critics say he has become politically indebted to conservative Islamists.
After Nujood’s case became public, Ms. Nasser said she received angry letters from conservative women denouncing her for her role. But she has also begun receiving calls about girls, some younger than Nujood, trying to escape their marriages.
One of them was Arwa, who was married last year at the age of 8 here in the ancient town of Jibla, four hours south of Sana. As with Nujood’s case, Arwa’s situation aroused a legal and social outrage.
Standing outside a relative’s house here, her hands clasped in front of her, Arwa described how surprised she was when her father arranged her marriage to a 35-year-old man eight months ago. Like Nujood, she did not know the facts of life, she said. The man raped and beat her.
Finally, after months of misery, she ran to a hospital. Employees there took her to a police station, she said. A local judge, on receiving her case, briefly jailed the judge who had approved the marriage contract. Arwa is living with relatives while her case awaits a resolution. But her relatives rarely let her out of the house, fearing that her husband, who has refused the judge’s demands that he appear in court, may take her again.
Asked what made her flee her husband after so many months, Arwa gazed up, an intense, defiant expression in her eyes.
“I thought about it,” she said in a very quiet but firm voice. “I thought about it.”
---The New York Times, June 29, 2008
Saudi Arabia: Justice Ministry Delegation to Study US Judicial System
A delegation from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Justice will soon dispatch to the United States to study the US experience with judicial management. Saudi judicial management may adopt technology and training methods if the delegation deems the US system compatible.
The decision to send the delegation was made during a meeting between Dr Abdul Malik bin Ahmad Al Sheikh, the senior adviser to the Saudi Justice Minister, and Erica Barks-Ruggles, US deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, who is currently visiting the Kingdom.
They discussed cooperation prospects through exchange of expertise of pre-litigation procedures, especially concerning training and technology. Al Sheikh told Asharq Al-Awsat: "We may benefit from the US experience in the field of judicial management and we may not."
He explained that the Saudi delegation "will become acquainted with and will learn about the systems there [in the US] in the field of judicial management while also considering the differences between the Saudi and US systems."
The meeting, which took place in the Ministry of Justice in Riyadh, included an overview of the Saudi judicial system and the application of Islamic Shariaa.
The legislative sources from the Quran, Sunnah, and Al-Ijma [scholarly consensus] were also explained. According to Al Sheikh, the US delegation, which met with the chairman of the Shura Council, the Minister of Higher Education and officials from governmental and non-governmental human rights societies and commissions, was briefed on King Abdullah's seven billion riyal ($1.86 million) project to upgrade the judicial system.
Al Sheikh informed Asharq Al-Awsat: "The US State Department delegation was briefed on new judicial arrangements and expressed its admiration for the developmental steps that are being taken, which will have a positive impact on the Saudi judiciary."
Al Sheikh continued: "Saudi Arabia is the metropolis of Islam. It is the site of the two holy mosques and the qibla [direction in which Muslims pray] of the Muslims. Saudi Arabia has the honor of enforcing tolerant Islamic Shariaa that protects and guards public rights and private human rights, and seeks to develop the mechanisms of judicial management in Saudi Arabia while considering the use of modern technology to entrench the application of these mechanisms."
By Turki Al-Saheil, Al Sharq al Awsat
The decision to send the delegation was made during a meeting between Dr Abdul Malik bin Ahmad Al Sheikh, the senior adviser to the Saudi Justice Minister, and Erica Barks-Ruggles, US deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, who is currently visiting the Kingdom.
They discussed cooperation prospects through exchange of expertise of pre-litigation procedures, especially concerning training and technology. Al Sheikh told Asharq Al-Awsat: "We may benefit from the US experience in the field of judicial management and we may not."
He explained that the Saudi delegation "will become acquainted with and will learn about the systems there [in the US] in the field of judicial management while also considering the differences between the Saudi and US systems."
The meeting, which took place in the Ministry of Justice in Riyadh, included an overview of the Saudi judicial system and the application of Islamic Shariaa.
The legislative sources from the Quran, Sunnah, and Al-Ijma [scholarly consensus] were also explained. According to Al Sheikh, the US delegation, which met with the chairman of the Shura Council, the Minister of Higher Education and officials from governmental and non-governmental human rights societies and commissions, was briefed on King Abdullah's seven billion riyal ($1.86 million) project to upgrade the judicial system.
Al Sheikh informed Asharq Al-Awsat: "The US State Department delegation was briefed on new judicial arrangements and expressed its admiration for the developmental steps that are being taken, which will have a positive impact on the Saudi judiciary."
Al Sheikh continued: "Saudi Arabia is the metropolis of Islam. It is the site of the two holy mosques and the qibla [direction in which Muslims pray] of the Muslims. Saudi Arabia has the honor of enforcing tolerant Islamic Shariaa that protects and guards public rights and private human rights, and seeks to develop the mechanisms of judicial management in Saudi Arabia while considering the use of modern technology to entrench the application of these mechanisms."
By Turki Al-Saheil, Al Sharq al Awsat
Yemen: Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage
JIBLA, Yemen — One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.
That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.
Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.
Nujood Ali
Together, the two girls’ stories have helped spur a movement to put an end to child marriage, which is increasingly seen as a crucial part of the cycle of poverty in Yemen and other third world countries. Pulled out of school and forced to have children before their bodies are ready, many rural Yemeni women end up illiterate and with serious health problems. Their babies are often stunted, too.
The average age of marriage in Yemen’s rural areas is 12 to 13, a recent study by Sana University researchers found. The country, at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
“This is the first shout,” said Shada Nasser, a human rights lawyer who met Nujood, the 10-year-old, after she arrived at the courthouse to demand a divorce. Ms. Nasser decided instantly to take her case. “All other early marriage cases have been dealt with by tribal sheiks, and the girl never had any choice.”
But despite a rising tide of outrage, the fight against the practice is not easy. Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee” for a good marriage.
“Voices are rising in society against this phenomenon and its catastrophes,” said Shawki al-Qadhi, an imam and opposition member in Parliament who has tried unsuccessfully to muster support for a legal ban on child marriage in Yemen in the past. “But despite rejections of it by many people and some religious scholars, it continues.”
The issue first arose because of Nujood, a bright-eyed girl barely four feet tall. Her ordeal began in February, when her father took her from Sana, the Yemeni capital, to his home village for the wedding. She was given almost no warning.
“I was very frightened and worried,” Nujood recalled, speaking in a soft, childlike voice as she sat cross-legged on the floor in her family’s bare three-room home in a slum not far from Sana’s airport. “I wanted to go home.”
As she told her story, Nujood gradually gained confidence, smiling shyly as if she were struggling to hold back laughter. Later, she removed her veil, revealing her shoulder-length brown hair.
The trouble started on the first night, when her 30-year-old husband, Faez Ali Thamer, took off her clothes as soon as the light was out. She ran crying from the room, but he caught her, brought her back and forced himself on her. Later, he beat her as well.
“I hated life with him,” she said, staring at the ground in front of her. The wedding came so quickly that no one bothered to tell her how women become pregnant, or what a wife’s role is, she added.
Her father, Ali Muhammad al-Ahdal, said he had agreed to the marriage because two of Nujood’s older sisters had been kidnapped and forcibly married, with one of them ending up in jail. Mr. Ahdal said he had feared the same thing would happen to Nujood, and early marriage had seemed a better alternative.
A gaunt, broken-looking man, Mr. Ahdal once worked as a street sweeper. Now he and his family beg for a living. He has 16 children by two women.
Poverty is one reason so many Yemeni families marry their children off early. Another is the fear of girls being carried off and married by force. But most important are cultural tradition and the belief that a young virginal bride can best be shaped into a dutiful wife, according to comprehensive study of early marriage published by Sana University in 2006.
Nujood complained repeatedly to her husband’s relatives and later to her own parents after the couple moved back to their house in Sana. But they said they could do nothing. To break a marriage would expose the family to shame. Finally, her uncle told her to go to court. On April 2, she said, she walked out of the house by herself and hailed a taxi.
It was the first time she had traveled anywhere alone, Nujood recalled, and she was frightened. On arriving at the courthouse, she was told the judge was busy, so she sat on a bench and waited. Suddenly he was standing over her, imposing in his dark robes. “You’re married?” he said, with shock in his voice.
Right away, he invited her to spend the night at his family’s house, she said, since court sessions were already over for the day. There, she spent hours watching television, something she had never known in her family’s slum apartment, which lacks even running water.
When Nujood’s case was called the next Sunday, the courtroom was crowded with reporters and photographers, alerted by her lawyer. Her father and husband were also there; the judge had jailed them the night before to ensure that they would appear in court. (Both were released the next day.) “Do you want a separation, or a permanent divorce?” the judge, Muhammad al-Qadhi, asked the girl, after hearing her testimony and that of her father and her husband.
“I want a permanent divorce,” she replied, without hesitation. The judge granted it.
Afterward, Ms. Nasser, the lawyer, took Nujood to a celebratory party at the offices of a local newspaper, where she was showered with dolls and other toys. Nujood lived with her uncle for a time after the ruling but then insisted on returning to her father’s house. “I have forgiven him,” she said. She swears she will never marry again, and she wants to become a human rights lawyer, like Ms. Nasser, or perhaps a journalist.
Despite the victory, Ms. Nasser and other advocates say they are worried about the lack of legal means to fight early marriage. Nujood’s case only reached the court because she took such a wildly unusual step and happened on a sympathetic judge.
“We were lucky with this judge,” Ms. Nasser said. “Another judge might not have accepted her in court, and would have asked her father or brother to come instead,” and Nujood would probably still be married today.
A 1992 Yemeni law set the minimum legal age of marriage at 15. But in 1998 Parliament revised it, allowing girls to be married earlier as long as they did not move in with their husbands until they reached sexual maturity.
That change reflected the triumph of northern Yemen’s more conservative Islamic culture over the secular and Marxist south after North and South Yemen united in 1990. In South Yemen, the government had passed a law in 1979 setting the age of marriage at 16 for women and 18 for men. An extensive public awareness campaign, including songs and television spots with titles like “The Victimized Daughter of the Tribe” and “Traditions and Rituals” helped educate people about the dangers posed by early marriage and pregnancy.
But in Yemen, as in Afghanistan — another country where child marriage is common — the fight against Communism ended with the triumph of a hard-line form of Islam. After war broke out in 1994, Ali Abdullah Saleh, then North Yemen’s leader, sent jihadists to fight South Yemen. Critics say he has become politically indebted to conservative Islamists.
After Nujood’s case became public, Ms. Nasser said she received angry letters from conservative women denouncing her for her role. But she has also begun receiving calls about girls, some younger than Nujood, trying to escape their marriages.
One of them was Arwa, who was married last year at the age of 8 here in the ancient town of Jibla, four hours south of Sana. As with Nujood’s case, Arwa’s situation aroused a legal and social outrage.
Standing outside a relative’s house here, her hands clasped in front of her, Arwa described how surprised she was when her father arranged her marriage to a 35-year-old man eight months ago. Like Nujood, she did not know the facts of life, she said. The man raped and beat her.
Finally, after months of misery, she ran to a hospital. Employees there took her to a police station, she said. A local judge, on receiving her case, briefly jailed the judge who had approved the marriage contract. Arwa is living with relatives while her case awaits a resolution. But her relatives rarely let her out of the house, fearing that her husband, who has refused the judge’s demands that he appear in court, may take her again.
Asked what made her flee her husband after so many months, Arwa gazed up, an intense, defiant expression in her eyes.
“I thought about it,” she said in a very quiet but firm voice. “I thought about it.”
-- By ROBERT F. WORTH, New York Times
That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.
Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.
Nujood Ali
Together, the two girls’ stories have helped spur a movement to put an end to child marriage, which is increasingly seen as a crucial part of the cycle of poverty in Yemen and other third world countries. Pulled out of school and forced to have children before their bodies are ready, many rural Yemeni women end up illiterate and with serious health problems. Their babies are often stunted, too.
The average age of marriage in Yemen’s rural areas is 12 to 13, a recent study by Sana University researchers found. The country, at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
“This is the first shout,” said Shada Nasser, a human rights lawyer who met Nujood, the 10-year-old, after she arrived at the courthouse to demand a divorce. Ms. Nasser decided instantly to take her case. “All other early marriage cases have been dealt with by tribal sheiks, and the girl never had any choice.”
But despite a rising tide of outrage, the fight against the practice is not easy. Hard-line Islamic conservatives, whose influence has grown enormously in the past two decades, defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 9-year-old. Child marriage is deeply rooted in local custom here, and even enshrined in an old tribal expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and I can give you a guarantee” for a good marriage.
“Voices are rising in society against this phenomenon and its catastrophes,” said Shawki al-Qadhi, an imam and opposition member in Parliament who has tried unsuccessfully to muster support for a legal ban on child marriage in Yemen in the past. “But despite rejections of it by many people and some religious scholars, it continues.”
The issue first arose because of Nujood, a bright-eyed girl barely four feet tall. Her ordeal began in February, when her father took her from Sana, the Yemeni capital, to his home village for the wedding. She was given almost no warning.
“I was very frightened and worried,” Nujood recalled, speaking in a soft, childlike voice as she sat cross-legged on the floor in her family’s bare three-room home in a slum not far from Sana’s airport. “I wanted to go home.”
As she told her story, Nujood gradually gained confidence, smiling shyly as if she were struggling to hold back laughter. Later, she removed her veil, revealing her shoulder-length brown hair.
The trouble started on the first night, when her 30-year-old husband, Faez Ali Thamer, took off her clothes as soon as the light was out. She ran crying from the room, but he caught her, brought her back and forced himself on her. Later, he beat her as well.
“I hated life with him,” she said, staring at the ground in front of her. The wedding came so quickly that no one bothered to tell her how women become pregnant, or what a wife’s role is, she added.
Her father, Ali Muhammad al-Ahdal, said he had agreed to the marriage because two of Nujood’s older sisters had been kidnapped and forcibly married, with one of them ending up in jail. Mr. Ahdal said he had feared the same thing would happen to Nujood, and early marriage had seemed a better alternative.
A gaunt, broken-looking man, Mr. Ahdal once worked as a street sweeper. Now he and his family beg for a living. He has 16 children by two women.
Poverty is one reason so many Yemeni families marry their children off early. Another is the fear of girls being carried off and married by force. But most important are cultural tradition and the belief that a young virginal bride can best be shaped into a dutiful wife, according to comprehensive study of early marriage published by Sana University in 2006.
Nujood complained repeatedly to her husband’s relatives and later to her own parents after the couple moved back to their house in Sana. But they said they could do nothing. To break a marriage would expose the family to shame. Finally, her uncle told her to go to court. On April 2, she said, she walked out of the house by herself and hailed a taxi.
It was the first time she had traveled anywhere alone, Nujood recalled, and she was frightened. On arriving at the courthouse, she was told the judge was busy, so she sat on a bench and waited. Suddenly he was standing over her, imposing in his dark robes. “You’re married?” he said, with shock in his voice.
Right away, he invited her to spend the night at his family’s house, she said, since court sessions were already over for the day. There, she spent hours watching television, something she had never known in her family’s slum apartment, which lacks even running water.
When Nujood’s case was called the next Sunday, the courtroom was crowded with reporters and photographers, alerted by her lawyer. Her father and husband were also there; the judge had jailed them the night before to ensure that they would appear in court. (Both were released the next day.) “Do you want a separation, or a permanent divorce?” the judge, Muhammad al-Qadhi, asked the girl, after hearing her testimony and that of her father and her husband.
“I want a permanent divorce,” she replied, without hesitation. The judge granted it.
Afterward, Ms. Nasser, the lawyer, took Nujood to a celebratory party at the offices of a local newspaper, where she was showered with dolls and other toys. Nujood lived with her uncle for a time after the ruling but then insisted on returning to her father’s house. “I have forgiven him,” she said. She swears she will never marry again, and she wants to become a human rights lawyer, like Ms. Nasser, or perhaps a journalist.
Despite the victory, Ms. Nasser and other advocates say they are worried about the lack of legal means to fight early marriage. Nujood’s case only reached the court because she took such a wildly unusual step and happened on a sympathetic judge.
“We were lucky with this judge,” Ms. Nasser said. “Another judge might not have accepted her in court, and would have asked her father or brother to come instead,” and Nujood would probably still be married today.
A 1992 Yemeni law set the minimum legal age of marriage at 15. But in 1998 Parliament revised it, allowing girls to be married earlier as long as they did not move in with their husbands until they reached sexual maturity.
That change reflected the triumph of northern Yemen’s more conservative Islamic culture over the secular and Marxist south after North and South Yemen united in 1990. In South Yemen, the government had passed a law in 1979 setting the age of marriage at 16 for women and 18 for men. An extensive public awareness campaign, including songs and television spots with titles like “The Victimized Daughter of the Tribe” and “Traditions and Rituals” helped educate people about the dangers posed by early marriage and pregnancy.
But in Yemen, as in Afghanistan — another country where child marriage is common — the fight against Communism ended with the triumph of a hard-line form of Islam. After war broke out in 1994, Ali Abdullah Saleh, then North Yemen’s leader, sent jihadists to fight South Yemen. Critics say he has become politically indebted to conservative Islamists.
After Nujood’s case became public, Ms. Nasser said she received angry letters from conservative women denouncing her for her role. But she has also begun receiving calls about girls, some younger than Nujood, trying to escape their marriages.
One of them was Arwa, who was married last year at the age of 8 here in the ancient town of Jibla, four hours south of Sana. As with Nujood’s case, Arwa’s situation aroused a legal and social outrage.
Standing outside a relative’s house here, her hands clasped in front of her, Arwa described how surprised she was when her father arranged her marriage to a 35-year-old man eight months ago. Like Nujood, she did not know the facts of life, she said. The man raped and beat her.
Finally, after months of misery, she ran to a hospital. Employees there took her to a police station, she said. A local judge, on receiving her case, briefly jailed the judge who had approved the marriage contract. Arwa is living with relatives while her case awaits a resolution. But her relatives rarely let her out of the house, fearing that her husband, who has refused the judge’s demands that he appear in court, may take her again.
Asked what made her flee her husband after so many months, Arwa gazed up, an intense, defiant expression in her eyes.
“I thought about it,” she said in a very quiet but firm voice. “I thought about it.”
-- By ROBERT F. WORTH, New York Times
Friday, June 27, 2008
Saudi Arabia: Varsities to absorb 86% high school grads
Eighty-six percent of secondary school graduates will get seats at Saudi universities this year. Higher Education Minister Dr. Khaled Al-Anqari has given his instructions to universities in this respect.
“This is the highest university intake in the world. In most countries a maximum of only 50 percent secondary school graduates get to universities,” the minister said.
The tremendous increase in intake comes with the opening of 12 new universities and several colleges in different parts of the Kingdom. During the last four years the number of government universities in the Kingdom rose from eight to 20.
Al-Anqari said some 5,000 students would be sent abroad for higher studies, especially for master’s and doctoral courses and fellowships, in the fourth phase of King Abdullah Scholarship Program.
More than 40,000 Saudi students are currently pursuing higher studies in universities and institutes in Europe, America, China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. “We are studying prospects of increasing the allowances given to Saudi students abroad,” he said.
Last month Al-Anqari signed a number of contracts worth more than SR1.23 billion to establish higher education facilities and new colleges in various parts of the Kingdom. They include medical, engineering and computer science colleges.
“The new colleges will help absorb more secondary school graduates in the future,” he added.
Efforts are under way to establish campuses of King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Rabigh, Khulais and Kamil. Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has instructed municipalities to allocate five million square meters of land in each town for the projects.
Subsequently the three municipalities have set up committees to select suitable locations for the projects. “The selection will be completed within a week,” one official said.
Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Yubi, undersecretary at KAU, said 11 colleges for boys and girls would be established in the three cities with Rabigh, receiving the highest number of colleges.
Six colleges for medicine, engineering, computer science and information technology (IT), business administration, applied medical sciences and sciences will be established in Rabigh.
Al-Yubi said three colleges would be established in Khulais for applied medical sciences, computer science and IT and sciences, and two in Kamil for sciences, computer science and IT.
Prince Khaled announced the opening of KAU campuses when he visited the towns recently.
-- Arab News
“This is the highest university intake in the world. In most countries a maximum of only 50 percent secondary school graduates get to universities,” the minister said.
The tremendous increase in intake comes with the opening of 12 new universities and several colleges in different parts of the Kingdom. During the last four years the number of government universities in the Kingdom rose from eight to 20.
Al-Anqari said some 5,000 students would be sent abroad for higher studies, especially for master’s and doctoral courses and fellowships, in the fourth phase of King Abdullah Scholarship Program.
More than 40,000 Saudi students are currently pursuing higher studies in universities and institutes in Europe, America, China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. “We are studying prospects of increasing the allowances given to Saudi students abroad,” he said.
Last month Al-Anqari signed a number of contracts worth more than SR1.23 billion to establish higher education facilities and new colleges in various parts of the Kingdom. They include medical, engineering and computer science colleges.
“The new colleges will help absorb more secondary school graduates in the future,” he added.
Efforts are under way to establish campuses of King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Rabigh, Khulais and Kamil. Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has instructed municipalities to allocate five million square meters of land in each town for the projects.
Subsequently the three municipalities have set up committees to select suitable locations for the projects. “The selection will be completed within a week,” one official said.
Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Yubi, undersecretary at KAU, said 11 colleges for boys and girls would be established in the three cities with Rabigh, receiving the highest number of colleges.
Six colleges for medicine, engineering, computer science and information technology (IT), business administration, applied medical sciences and sciences will be established in Rabigh.
Al-Yubi said three colleges would be established in Khulais for applied medical sciences, computer science and IT and sciences, and two in Kamil for sciences, computer science and IT.
Prince Khaled announced the opening of KAU campuses when he visited the towns recently.
-- Arab News
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Yemen: MPS say no to genital mutilation, 18 is minimum marriage age, juveniles cannot be punished as adults
SANA'A, June 24 — A two-day workshop in Parliament concluded that the minimum marriage age in Yemen should be 18, and the sponsors of both brides and grooms should be punished if they allow them to marry under this age.
The workshop’s participants also concluded that juvenile delinquents between the ages of 15 and 18 are not equal to adult criminals. They further recommended laws banning female genital mutilation.
The workshop covered three main areas: the criminality of juveniles, female genital mutilation, and the minimum age of marriage. These three subjects were chosen because the existing laws concerning them are not specific enough and are often ignored.
This workshop was arranged by Parliament, the Higher Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and the Yemeni Network Combating Violence Against Women known as SHIMA, under the sponsorship of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), OXFAM International, and Save the Children, a worldwide children's rights organization. Attendees included members of the Sharia Committee, who matches the constitutional laws with Islamic sharia law, Parliament members (MPs), doctors and human rights activists.
“The main purpose of the workshop is to amend the laws that did not provide protection to children,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, UNICEF's communications director.
Ur-Rehman said that he heard about Nojoud Al-Ahdal Nasser, the young girl who went to court to ask for a divorce from her almost 30-year-old husband. He added that there are many cases like Nojoud's which go unnoticed.
“We want to end the silent suffering,” he told the attendees.
In April, after Nojoud’s case was published in news sources around the world, the Safe Maternity Act presented by the health committee failed to pass in Parliament. The act included a minimum age of 18 for marriage, punishment for families who marry their children off earlier and a ban on genital mutilation.
The Sharia Committee refused the act because they said that the minimum age for marriage in Islam is not definite.
Parliament President Yahia Al-Ra'i and religious scholar Ahmed Abdul-Razaq Al-Rukaihi, who is also a member of the Sharia Committee, said that they will take these recommendations into account when drafting the laws.
Minimum age of Marriage
The suggestion to specify the marriage age faced more objections than the other two subjects addressed during the workshop. Specifically, the Sharia Committee found it difficult to define a specific minimum age of marriage. Hassan Al-Sheikh, a scholar and Sharia Committee member, said that he was confused after what he heard in the workshop.
“I am afraid that if we stop early marriage, we could create troubles for young people,” said Al-Sheikh.
Jabr Abdullah, a religious scholar, said that the ability to have sex could start from the age of nine. Law professor Ali Hassan Al-Sharafi told the scholars that nothing in the proposal should worry them.
He mentioned two main things about adopting a minimum age for marriage. First, he pointed out the dispute among Islamic scholars about the acceptability of early marriage. “This is a good thing to use in our favor; we should consider the most suitable opinion,” said Al-Sharafi.
He added that in Islam, there are things considered mobah [neither forbidden nor obligated], which he said would include creating a minimum age for marriage. The attendees objected to the current law that states that the young girl can be married if she is ready for sex.
Attendees said that readiness is not measurable, and that young girls are vulnerable to exploitation.
Scholar Al-Rukaihi said that he was really moved when he understood the negative health impacts of early marriage brought up during the workshop, such as obstetric fistula [a common ailment among child brides who give birth that causes permanent incontinence and physical pain].
“Honestly, I was affected by what I saw,” he said.
Another attendee, Huda Al-Yafe’i, the head of the orphan sector in Al-Saleh Social Foundation for Development, said that legislators have to differentiate between early marriage and early pregnancy. “As a teacher, I have seen many girls who go astray and to stop them from marrying is not good.”
Others objected to the idea of differentiating between early marriage and early pregnancy because to control that is not attainable, and marriage is not limited to pregnancy. PM Shawqi Al-Qadhi said that marriage is not only about sex, it is a whole new life for girls who are often unprepared for its stresses.
Attendee Jamila Al-Ra’abi said that early marriage does not solve any problems, but rather creates more. “Early marriages makes lots of orphans, and causes a lot of pain for young mothers,” she said.
According to a study by the Gender Development Research and Studies Center in Sana’a University in 2005 early marriages trigger social, psychological and health problems like obstetric fistula, malnutrition, psychological trauma, maternal and child mortality. Early marriage also increases a girl’s vulnerability to domestic abuse by both the husband and her in-laws.
Early marriage forces girls to drop out of school, which dramatically affects the country's development as a whole. Other groups like the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have also condemned the practice. Criminal Responsibility: Criminal responsibility was discussed in two respects: legality and the religious background for lawmaking.
Al-Sharafi said that there is a difference between puberty and adulthood. Al-Sharafi and other attendees quoted the Qur’anic verse that says, “And try orphans (as regards their intelligence) until they reach the age of marriage; if then you find sound judgment in them, release their property to them.”
They said that this verse showed that puberty does not mean adulthood, and criminal responsibility should be measured this way. A juvenile offender at the age of 15 can be punished with between 10 to 20 years in prison for a crime, but cannot be executed for murder.
“His young age should be taken as an extenuating circumstance in major crimes, and he should get half the sentence for minor ones,” said Al-Sharafi.
Scholar Al-Rukaihi objected to this, saying that some people might use juveniles to kill others. Al-Qadhi responded that he understood the fears of the religious scholars, but juveniles shouldn't be punished for others' mistakes.
Al-Sharafi agreed that the one who incited the child to commit a crime should be punished as if he was the perpetrator.
Genital Mutilation
Despite the fact that most of the PMs said that they did not believe that Yemenis perform female genital mutilation, the Health Survey of the Yemeni Family, conducted by the government in 2003, showed that over 21 percent of Yemeni women are exposed to this extremely harmful practice.
Yemen has five main governorates that still perform female genital mutilation: Hodeidah (97.3 percent), Mahrah (96.6 percent), Hadhramout (96.5 percent), Aden (82.2 percent), and Sana’a Capital Secretariat (45.5 percent).
“I do not think that genital mutilation is rampant, but it is neither forbidden nor an obligation and therefore it is acceptable if we stop doing it to prevent the damage,” said Al-Sheikh.
Genital mutilation has dangerous consequences for female reproductive health in both the short- and long-term, according to the UNFPA and the WHO, among a large number of non-governmental organizations.
By: Kawkab Al-Thaibani For the Yemen Times
The workshop’s participants also concluded that juvenile delinquents between the ages of 15 and 18 are not equal to adult criminals. They further recommended laws banning female genital mutilation.
The workshop covered three main areas: the criminality of juveniles, female genital mutilation, and the minimum age of marriage. These three subjects were chosen because the existing laws concerning them are not specific enough and are often ignored.
This workshop was arranged by Parliament, the Higher Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and the Yemeni Network Combating Violence Against Women known as SHIMA, under the sponsorship of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), OXFAM International, and Save the Children, a worldwide children's rights organization. Attendees included members of the Sharia Committee, who matches the constitutional laws with Islamic sharia law, Parliament members (MPs), doctors and human rights activists.
“The main purpose of the workshop is to amend the laws that did not provide protection to children,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, UNICEF's communications director.
Ur-Rehman said that he heard about Nojoud Al-Ahdal Nasser, the young girl who went to court to ask for a divorce from her almost 30-year-old husband. He added that there are many cases like Nojoud's which go unnoticed.
“We want to end the silent suffering,” he told the attendees.
In April, after Nojoud’s case was published in news sources around the world, the Safe Maternity Act presented by the health committee failed to pass in Parliament. The act included a minimum age of 18 for marriage, punishment for families who marry their children off earlier and a ban on genital mutilation.
The Sharia Committee refused the act because they said that the minimum age for marriage in Islam is not definite.
Parliament President Yahia Al-Ra'i and religious scholar Ahmed Abdul-Razaq Al-Rukaihi, who is also a member of the Sharia Committee, said that they will take these recommendations into account when drafting the laws.
Minimum age of Marriage
The suggestion to specify the marriage age faced more objections than the other two subjects addressed during the workshop. Specifically, the Sharia Committee found it difficult to define a specific minimum age of marriage. Hassan Al-Sheikh, a scholar and Sharia Committee member, said that he was confused after what he heard in the workshop.
“I am afraid that if we stop early marriage, we could create troubles for young people,” said Al-Sheikh.
Jabr Abdullah, a religious scholar, said that the ability to have sex could start from the age of nine. Law professor Ali Hassan Al-Sharafi told the scholars that nothing in the proposal should worry them.
He mentioned two main things about adopting a minimum age for marriage. First, he pointed out the dispute among Islamic scholars about the acceptability of early marriage. “This is a good thing to use in our favor; we should consider the most suitable opinion,” said Al-Sharafi.
He added that in Islam, there are things considered mobah [neither forbidden nor obligated], which he said would include creating a minimum age for marriage. The attendees objected to the current law that states that the young girl can be married if she is ready for sex.
Attendees said that readiness is not measurable, and that young girls are vulnerable to exploitation.
Scholar Al-Rukaihi said that he was really moved when he understood the negative health impacts of early marriage brought up during the workshop, such as obstetric fistula [a common ailment among child brides who give birth that causes permanent incontinence and physical pain].
“Honestly, I was affected by what I saw,” he said.
Another attendee, Huda Al-Yafe’i, the head of the orphan sector in Al-Saleh Social Foundation for Development, said that legislators have to differentiate between early marriage and early pregnancy. “As a teacher, I have seen many girls who go astray and to stop them from marrying is not good.”
Others objected to the idea of differentiating between early marriage and early pregnancy because to control that is not attainable, and marriage is not limited to pregnancy. PM Shawqi Al-Qadhi said that marriage is not only about sex, it is a whole new life for girls who are often unprepared for its stresses.
Attendee Jamila Al-Ra’abi said that early marriage does not solve any problems, but rather creates more. “Early marriages makes lots of orphans, and causes a lot of pain for young mothers,” she said.
According to a study by the Gender Development Research and Studies Center in Sana’a University in 2005 early marriages trigger social, psychological and health problems like obstetric fistula, malnutrition, psychological trauma, maternal and child mortality. Early marriage also increases a girl’s vulnerability to domestic abuse by both the husband and her in-laws.
Early marriage forces girls to drop out of school, which dramatically affects the country's development as a whole. Other groups like the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have also condemned the practice. Criminal Responsibility: Criminal responsibility was discussed in two respects: legality and the religious background for lawmaking.
Al-Sharafi said that there is a difference between puberty and adulthood. Al-Sharafi and other attendees quoted the Qur’anic verse that says, “And try orphans (as regards their intelligence) until they reach the age of marriage; if then you find sound judgment in them, release their property to them.”
They said that this verse showed that puberty does not mean adulthood, and criminal responsibility should be measured this way. A juvenile offender at the age of 15 can be punished with between 10 to 20 years in prison for a crime, but cannot be executed for murder.
“His young age should be taken as an extenuating circumstance in major crimes, and he should get half the sentence for minor ones,” said Al-Sharafi.
Scholar Al-Rukaihi objected to this, saying that some people might use juveniles to kill others. Al-Qadhi responded that he understood the fears of the religious scholars, but juveniles shouldn't be punished for others' mistakes.
Al-Sharafi agreed that the one who incited the child to commit a crime should be punished as if he was the perpetrator.
Genital Mutilation
Despite the fact that most of the PMs said that they did not believe that Yemenis perform female genital mutilation, the Health Survey of the Yemeni Family, conducted by the government in 2003, showed that over 21 percent of Yemeni women are exposed to this extremely harmful practice.
Yemen has five main governorates that still perform female genital mutilation: Hodeidah (97.3 percent), Mahrah (96.6 percent), Hadhramout (96.5 percent), Aden (82.2 percent), and Sana’a Capital Secretariat (45.5 percent).
“I do not think that genital mutilation is rampant, but it is neither forbidden nor an obligation and therefore it is acceptable if we stop doing it to prevent the damage,” said Al-Sheikh.
Genital mutilation has dangerous consequences for female reproductive health in both the short- and long-term, according to the UNFPA and the WHO, among a large number of non-governmental organizations.
By: Kawkab Al-Thaibani For the Yemen Times
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Saudi Arabia: AGFUND joins fight against human trafficking
AGFUND joins fight against human trafficking
Nuha Adlan | Arab News
RIYADH: Prince Talal, president of Arabian Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organization (AGFUND), signed an agreement recently to finance and sponsor a project to fight human trafficking.
The project will cost $400 million and the International Labor Organization will be involved to make sure that labor rights are not violated.
This project is one of the global initiatives of the international program to fight human trafficking. According to the United Nations, 600,000 to 800,000 people are traded annually across international borders; most of the victims are women and children.
Human trafficking includes deceptive recruitment practices that lure laborers into working in foreign countries under false pretenses.
Foreign workers in the Kingdom often complain that they were duped by recruiters in their home countries. Employers in the Kingdom sometimes replace original labor contracts, a process known as “contract substitution”. Employers sometimes pass the expenses of acquiring visas onto the workers who were led to believe that the visa expenses were already paid for via the labor recruiter.
Workers find themselves stuck in their situations, unable to leave their job premises or afraid to approach authorities to complain.
AGFUND aims to gather government as well as international organizations and NGOs to support the fight against human trafficking. It also aims to spread awareness of all different types of human trafficki
---arabnews.com
Nuha Adlan | Arab News
RIYADH: Prince Talal, president of Arabian Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organization (AGFUND), signed an agreement recently to finance and sponsor a project to fight human trafficking.
The project will cost $400 million and the International Labor Organization will be involved to make sure that labor rights are not violated.
This project is one of the global initiatives of the international program to fight human trafficking. According to the United Nations, 600,000 to 800,000 people are traded annually across international borders; most of the victims are women and children.
Human trafficking includes deceptive recruitment practices that lure laborers into working in foreign countries under false pretenses.
Foreign workers in the Kingdom often complain that they were duped by recruiters in their home countries. Employers in the Kingdom sometimes replace original labor contracts, a process known as “contract substitution”. Employers sometimes pass the expenses of acquiring visas onto the workers who were led to believe that the visa expenses were already paid for via the labor recruiter.
Workers find themselves stuck in their situations, unable to leave their job premises or afraid to approach authorities to complain.
AGFUND aims to gather government as well as international organizations and NGOs to support the fight against human trafficking. It also aims to spread awareness of all different types of human trafficki
---arabnews.com
Yemen: Violence kills 130 Yemeni women in '07
Approximately 130 Yemeni women have been killed in 2,694 incidences of violence and sexual assaults on females in 2007, an government report has revealed.
A further 970 women, including 345 under 18 years of age, were injured as a result of those attacks, said a Ministry of Interior report, UAE daily Gulf News reported on Wednesday.
The report, prepared by the Centre for Studies and Researches of Gender at Sana’a University, studied the incidences and causes of violence against women. The research attributed the main cause of violence against women to the tradition of early marriage, adding that Yemen was yet to criminalise the act of child marriages.
The report also cited poverty, illiteracy and age-old barbaric customs as some other reasons behind the violence.
Among total marriages held in 2006 and 2007, about 52% of Yemeni girls and about 7% of boys were under the age of 15, the report said. Around 70% of the child marriages have occurred in rural areas where about 75% of the 22 million population of Yemen reside.
The university report also revealed that the age gap between the wife and the husband was very big in those marriages. In many cases the age of the husband was about 50 years more than the wife, Gulf News reported.
A further 970 women, including 345 under 18 years of age, were injured as a result of those attacks, said a Ministry of Interior report, UAE daily Gulf News reported on Wednesday.
The report, prepared by the Centre for Studies and Researches of Gender at Sana’a University, studied the incidences and causes of violence against women. The research attributed the main cause of violence against women to the tradition of early marriage, adding that Yemen was yet to criminalise the act of child marriages.
The report also cited poverty, illiteracy and age-old barbaric customs as some other reasons behind the violence.
Among total marriages held in 2006 and 2007, about 52% of Yemeni girls and about 7% of boys were under the age of 15, the report said. Around 70% of the child marriages have occurred in rural areas where about 75% of the 22 million population of Yemen reside.
The university report also revealed that the age gap between the wife and the husband was very big in those marriages. In many cases the age of the husband was about 50 years more than the wife, Gulf News reported.
UAE: Initiative to provide data on UAE women
DUBAI — The Dubai Women Establishment (DWE) has signed a strategic co-operation agreement with the Dubai Statistics Centre (DSC) to share crucial data that will further the goals of both organisations to provide better understanding on the status of UAE women.
The agreement was signed by Mona Al Marri, Chairperson of the board of Dubai Women Establishment, and Arif Obaid Al Muhairi, CEO of the Dubai Statistics Centre, recently.
The DWE aims to source relevant updated data on women that will aid the establishment to provide an in-depth analysis of their status and their individual and collective capabilities to contribute to the national economy.
Mona Al Marri said, "The agreement is among the initial outcomes of the DWE's five-pronged strategy that aims to enhance Emirati women's contribution in the society. Such exclusive statistics and numbers will help us identify real challenges the UAE working women face in their day-to-day life and will allow us to offer most appropriate solutions while paving the way for their active participation through leadership positions in the private and public sectors.
"Apart from exchanging statistics, our cooperation with the Dubai Statistics Centre will ensure the joint implementation of statistical initiatives including women-oriented surveys. With the guidance of experts from the centre, we will launch new research initiatives exploring women's role in the society and to become the reference on UAE women."
Underlining the importance of cooperating with governmental establishments to support Dubai Strategic Plan 2015, Al Muhairi said the centre is keen to align itself with any organisation through providing data, market indicators and statistical forecasts or surveys.
Al Muhairi said: "The synergy between the two establishments emphasises our commitment to obtaining and categorising information that would be beneficial to UAE women, especially in research. We are confident that the agreement will help the DWE devise relevant strategies and implement the most appropriate programmes for the advantage of UAE women."
As part of its holistic objective to ensure Emirati women play a key role not only in the local arena but throughout the Gulf region, the DWE has initiated several women-centric programmes with the active participation of private and public sector organisations. It recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mohammed bin Rashid Programme for Leadership Development to formulate programmes for training and developing a significant number of elite Emirati leaders.
-- Khaleej Times
The agreement was signed by Mona Al Marri, Chairperson of the board of Dubai Women Establishment, and Arif Obaid Al Muhairi, CEO of the Dubai Statistics Centre, recently.
The DWE aims to source relevant updated data on women that will aid the establishment to provide an in-depth analysis of their status and their individual and collective capabilities to contribute to the national economy.
Mona Al Marri said, "The agreement is among the initial outcomes of the DWE's five-pronged strategy that aims to enhance Emirati women's contribution in the society. Such exclusive statistics and numbers will help us identify real challenges the UAE working women face in their day-to-day life and will allow us to offer most appropriate solutions while paving the way for their active participation through leadership positions in the private and public sectors.
"Apart from exchanging statistics, our cooperation with the Dubai Statistics Centre will ensure the joint implementation of statistical initiatives including women-oriented surveys. With the guidance of experts from the centre, we will launch new research initiatives exploring women's role in the society and to become the reference on UAE women."
Underlining the importance of cooperating with governmental establishments to support Dubai Strategic Plan 2015, Al Muhairi said the centre is keen to align itself with any organisation through providing data, market indicators and statistical forecasts or surveys.
Al Muhairi said: "The synergy between the two establishments emphasises our commitment to obtaining and categorising information that would be beneficial to UAE women, especially in research. We are confident that the agreement will help the DWE devise relevant strategies and implement the most appropriate programmes for the advantage of UAE women."
As part of its holistic objective to ensure Emirati women play a key role not only in the local arena but throughout the Gulf region, the DWE has initiated several women-centric programmes with the active participation of private and public sector organisations. It recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mohammed bin Rashid Programme for Leadership Development to formulate programmes for training and developing a significant number of elite Emirati leaders.
-- Khaleej Times
Qatar: Participation of women in public life ‘very low’
THE department of statistics has released its second report enumerating the targets achieved by Qatar in various fields of development during the period 1990 – 2007, according to reports published in the local Arabic press.
The report is in the context of the eight broad objectives for growth in the new millennium as ratified by the nations of the world in a universal declaration.
On poverty the report says Qatar has had no incidence of poverty because it is one among the wealthy nations of the world. The daily expenses of any individual in Qatar are on an average $33.
In education, and especially in the field of primary education, Qatar has as much as 97.6% of children in the primary schools and reading habit among the youth in the age group of 15 to 24 years has increased to 99.1% in 2007 as against 96.5% in 1990.
In gender equation girls are numerically higher than boys in completing different levels of education leading up to graduate and post graduate studies. But participation of women in public life, especially in politics, is very low and the report calls for action to reduce the gender gap.
In reducing the mortality rate Qatar has achieved a ratio of 9:1 death in every thousand infants in 2007 as against 16:6 in 1990.
In combating diseases such as HIV/Aids, malaria and other contagious diseases Qatar has succeeded in taking effective measures in controlling these diseases. On environment protection Qatar has successfully implemented the infrastructure projects to control pollution and protect the ozone.
In developmental activities abroad, Qatar is one of the leading nations in providing aid to the developing countries.
-- Gulf Times
The report is in the context of the eight broad objectives for growth in the new millennium as ratified by the nations of the world in a universal declaration.
On poverty the report says Qatar has had no incidence of poverty because it is one among the wealthy nations of the world. The daily expenses of any individual in Qatar are on an average $33.
In education, and especially in the field of primary education, Qatar has as much as 97.6% of children in the primary schools and reading habit among the youth in the age group of 15 to 24 years has increased to 99.1% in 2007 as against 96.5% in 1990.
In gender equation girls are numerically higher than boys in completing different levels of education leading up to graduate and post graduate studies. But participation of women in public life, especially in politics, is very low and the report calls for action to reduce the gender gap.
In reducing the mortality rate Qatar has achieved a ratio of 9:1 death in every thousand infants in 2007 as against 16:6 in 1990.
In combating diseases such as HIV/Aids, malaria and other contagious diseases Qatar has succeeded in taking effective measures in controlling these diseases. On environment protection Qatar has successfully implemented the infrastructure projects to control pollution and protect the ozone.
In developmental activities abroad, Qatar is one of the leading nations in providing aid to the developing countries.
-- Gulf Times
Saudi Arabia: Number of NGOs, charity organizations on the rise
The number of nongovernmental organizations involved in charitable and social activities in the Kingdom has been on the increase, an official of the Ministry of Social Affairs told Arab News yesterday.
“The nonprofit charitable organizations established over the past three years have focused mainly on human rights, eradication of drug addiction, helping women victims of family abuse and divorced women. The organizations also helped sick people and worked for the rehabilitation of those who had given up drugs and tobacco,” Mishwah Al-Hoshan, director of charity organizations at the ministry, said.
Underscoring the emerging positive outlook in the society concerning women, Al-Hoshan added that around 30 percent of the 450 organizations deal with women’s issues.
The ministry also encourages organizations to foray into diverse areas of social service. “The ministry aims at increasing the role of nongovernmental organizations in countering family abuse, cruelty to children, rehabilitation of divorced women, elderly people, the sick and the disabled, autistic children and those who suffer from Alzheimer’s, diabetes and even AIDS, besides setting up societies for writers and artists,” Al-Hoshan said.
The number of societies to help people suffering from various chronic ailments reached 40, the official said.
“The presence of such organizations is a strong index of rising awareness of their social commitment,” he added.
The ministry has been receiving many applications to set up new societies in most cities and towns in the Kingdom, he said.
The latest society to help sick people licensed by the ministry was the Society for Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The ministry also offers financial and logistic assistance to societies that help the people in various ways.
In a related development, Saleh Al-Turki, president of the Council of Saudi Chambers, who also heads several charitable nongovernmental organizations in Jeddah, said, “The growth in NGO activities in the Kingdom reflects a mature social attitude toward sick, mentally ill, AIDS patients and uncared for women and people released from jails. It also shows that the Saudi organizations have acquired considerable experience over the past years in social work besides developing the ability to interact with local and international changes,” Turki said.
-- Arab News
“The nonprofit charitable organizations established over the past three years have focused mainly on human rights, eradication of drug addiction, helping women victims of family abuse and divorced women. The organizations also helped sick people and worked for the rehabilitation of those who had given up drugs and tobacco,” Mishwah Al-Hoshan, director of charity organizations at the ministry, said.
Underscoring the emerging positive outlook in the society concerning women, Al-Hoshan added that around 30 percent of the 450 organizations deal with women’s issues.
The ministry also encourages organizations to foray into diverse areas of social service. “The ministry aims at increasing the role of nongovernmental organizations in countering family abuse, cruelty to children, rehabilitation of divorced women, elderly people, the sick and the disabled, autistic children and those who suffer from Alzheimer’s, diabetes and even AIDS, besides setting up societies for writers and artists,” Al-Hoshan said.
The number of societies to help people suffering from various chronic ailments reached 40, the official said.
“The presence of such organizations is a strong index of rising awareness of their social commitment,” he added.
The ministry has been receiving many applications to set up new societies in most cities and towns in the Kingdom, he said.
The latest society to help sick people licensed by the ministry was the Society for Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The ministry also offers financial and logistic assistance to societies that help the people in various ways.
In a related development, Saleh Al-Turki, president of the Council of Saudi Chambers, who also heads several charitable nongovernmental organizations in Jeddah, said, “The growth in NGO activities in the Kingdom reflects a mature social attitude toward sick, mentally ill, AIDS patients and uncared for women and people released from jails. It also shows that the Saudi organizations have acquired considerable experience over the past years in social work besides developing the ability to interact with local and international changes,” Turki said.
-- Arab News
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Saudi Arabia: The Women Who Dared to Drive
Saudi Arabia: The Women Who Dared to Drive
I’ve posted previously about the Saudi women who dared to drive on the streets of Riyadh in 1991. I have since come to know a few of these women and their families. They were kind enough to share some of the experiences which followed after their act. To begin with, not only were all the women rounded up and arrested after this attempt, but any men in the vicinity watching the women on the streets were also rounded up, arrested and questioned. The male family members of these women were arrested with most having to spend hours in the jail.
The women and their male family member(s) were questioned separately on the impetus why they chose to drove. Of course interrogators wanted full information on these women, their positions, their family and what positions the male family members held.
All of the women who took to the streets were professional women from good established and well-known families. The women also agreed among themselves that when they chose to drive they would all wear the hijjab and niqab. One woman wanted to forego and drive with her head uncovered and she was overruled.
The passports of the women and for those who were married, the passports of their husbands, were confiscated. The women were also prohibited from resuming their jobs or in the case of one woman, prohibited from returning to her studies. In most cases, this was enforced for a two year period. The women could not work, did not receive any pay or benefits. The woman who was a student was prohibited from coming to her university classes. Although an exception was made that she was eventually only allowed to come to the University in order to take exams but she could not participate in classes at all.
The men related to the women were placed under great pressure and observation. They were routinely called and directed to come to the Interior Ministry for questioning. Sometimes the questioning was direct and indicated a desire to keep abreast of their activities. Other times the questioning was more obscure. Regardless, noone refused to not make themselves available.
At the same time, the mosques, imams, scholars and sheiks publicly condemned the actions of the women and by default their families. It was implied the families had no control over their women and needed to be taught a lesson.
After the two year period one man had his and his wife’s passport returned to him although not before a lecture on the need to control his wife. What was his reaction after leaving the passport office? He went directly to the airport and bought a ticket on the first available flight out of the country just to savor that feeling again of being in control and having freedom.
Now in analysis of the 1991 action, there are many Saudis who view what happened as a probe. Let me explain…the belief is that the women who participated in the activity were in fact sanctioned to do so by certain members within the Saudi government with the endorsement of American officials in order to gage the reaction and effect of such an effort on the part of the Saudi woman. If the reaction had not been so strongly negative initiatives would likely have been taken towards paving the way for women to drive in the Kingdom. However the negative outcry illustrated that the time was not yet right for such a step to take place. So where does that leave us now and for today? Does it look as if women will be given the right to drive in Saudi Arabia? Or at least, officially be given the right to drive anywhere in the Kingdom like the men? In spite of King Abdullah’s positive talks and movements of reform, I personally doubt women driving will happen during his reign. Why you likely ask? The society and culture is still not ready. I think women driving would cause another chain reaction of chaos, outcry and outcast.
----American_Bedu Blog by delhi4cats
I’ve posted previously about the Saudi women who dared to drive on the streets of Riyadh in 1991. I have since come to know a few of these women and their families. They were kind enough to share some of the experiences which followed after their act. To begin with, not only were all the women rounded up and arrested after this attempt, but any men in the vicinity watching the women on the streets were also rounded up, arrested and questioned. The male family members of these women were arrested with most having to spend hours in the jail.
The women and their male family member(s) were questioned separately on the impetus why they chose to drove. Of course interrogators wanted full information on these women, their positions, their family and what positions the male family members held.
All of the women who took to the streets were professional women from good established and well-known families. The women also agreed among themselves that when they chose to drive they would all wear the hijjab and niqab. One woman wanted to forego and drive with her head uncovered and she was overruled.
The passports of the women and for those who were married, the passports of their husbands, were confiscated. The women were also prohibited from resuming their jobs or in the case of one woman, prohibited from returning to her studies. In most cases, this was enforced for a two year period. The women could not work, did not receive any pay or benefits. The woman who was a student was prohibited from coming to her university classes. Although an exception was made that she was eventually only allowed to come to the University in order to take exams but she could not participate in classes at all.
The men related to the women were placed under great pressure and observation. They were routinely called and directed to come to the Interior Ministry for questioning. Sometimes the questioning was direct and indicated a desire to keep abreast of their activities. Other times the questioning was more obscure. Regardless, noone refused to not make themselves available.
At the same time, the mosques, imams, scholars and sheiks publicly condemned the actions of the women and by default their families. It was implied the families had no control over their women and needed to be taught a lesson.
After the two year period one man had his and his wife’s passport returned to him although not before a lecture on the need to control his wife. What was his reaction after leaving the passport office? He went directly to the airport and bought a ticket on the first available flight out of the country just to savor that feeling again of being in control and having freedom.
Now in analysis of the 1991 action, there are many Saudis who view what happened as a probe. Let me explain…the belief is that the women who participated in the activity were in fact sanctioned to do so by certain members within the Saudi government with the endorsement of American officials in order to gage the reaction and effect of such an effort on the part of the Saudi woman. If the reaction had not been so strongly negative initiatives would likely have been taken towards paving the way for women to drive in the Kingdom. However the negative outcry illustrated that the time was not yet right for such a step to take place. So where does that leave us now and for today? Does it look as if women will be given the right to drive in Saudi Arabia? Or at least, officially be given the right to drive anywhere in the Kingdom like the men? In spite of King Abdullah’s positive talks and movements of reform, I personally doubt women driving will happen during his reign. Why you likely ask? The society and culture is still not ready. I think women driving would cause another chain reaction of chaos, outcry and outcast.
----American_Bedu Blog by delhi4cats
Saudi Arabia: Minister serves burgers to get Saudis to work
Saudi Arabia's Labour Minister found a novel way of encouraging Saudis to take jobs they think are beneath them - by working as a waiter for three hours in a fast-food restaurant, newspapers reported on Tuesday.
Saudi media carried pictures of Ghazi Algosaibi, champion of the policy of 'Saudisation' of the workforce, surprising customers in a popular restaurant in the city of Jeddah by serving up hamburgers in overalls and a cap. "The beginning will always be tiring and difficult, but young people can realise their ambitions if they are persistent and work hard," Al-Watan reported Algosaibi as saying before kissing a Saudi worker on the head in appreciation.
Algosaibi, a poet and former ambassador to London, has fought an uphill battle against business and religious interests to attract more Saudis, including women, into employment. Around a third of Saudi Arabia's population of some 25 million are foreigners.
The government is trying to diversify the economy away from reliance on oil receipts. Many Saudis including graduates hope for work in the government bureaucracy and shun many menial jobs done by the large expatriate labour force.
(Reuters)
Saudi media carried pictures of Ghazi Algosaibi, champion of the policy of 'Saudisation' of the workforce, surprising customers in a popular restaurant in the city of Jeddah by serving up hamburgers in overalls and a cap. "The beginning will always be tiring and difficult, but young people can realise their ambitions if they are persistent and work hard," Al-Watan reported Algosaibi as saying before kissing a Saudi worker on the head in appreciation.
Algosaibi, a poet and former ambassador to London, has fought an uphill battle against business and religious interests to attract more Saudis, including women, into employment. Around a third of Saudi Arabia's population of some 25 million are foreigners.
The government is trying to diversify the economy away from reliance on oil receipts. Many Saudis including graduates hope for work in the government bureaucracy and shun many menial jobs done by the large expatriate labour force.
(Reuters)
Middle East: The Arab Human Development Report, Five Years On
Link to the Brookings Institute AHDR updated report:
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/04_arab_human_development_lord/04_arab_human_development_lord.pdf
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/04_arab_human_development_lord/04_arab_human_development_lord.pdf
Oman: Article on Women's Entrepreneurship
In the Middle East countries and specially the AGCC countries (Arab Gulf Cooperation Council consisting of Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait), the process of participation of the women in enterprise and businesses has been given due attention in the recent past. The long term development strategy, “Vision 2020” adopted by Oman has provided an encouraging environment for women entrepreneurs to participate and contribute towards this effect. Availability of education, training and awareness has helped Omani women to emancipate in recent past and resultantly, Oman has a significant number of women entrepreneurs in the male dominated Arab society.
In Oman, two main programs namely “Fund for Development of Youth Projects” and the “SANAD” Program have been launched in recent years to promote entrepreneurship for both
men and women. The Youth Fund was established in 1999 and it encourages young Omani men
and women to start small and medium enterprises. This program has been successful to some extent in attracting young entrepreneurs. The SANAD program was started in the year 2001, its main objective is to speed up the process of Omanization by creating self employment opportunity. This program has attracted a significant number of women who are interested in establishing their micro-enterprise.
Training and development plays important role in making women entrepreneurs successful. “Intilaaqah” program was established in 1995 by Shell Oil Co. in Oman to provide training, counseling and consultancy and its role in supporting women entrepreneurs has been very encouraging with its limited resource.
PDF version of the article: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/icsb/2005/109.pdf
In Oman, two main programs namely “Fund for Development of Youth Projects” and the “SANAD” Program have been launched in recent years to promote entrepreneurship for both
men and women. The Youth Fund was established in 1999 and it encourages young Omani men
and women to start small and medium enterprises. This program has been successful to some extent in attracting young entrepreneurs. The SANAD program was started in the year 2001, its main objective is to speed up the process of Omanization by creating self employment opportunity. This program has attracted a significant number of women who are interested in establishing their micro-enterprise.
Training and development plays important role in making women entrepreneurs successful. “Intilaaqah” program was established in 1995 by Shell Oil Co. in Oman to provide training, counseling and consultancy and its role in supporting women entrepreneurs has been very encouraging with its limited resource.
PDF version of the article: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/icsb/2005/109.pdf
Monday, June 23, 2008
Saudi Arabia: Knowledge forum opens in Madinah
MADINAH: Madinah Governor Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Majed opened an international knowledge forum here yesterday and emphasized Saudi Arabia's efforts to further enhance its investment climate and create more educational and training opportunities to its citizens.
Addressing the opening session, Amr Al-Dabbagh, governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), stressed his organization's strategy to attract international investment to knowledge-based industries at Madinah's Knowledge Economic City (KEC).
KEC also aims at attracting leading scientific institutions and Muslim scientists and intellectuals from different parts of the world to Madinah, he said. "KEC is set to become a major driving force of the national economy. It will also create more job opportunities for Saudis," he added.
Prominent scientists from across the world - including Dr. Afzal Hossain and Stein Sture from the United States, Professor Sar Sardy from Indonesia, Dr. Musa M. Nordin from Malaysia and Dr. Anis Ahmed from Pakistan - are attending the conference, entitled "Noor" (Light).
"The primary objective of the annual forum is to promote human civilization from the land of Madinah by attracting investors, scientists, scholars and pioneer institutions to the Knowledge Economic City, which is set to become an international center for knowledge," SAGIA officials said.
Major topics to be discussed at the forum include high-tech innovation and creativity in the Muslim world, strategies to decrease genetic disorders, knowledge infrastructure development through engineering and information and communications technology (ICT), and bioinformatics-based investment in the Kingdom.
The 24 speakers also include four women - Sabeeha Rehman, president and co-founder of the National Autism Association in New York; Dr. Naima Abdel Ghani, director of the Medical Clinic for Preventive Medicine, Immunotherapy and Anti-Aging Medicine in Florida; Arfa Khan, professor of radiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York; and Dr. Khadijah Shamsuddin, a researcher on maternal health, child health, reproductive health and women's cancers in Malaysia.
-- Arab News
Addressing the opening session, Amr Al-Dabbagh, governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), stressed his organization's strategy to attract international investment to knowledge-based industries at Madinah's Knowledge Economic City (KEC).
KEC also aims at attracting leading scientific institutions and Muslim scientists and intellectuals from different parts of the world to Madinah, he said. "KEC is set to become a major driving force of the national economy. It will also create more job opportunities for Saudis," he added.
Prominent scientists from across the world - including Dr. Afzal Hossain and Stein Sture from the United States, Professor Sar Sardy from Indonesia, Dr. Musa M. Nordin from Malaysia and Dr. Anis Ahmed from Pakistan - are attending the conference, entitled "Noor" (Light).
"The primary objective of the annual forum is to promote human civilization from the land of Madinah by attracting investors, scientists, scholars and pioneer institutions to the Knowledge Economic City, which is set to become an international center for knowledge," SAGIA officials said.
Major topics to be discussed at the forum include high-tech innovation and creativity in the Muslim world, strategies to decrease genetic disorders, knowledge infrastructure development through engineering and information and communications technology (ICT), and bioinformatics-based investment in the Kingdom.
The 24 speakers also include four women - Sabeeha Rehman, president and co-founder of the National Autism Association in New York; Dr. Naima Abdel Ghani, director of the Medical Clinic for Preventive Medicine, Immunotherapy and Anti-Aging Medicine in Florida; Arfa Khan, professor of radiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York; and Dr. Khadijah Shamsuddin, a researcher on maternal health, child health, reproductive health and women's cancers in Malaysia.
-- Arab News
Algeria: In Algeria, a Tug of War for Young Minds
ALGIERS — First, Abdel Malek Outas’s teachers taught him to write math equations in Arabic, and embrace Islam and the Arab world. Then they told him to write in Latin letters that are no longer branded unpatriotic, and open his mind to the West.
Malek is 19, and he is confused.
“When we were in middle school we studied only in Arabic,” he said. “When we went to high school, they changed the program, and a lot is in French. Sometimes, we don’t even understand what we are writing.”
The confusion has bled off the pages of his math book and deep into his life. One moment, he is rapping; another, he recounts how he flirted with terrorism, agreeing two years ago to go with a recruiter to kill apostates in the name of jihad.
At a time of religious revival across the Muslim world, Algeria’s youth are in play. The focus of this contest is the schools, where for decades Islamists controlled what children learned, and how they learned, officials and education experts here said.
Now the government is urgently trying to re-engineer Algerian identity, changing the curriculum to wrest momentum from the Islamists, provide its youth with more employable skills, and combat the terrorism it fears schools have inadvertently encouraged.
It appears to be the most ambitious attempt in the region to change a school system to make its students less vulnerable to religious extremism.
But many educators are resisting the changes, and many disenchanted young men are dropping out of schools. It is a tense time in Algiers, where city streets are crowded with police officers and security checkpoints and alive with fears that Algeria is facing a resurgence of Islamic terrorism.
From 1991 to 2002, as many as 200,000 Algerians died in fighting between government forces and Islamic terrorists. Now one of the main terrorist groups, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or G.S.P.C., has affiliated with Al Qaeda, rebranding itself as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
There is a sense that this country could still go either way. Young people here in the capital appear extremely observant, filling mosques for the daily prayers, insisting that they have a place to pray in school. The strictest form of Islam, Wahhabism from Saudi Arabia, has become the gold standard for the young.
And yet, the young in Algiers also appear far more socially liberal than their peers in places like Egypt and Jordan. Young veiled women walk hand in hand, or sit leg to leg, with young men, public flirtations unthinkable in most other Muslim countries.
The two natures of the country reflect the way in which Algerian identity was cleaved in half by 132 years of French colonial rule, and then again by independence and forced Arabization. Once the French were driven out in 1962, the Algerians were determined to forge a national identity free from Western influence.
The schools were one center of that drive. French was banned as the language of education, replaced by Arabic. Islamic law and the study of the Koran were required, and math and science were shortchanged. Students were warned that sinners go to hell, and 6-year-olds were instructed in the proper way to wash a corpse for burial, education officials said.
There is a feeling among many Algerians that they went too far.
“We say that Algeria’s schools have trained monsters,” said Khaoula Taleb Ibrahim, a professor of education at the University of Algiers. “It is not to that extent, but the schools have contributed to that problem.”
Over the years, the government has pushed back, reintroducing French, removing the most zealous religious teachers and trying to revise the religious curriculum. Seven years ago, a committee appointed by the president issued a report calling for an overhaul of the school system — and it died under intense political pressure, mostly from the Islamists and conservatives, officials said.
But this year, the government is beginning to make substantive changes. The schools are moving from rote learning — which was always linked to memorizing the Koran — to critical thinking, where teachers ask students to research subjects and think about concepts.
Yet the students and teachers are still unprepared, untrained and, in many cases, unreceptive.
“Before, teachers used to explain the lesson,” Malek said. “Now they want us to think more, to research, but it’s very difficult for us.”
Malek says he hopes to graduate from high school next year and now wants to join the military, just like his father. He is a long way from being the person who had accepted what he says the terrorist recruiter told him — that soldiers, like his own father, are apostates and should be killed. His resolution lasted for three days, until his imam found out and persuaded him not to go.
But the call to jihad still tugs at him. In his world, jihad, or struggle, is a duty for Muslims, but as Malek explains, the challenge is who will convince young people of the proper form that struggle should take.
“They really convince you,” he said of the extremists.
Then later, with great sincerity, he asked: “Can you help me? I want to go to New York and rap.”
In Algeria, your sense of identity often depends on when you went to school.
Hassinah Bou Bekeur, 26, enjoys watching the Saudi satellite channels and the news in Arabic.
She watches with her mother and four younger sisters in one room. But her father, Nasreddin, 60, stays in another room so he can watch in French, the language of his education.
“He is not very strict,” she said of her father, with a touch of affection and disappointment in her voice. “We have more awareness of religion now.”
She took the veil when she was 20; one sister did so at 17, and another sister at 15. The youngest, Zeinab, is only 12 and does not yet wear the veil. The veil is a symbol of the distance between father and children. While Mr. Bou Bekeur studied the Koran, Islam was not the cornerstone of his identity. He says he even drank alcohol — which is prohibited by Islam — until 1986. “I never knew that,” said Amal, his 17-year-old daughter, and then with a smile, she waved her fist at her father and said, “I will kill you.”
The Bou Bekeur family illustrates the outcome of Algeria’s school-based Arabization project. The family is close but the generation gap is extraordinary. It is not solely the result of schooling — but the history of the education system here helps explain the distance between the generations.
It begins with occupation and schools designed to train people for a French-run system. Even after independence, the schools needed to continue to train in French because the government needed managers and experts to replace those French citizens who had left the country, officials here said. In 1971, officials said, the Arabization project began in earnest, when French was prohibited as a language of education.
But there were not enough educators qualified to teach in Arabic, so Algeria turned to Egyptians, Iraqis and Syrians — not realizing, officials say now, that many of those teachers had extreme religious views and that they helped plant the seeds of radicalism that would later flourish in a school system where Arabization became interchangeable with Islamization. In the Bou Bekeur house that meant children far more religious than their father — and their mother.
“The foundation of religion, I learned in school,” said Mr. Bou Bekeur’s son, Abdel Rahman, 25.
“We pray more than them and we know religion better than them,” he said of his father’s generation. “We are more religious. My father used to drink. I never drank. My father asked me if it was O.K. to take a car loan. I told him, no, it is haram,” forbidden in Islam.
So his father did not take the loan. His father is a quiet man in a house of strong-willed people. He can barely help his children with their homework, because his Arabic is poor. And he worries about their future, and the future of his country.
“Now they are at a crossroads,” Mr. Bou Bekeur said of his children and their generation. “Either they go to the West, or stay with this and become extremists.”
The children do not respond to such remarks. They often give their father a kind of sad, knowing smile, as though they have done the best that they can with him, and are pleased with the progress he has made.
The family lives in a small pink villa, inherited from Mr. Bou Bekeur’s father, who was killed fighting the French.
Mr. Bou Bekeur’s wife, Naima, is 48, and of a different generation altogether. She was among the first to go through the state-sponsored Arabization process. She said she remembered having a teacher from Egypt who was supposed to teach academic subjects in Arabic — but provided her first real lessons in religion.
Mrs. Bou Bekeur started serving lunch, homemade couscous. The family was sitting in the main living room on big brown couches, as Mr. Bou Bekeur scratched away at one of his French crossword puzzles. Hassinah wore orange velour pants, an orange velour top and a large pink scarf that covered her head and was pinned beneath her chin.
The conversation shifted, with Hassinah complaining that men were treated better at home than women. “The boys don’t have to wash the dishes. Why?” she said. “Why the difference? If I had a boy or girl, I would treat them equal.
“Women are supposed to work all day and come home and clean and cook — no way,” she fumed, her hands firmly on her knees.
Mr. Bou Bekeur seemed pleased. “Women have more opportunities today than they used to. Women can participate in sports and still be respected,” he said in his naturally soft voice.
“No,” Hassinah said, gently, shaking her head at her father. “My way of thinking is more influenced by religion. My religion tells me ‘no, that’s not right.’ ”
Zeinab, the 12-year-old, was seated in the corner, headphones on, humming a song by Beyoncé, and smiling as she did homework.
Four years ago, Amine Aba, 19, one of Malek’s best friends, decided it was time to take his religion more seriously, to stop listening to music, to stop dancing, to stop hanging around with Malek — most of which he accomplished most of the time.
“Muslim countries have been influenced by the Europeans,” Amine said, explaining why he thought he had not been religious enough for most of his life. “We have neglected our religion,” he said.
“Like us,” said Malek, who was nearby with a new buddy, Muhammad Lamine Messaoudi, a baby-faced 18-year-old with a bit of a paunch and a constant smile. The two burst into nervous laughter.
Malek, Amine and Lamine are each dealing with the forces shaping their world in slightly different ways. Amine has chosen religion; Malek, who has gelled hair and a slight stutter, has taken a middle road of religion, girls and rap; and Lamine appears a sentry of the left, interested in beer, girls and, he hopes, a life in France.
Each has felt the push and pull of the political-ideological fight going on in Algerian schools, between those who want to maintain the status quo and those who hope to reopen a window to the West. The messages the young men receive through teachers and the curriculum are still, almost uniformly, aimed at reinforcing their Arab-Islamic identity. But that is changing, slowly, and not without a fight.
“We would never have imagined Algeria could one day be faced with violence that would come from Islam,” said Fatiha Yomsi, an adviser to the minister of education.
Students go to school amid subdued tension because many educators do not like the changes that are coming.
“He is an Islamist. He would not shake my hand before,” Ms. Yomsi said as she introduced an Arabic teacher during a morning tour of Al Said Hamdeen high school here. Then as she walked around, she pointed out the front line in the struggle, keeping boys and girls together in class.
“You see, all these classes are mixed,” she said. “It is very important. We fought for this. That is why I am targeted for death.”
At stake are the identities of young people like Malek, Amine and Lamine — and their futures.
The young men focused on trying to pass their exams, because Algiers is full of examples of those who have not. More than 500,000 students drop out each year, officials said — and only about 20 percent of students make it into high school. Only about half make it from high school into a university. A vast majority of dropouts are young men, who see no link between work and school. Young women tend to stick with school because, officials said, it offers independence from their parents.
Algeria’s young men leave school because there is no longer any connection between education and employment, school officials said. The schools raise them to be religious, but do not teach them skills needed to get a job.
This is another cause for extremism, and it is one reason the police do nothing to stop so many young men from illegally selling everything from deodorant to bread at makeshift stands.
“These stands are illegal, but they let them do it as a matter of security and because of unemployment — instead of them going out and carrying weapons,” said Muhammad Darwish, a social studies teacher in the Muhammad Bou Ras middle school, as he passed masses of young men selling on the street.
Malek, Amine and Lamine are all trying to avoid ending up like a vast majority of their friends — selling on the street. Lamine and Malek try to study. But they say that is only because if they fail the exams, they cannot get into the military — and if they cannot get into the military, they will have no status in Algeria. They have focused on the science curriculum. But their hearts do not seem to be in it. “They don’t let you like education here,” Lamine said.
Malek met Amine when Amine’s family moved into the walled and guarded compound for military families where Malek already lived. It is beside the Casbah, the old Arab quarter, where streets wind up and down hills that fall from the mountains to the sea. That was four years ago, and the young men became friends, going together to the mosque where they practiced the traditional way of reciting the Koran aloud.
But as Amine grew more religious, Malek began to drift away from him, in part out of concern for his father. “The military and a beard don’t go together,” he said. Malek shaved his beard and started to spend all his free time with Lamine, a very quiet young man with a shaved head. One of their favorite spots to relax is the monument to those killed in the war against the French. The concrete monument soars more than 300 feet into the sky, with three ramps sweeping up to an apex.
The sky was blue, the wind heavy and the clouds white on a May day when Malek dropped to the pavement and began to break dance, his feet in the air, his shoulders pressed to the ground. Suddenly Algerian rap played from Lamine’s cellphone as they danced and laughed — until they stopped.
Amine wrapped his arm around Malek’s shoulder and they recited the Koran, their voices carrying through the wind. Lamine stood by, silently.
“I only have 25 days until the test; I have to go home,” Amine said. “My mother will be mad at me if I don’t study.”
After he left, Lamine was asked how he felt about Amine. He has frequently teased him, suggesting that they go together to the bar for a beer. Lamine does not go with Malek to pray, talks often about drinking alcohol and said that two years ago he was arrested trying to sneak onto a ship to get to France.
“He’s O.K.,” Lamine said. “I’d like to be like him. I’d like to be religious someday, too.”
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN, New York Times
Malek is 19, and he is confused.
“When we were in middle school we studied only in Arabic,” he said. “When we went to high school, they changed the program, and a lot is in French. Sometimes, we don’t even understand what we are writing.”
The confusion has bled off the pages of his math book and deep into his life. One moment, he is rapping; another, he recounts how he flirted with terrorism, agreeing two years ago to go with a recruiter to kill apostates in the name of jihad.
At a time of religious revival across the Muslim world, Algeria’s youth are in play. The focus of this contest is the schools, where for decades Islamists controlled what children learned, and how they learned, officials and education experts here said.
Now the government is urgently trying to re-engineer Algerian identity, changing the curriculum to wrest momentum from the Islamists, provide its youth with more employable skills, and combat the terrorism it fears schools have inadvertently encouraged.
It appears to be the most ambitious attempt in the region to change a school system to make its students less vulnerable to religious extremism.
But many educators are resisting the changes, and many disenchanted young men are dropping out of schools. It is a tense time in Algiers, where city streets are crowded with police officers and security checkpoints and alive with fears that Algeria is facing a resurgence of Islamic terrorism.
From 1991 to 2002, as many as 200,000 Algerians died in fighting between government forces and Islamic terrorists. Now one of the main terrorist groups, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or G.S.P.C., has affiliated with Al Qaeda, rebranding itself as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
There is a sense that this country could still go either way. Young people here in the capital appear extremely observant, filling mosques for the daily prayers, insisting that they have a place to pray in school. The strictest form of Islam, Wahhabism from Saudi Arabia, has become the gold standard for the young.
And yet, the young in Algiers also appear far more socially liberal than their peers in places like Egypt and Jordan. Young veiled women walk hand in hand, or sit leg to leg, with young men, public flirtations unthinkable in most other Muslim countries.
The two natures of the country reflect the way in which Algerian identity was cleaved in half by 132 years of French colonial rule, and then again by independence and forced Arabization. Once the French were driven out in 1962, the Algerians were determined to forge a national identity free from Western influence.
The schools were one center of that drive. French was banned as the language of education, replaced by Arabic. Islamic law and the study of the Koran were required, and math and science were shortchanged. Students were warned that sinners go to hell, and 6-year-olds were instructed in the proper way to wash a corpse for burial, education officials said.
There is a feeling among many Algerians that they went too far.
“We say that Algeria’s schools have trained monsters,” said Khaoula Taleb Ibrahim, a professor of education at the University of Algiers. “It is not to that extent, but the schools have contributed to that problem.”
Over the years, the government has pushed back, reintroducing French, removing the most zealous religious teachers and trying to revise the religious curriculum. Seven years ago, a committee appointed by the president issued a report calling for an overhaul of the school system — and it died under intense political pressure, mostly from the Islamists and conservatives, officials said.
But this year, the government is beginning to make substantive changes. The schools are moving from rote learning — which was always linked to memorizing the Koran — to critical thinking, where teachers ask students to research subjects and think about concepts.
Yet the students and teachers are still unprepared, untrained and, in many cases, unreceptive.
“Before, teachers used to explain the lesson,” Malek said. “Now they want us to think more, to research, but it’s very difficult for us.”
Malek says he hopes to graduate from high school next year and now wants to join the military, just like his father. He is a long way from being the person who had accepted what he says the terrorist recruiter told him — that soldiers, like his own father, are apostates and should be killed. His resolution lasted for three days, until his imam found out and persuaded him not to go.
But the call to jihad still tugs at him. In his world, jihad, or struggle, is a duty for Muslims, but as Malek explains, the challenge is who will convince young people of the proper form that struggle should take.
“They really convince you,” he said of the extremists.
Then later, with great sincerity, he asked: “Can you help me? I want to go to New York and rap.”
In Algeria, your sense of identity often depends on when you went to school.
Hassinah Bou Bekeur, 26, enjoys watching the Saudi satellite channels and the news in Arabic.
She watches with her mother and four younger sisters in one room. But her father, Nasreddin, 60, stays in another room so he can watch in French, the language of his education.
“He is not very strict,” she said of her father, with a touch of affection and disappointment in her voice. “We have more awareness of religion now.”
She took the veil when she was 20; one sister did so at 17, and another sister at 15. The youngest, Zeinab, is only 12 and does not yet wear the veil. The veil is a symbol of the distance between father and children. While Mr. Bou Bekeur studied the Koran, Islam was not the cornerstone of his identity. He says he even drank alcohol — which is prohibited by Islam — until 1986. “I never knew that,” said Amal, his 17-year-old daughter, and then with a smile, she waved her fist at her father and said, “I will kill you.”
The Bou Bekeur family illustrates the outcome of Algeria’s school-based Arabization project. The family is close but the generation gap is extraordinary. It is not solely the result of schooling — but the history of the education system here helps explain the distance between the generations.
It begins with occupation and schools designed to train people for a French-run system. Even after independence, the schools needed to continue to train in French because the government needed managers and experts to replace those French citizens who had left the country, officials here said. In 1971, officials said, the Arabization project began in earnest, when French was prohibited as a language of education.
But there were not enough educators qualified to teach in Arabic, so Algeria turned to Egyptians, Iraqis and Syrians — not realizing, officials say now, that many of those teachers had extreme religious views and that they helped plant the seeds of radicalism that would later flourish in a school system where Arabization became interchangeable with Islamization. In the Bou Bekeur house that meant children far more religious than their father — and their mother.
“The foundation of religion, I learned in school,” said Mr. Bou Bekeur’s son, Abdel Rahman, 25.
“We pray more than them and we know religion better than them,” he said of his father’s generation. “We are more religious. My father used to drink. I never drank. My father asked me if it was O.K. to take a car loan. I told him, no, it is haram,” forbidden in Islam.
So his father did not take the loan. His father is a quiet man in a house of strong-willed people. He can barely help his children with their homework, because his Arabic is poor. And he worries about their future, and the future of his country.
“Now they are at a crossroads,” Mr. Bou Bekeur said of his children and their generation. “Either they go to the West, or stay with this and become extremists.”
The children do not respond to such remarks. They often give their father a kind of sad, knowing smile, as though they have done the best that they can with him, and are pleased with the progress he has made.
The family lives in a small pink villa, inherited from Mr. Bou Bekeur’s father, who was killed fighting the French.
Mr. Bou Bekeur’s wife, Naima, is 48, and of a different generation altogether. She was among the first to go through the state-sponsored Arabization process. She said she remembered having a teacher from Egypt who was supposed to teach academic subjects in Arabic — but provided her first real lessons in religion.
Mrs. Bou Bekeur started serving lunch, homemade couscous. The family was sitting in the main living room on big brown couches, as Mr. Bou Bekeur scratched away at one of his French crossword puzzles. Hassinah wore orange velour pants, an orange velour top and a large pink scarf that covered her head and was pinned beneath her chin.
The conversation shifted, with Hassinah complaining that men were treated better at home than women. “The boys don’t have to wash the dishes. Why?” she said. “Why the difference? If I had a boy or girl, I would treat them equal.
“Women are supposed to work all day and come home and clean and cook — no way,” she fumed, her hands firmly on her knees.
Mr. Bou Bekeur seemed pleased. “Women have more opportunities today than they used to. Women can participate in sports and still be respected,” he said in his naturally soft voice.
“No,” Hassinah said, gently, shaking her head at her father. “My way of thinking is more influenced by religion. My religion tells me ‘no, that’s not right.’ ”
Zeinab, the 12-year-old, was seated in the corner, headphones on, humming a song by Beyoncé, and smiling as she did homework.
Four years ago, Amine Aba, 19, one of Malek’s best friends, decided it was time to take his religion more seriously, to stop listening to music, to stop dancing, to stop hanging around with Malek — most of which he accomplished most of the time.
“Muslim countries have been influenced by the Europeans,” Amine said, explaining why he thought he had not been religious enough for most of his life. “We have neglected our religion,” he said.
“Like us,” said Malek, who was nearby with a new buddy, Muhammad Lamine Messaoudi, a baby-faced 18-year-old with a bit of a paunch and a constant smile. The two burst into nervous laughter.
Malek, Amine and Lamine are each dealing with the forces shaping their world in slightly different ways. Amine has chosen religion; Malek, who has gelled hair and a slight stutter, has taken a middle road of religion, girls and rap; and Lamine appears a sentry of the left, interested in beer, girls and, he hopes, a life in France.
Each has felt the push and pull of the political-ideological fight going on in Algerian schools, between those who want to maintain the status quo and those who hope to reopen a window to the West. The messages the young men receive through teachers and the curriculum are still, almost uniformly, aimed at reinforcing their Arab-Islamic identity. But that is changing, slowly, and not without a fight.
“We would never have imagined Algeria could one day be faced with violence that would come from Islam,” said Fatiha Yomsi, an adviser to the minister of education.
Students go to school amid subdued tension because many educators do not like the changes that are coming.
“He is an Islamist. He would not shake my hand before,” Ms. Yomsi said as she introduced an Arabic teacher during a morning tour of Al Said Hamdeen high school here. Then as she walked around, she pointed out the front line in the struggle, keeping boys and girls together in class.
“You see, all these classes are mixed,” she said. “It is very important. We fought for this. That is why I am targeted for death.”
At stake are the identities of young people like Malek, Amine and Lamine — and their futures.
The young men focused on trying to pass their exams, because Algiers is full of examples of those who have not. More than 500,000 students drop out each year, officials said — and only about 20 percent of students make it into high school. Only about half make it from high school into a university. A vast majority of dropouts are young men, who see no link between work and school. Young women tend to stick with school because, officials said, it offers independence from their parents.
Algeria’s young men leave school because there is no longer any connection between education and employment, school officials said. The schools raise them to be religious, but do not teach them skills needed to get a job.
This is another cause for extremism, and it is one reason the police do nothing to stop so many young men from illegally selling everything from deodorant to bread at makeshift stands.
“These stands are illegal, but they let them do it as a matter of security and because of unemployment — instead of them going out and carrying weapons,” said Muhammad Darwish, a social studies teacher in the Muhammad Bou Ras middle school, as he passed masses of young men selling on the street.
Malek, Amine and Lamine are all trying to avoid ending up like a vast majority of their friends — selling on the street. Lamine and Malek try to study. But they say that is only because if they fail the exams, they cannot get into the military — and if they cannot get into the military, they will have no status in Algeria. They have focused on the science curriculum. But their hearts do not seem to be in it. “They don’t let you like education here,” Lamine said.
Malek met Amine when Amine’s family moved into the walled and guarded compound for military families where Malek already lived. It is beside the Casbah, the old Arab quarter, where streets wind up and down hills that fall from the mountains to the sea. That was four years ago, and the young men became friends, going together to the mosque where they practiced the traditional way of reciting the Koran aloud.
But as Amine grew more religious, Malek began to drift away from him, in part out of concern for his father. “The military and a beard don’t go together,” he said. Malek shaved his beard and started to spend all his free time with Lamine, a very quiet young man with a shaved head. One of their favorite spots to relax is the monument to those killed in the war against the French. The concrete monument soars more than 300 feet into the sky, with three ramps sweeping up to an apex.
The sky was blue, the wind heavy and the clouds white on a May day when Malek dropped to the pavement and began to break dance, his feet in the air, his shoulders pressed to the ground. Suddenly Algerian rap played from Lamine’s cellphone as they danced and laughed — until they stopped.
Amine wrapped his arm around Malek’s shoulder and they recited the Koran, their voices carrying through the wind. Lamine stood by, silently.
“I only have 25 days until the test; I have to go home,” Amine said. “My mother will be mad at me if I don’t study.”
After he left, Lamine was asked how he felt about Amine. He has frequently teased him, suggesting that they go together to the bar for a beer. Lamine does not go with Malek to pray, talks often about drinking alcohol and said that two years ago he was arrested trying to sneak onto a ship to get to France.
“He’s O.K.,” Lamine said. “I’d like to be like him. I’d like to be religious someday, too.”
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN, New York Times
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Egypt: Female genital mutilation outlawed
With attention focused on political events in the Middle East – the Hamas-Israel ceasefire, post-Doha developments in Lebanon, and the Saudis deciding whether or not to increase oil output – one important piece of news got drowned out: on June 7 the Egyptian parliament outlawed female genital mutilation (FGM). The BBC didn't even mention it.
I first came across the issue of FGM over a decade ago when I lived in Cairo and heard about studies that claimed over 70% of Egyptian women were circumcised in some way or other. I remember afterwards walking along the street and counting the women I passed: cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, not, not, not, cut, cut … By now I know that these studies were incorrect and that is not true that over 70% of Egyptian women have undergone FGM. The actual number is around 90%.
Over the past decade the Egyptian authorities have tightened the restrictions on FGM, first restricting the practice to doctors and nurses (in order to curb back-alley procedures), then also forbidding health service personnel to perform any type of FGM. But those were ministry instructions, not enforceable on private citizens. And as the practice is popular, only a law with severe punishments, like the one enacted now, will do … if it is accompanied by a health education campaign.
The Grand Mufti, Egypt's highest Islamic authority had already ruled FGM illegal and the only group protesting against the ban is the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming that "nothing in Islam forbids circumcision". This might technically be true, but last time I checked Egypt's MB wasn't campaigning against the prohibition of slavery, although according to traditional Islamic law it is not only not forbidden but explicitly allowed, whereas female circumcision isn't even mentioned in the Qur'an and the one often-cited hadith (tradition of the Prophet) about it had already been deemed "spurious" by Islamic scholars hundreds of years ago.
FGM is a good example how ancient (in this case pre-Islamic) traditions are absorbed into a new religious culture. Only one of the four Sunni legal schools, the Shafi'i, holds the so-called "Sunna circumcision", whereby the tip of the clitoral hood is "trimmed", to be obligatory. (The Shia all hold that it is wrong.) Interestingly, the extent of the Shafi'i school corresponds with the prevalence of FGM: Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, Horn of Africa, Yemen, sub-Saharan West Africa, Kurdistan, the south-west coast of India (Kerala) and Indonesia. But of course FGM is prevalent throughout the Greater Nile Valley (including Christians and animists) and among non-Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa, raising the question whether the Shafi'i school of Islamic law was adopted in part because of its stance on FGM or whether it adapted to a strong pro-FGM culture already in existence.
Kurdistan, touted as the "other" Iraq where women don't have to cover their heads and are ministers, is the only area in Iraq where FGM is common – both among Muslims and Yazidis, hinting at a pre-Islamic tradition. Sunni and Shia Arabs in Iraq might hold very traditionalist views when it comes to the role of women in society, and neither the Iran-inspired nor the Saudi/Taliban-inspired rules now gaining currency among Iraq's Arab population are anything to play down, but they don't cut their women.
In Saudi Arabia, despite its paternalism and oppression of women, FGM is alien to the interior's Wahhabi traditionalists who rule the country, yet is practised on the Red Sea coast – an area that is generally more liberal and whose inhabitants still scoff at having their lives regulated by uncouth barbarians from the interior.
Evidently, FGM is not linked to insularity or a lack of exposure to "modernity". Most likely having originated in the Nile valley and then spread to sub-Saharan Africa (and in the case of the Kurds also to some communities further the east), over time FGM was integrated into whatever new religion came along – including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism (in the case of the Ethiopian Jews).
But it remained part of local, popular culture; it did not become universal religious dogma. And to overcome it, FGM has to be treated as such. In Senegal and Ethiopia, where local women and community leaders were included in conceptualising and carrying out the programmes against it, campaigns have yielded success – quite spectacularly in some cases.
Similarly, the Egyptian parliament's decision to outlaw FGM, the practice of which now incurs a three months to two years in prison or a fine of 1,000-5,000 Egyptian pounds ($200-$1,000 – a lot of money in Egypt), needs to be accompanied by a public health campaign that takes the popular cultural attitudes seriously, that integrates community and religious leaders, and that is best organised not top-down but on the grassroots level. Criminalising the practice alone will not be enough.
But some attention and public recognition in the international media would have been nice.
-- The Guardian
I first came across the issue of FGM over a decade ago when I lived in Cairo and heard about studies that claimed over 70% of Egyptian women were circumcised in some way or other. I remember afterwards walking along the street and counting the women I passed: cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, not, not, not, cut, cut … By now I know that these studies were incorrect and that is not true that over 70% of Egyptian women have undergone FGM. The actual number is around 90%.
Over the past decade the Egyptian authorities have tightened the restrictions on FGM, first restricting the practice to doctors and nurses (in order to curb back-alley procedures), then also forbidding health service personnel to perform any type of FGM. But those were ministry instructions, not enforceable on private citizens. And as the practice is popular, only a law with severe punishments, like the one enacted now, will do … if it is accompanied by a health education campaign.
The Grand Mufti, Egypt's highest Islamic authority had already ruled FGM illegal and the only group protesting against the ban is the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming that "nothing in Islam forbids circumcision". This might technically be true, but last time I checked Egypt's MB wasn't campaigning against the prohibition of slavery, although according to traditional Islamic law it is not only not forbidden but explicitly allowed, whereas female circumcision isn't even mentioned in the Qur'an and the one often-cited hadith (tradition of the Prophet) about it had already been deemed "spurious" by Islamic scholars hundreds of years ago.
FGM is a good example how ancient (in this case pre-Islamic) traditions are absorbed into a new religious culture. Only one of the four Sunni legal schools, the Shafi'i, holds the so-called "Sunna circumcision", whereby the tip of the clitoral hood is "trimmed", to be obligatory. (The Shia all hold that it is wrong.) Interestingly, the extent of the Shafi'i school corresponds with the prevalence of FGM: Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, Horn of Africa, Yemen, sub-Saharan West Africa, Kurdistan, the south-west coast of India (Kerala) and Indonesia. But of course FGM is prevalent throughout the Greater Nile Valley (including Christians and animists) and among non-Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa, raising the question whether the Shafi'i school of Islamic law was adopted in part because of its stance on FGM or whether it adapted to a strong pro-FGM culture already in existence.
Kurdistan, touted as the "other" Iraq where women don't have to cover their heads and are ministers, is the only area in Iraq where FGM is common – both among Muslims and Yazidis, hinting at a pre-Islamic tradition. Sunni and Shia Arabs in Iraq might hold very traditionalist views when it comes to the role of women in society, and neither the Iran-inspired nor the Saudi/Taliban-inspired rules now gaining currency among Iraq's Arab population are anything to play down, but they don't cut their women.
In Saudi Arabia, despite its paternalism and oppression of women, FGM is alien to the interior's Wahhabi traditionalists who rule the country, yet is practised on the Red Sea coast – an area that is generally more liberal and whose inhabitants still scoff at having their lives regulated by uncouth barbarians from the interior.
Evidently, FGM is not linked to insularity or a lack of exposure to "modernity". Most likely having originated in the Nile valley and then spread to sub-Saharan Africa (and in the case of the Kurds also to some communities further the east), over time FGM was integrated into whatever new religion came along – including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism (in the case of the Ethiopian Jews).
But it remained part of local, popular culture; it did not become universal religious dogma. And to overcome it, FGM has to be treated as such. In Senegal and Ethiopia, where local women and community leaders were included in conceptualising and carrying out the programmes against it, campaigns have yielded success – quite spectacularly in some cases.
Similarly, the Egyptian parliament's decision to outlaw FGM, the practice of which now incurs a three months to two years in prison or a fine of 1,000-5,000 Egyptian pounds ($200-$1,000 – a lot of money in Egypt), needs to be accompanied by a public health campaign that takes the popular cultural attitudes seriously, that integrates community and religious leaders, and that is best organised not top-down but on the grassroots level. Criminalising the practice alone will not be enough.
But some attention and public recognition in the international media would have been nice.
-- The Guardian
Friday, June 20, 2008
Saudi Arabia: Summer camp aims to help young women plan for future
RIYADH: With the aim of generating a sense of social responsibility among young Saudi adults, the Summer of Luthan camp for girls has been established at Luthan, the first women-only hotel in Riyadh.
The three-week camp, which begins on July 5, is a new concept in summer camps. Among its many programs include visits to workplaces where women are taking the lead. It will also present workshops to enhance the girls’ knowledge of many aspects of life and to build their self-esteem and confidence.
“It is essential to build in the young girls the initiating characteristic, as many were not trained to step up; they are mainly receivers,” says Dr. Nora Al Yousif, a university professor and a consultant on women’s affairs to the Shoura Council.
Al-Yousif, one of the Summer of Luthan planners, said that introducing the young girls to achievers from their society could encourage them to work hard and be confident.
“Social responsibility in our society is still crawling, while in Western society it is a tool that leads development plans to compete — and sometimes overtake — government initiatives,” said Princess Madawi bint Mohammad, board director of Luthan, at a press conference held for announcing the summer camp, which is open to girls of high school and college ages.
“We hope that this initiative we are adopting will be an example for establishing the concept of social responsibility,” she said
About 70 percent of the Saudi population is under the age of 30. Princess Madawi points out that targeting this category is important to create successful examples of women playing an important role in society.
“Building the sense of patriotism and belonging is one of the goals of the Summer of Luthan,” says Aziza Al-Khateeb, another of the camp’s planners. “It is important to read between the lines of this initiative. It sets an example for the participation of the private sector in the field of social responsibility.”
Saudi Arabian society has long offered summertime activities for its youth — young men and women alike.
But Princess Madawi says that many of them are devoted to entertainment and time-wasting activities that do not necessarily engender qualities that can lead young men and women to become productive, socially conscientious citizens.
The Summer of Luthan program, she said, is aimed at a specific key age group of young women with useful activities.
“With Summer of Luthan, we are presenting the girl who is trying to plan her future with a comprehensive program to clarify her vision for future and equip her with necessary tools,” said Princess Madawi.
The camp includes workshops in etiquette, arts and crafts, drawing and other girls’ interests in an entertaining manner, and away from the daily, rigid routine of rote learning.
Princess Madawi said that more programs would be offered in coming years.
-- Walaa Hawari Arab News
The three-week camp, which begins on July 5, is a new concept in summer camps. Among its many programs include visits to workplaces where women are taking the lead. It will also present workshops to enhance the girls’ knowledge of many aspects of life and to build their self-esteem and confidence.
“It is essential to build in the young girls the initiating characteristic, as many were not trained to step up; they are mainly receivers,” says Dr. Nora Al Yousif, a university professor and a consultant on women’s affairs to the Shoura Council.
Al-Yousif, one of the Summer of Luthan planners, said that introducing the young girls to achievers from their society could encourage them to work hard and be confident.
“Social responsibility in our society is still crawling, while in Western society it is a tool that leads development plans to compete — and sometimes overtake — government initiatives,” said Princess Madawi bint Mohammad, board director of Luthan, at a press conference held for announcing the summer camp, which is open to girls of high school and college ages.
“We hope that this initiative we are adopting will be an example for establishing the concept of social responsibility,” she said
About 70 percent of the Saudi population is under the age of 30. Princess Madawi points out that targeting this category is important to create successful examples of women playing an important role in society.
“Building the sense of patriotism and belonging is one of the goals of the Summer of Luthan,” says Aziza Al-Khateeb, another of the camp’s planners. “It is important to read between the lines of this initiative. It sets an example for the participation of the private sector in the field of social responsibility.”
Saudi Arabian society has long offered summertime activities for its youth — young men and women alike.
But Princess Madawi says that many of them are devoted to entertainment and time-wasting activities that do not necessarily engender qualities that can lead young men and women to become productive, socially conscientious citizens.
The Summer of Luthan program, she said, is aimed at a specific key age group of young women with useful activities.
“With Summer of Luthan, we are presenting the girl who is trying to plan her future with a comprehensive program to clarify her vision for future and equip her with necessary tools,” said Princess Madawi.
The camp includes workshops in etiquette, arts and crafts, drawing and other girls’ interests in an entertaining manner, and away from the daily, rigid routine of rote learning.
Princess Madawi said that more programs would be offered in coming years.
-- Walaa Hawari Arab News
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Bahrain: Court rules former woman now male
MANAMA - Once a woman, a Bahraini man has won his fight to be legally recognised as male and says that by being the first to publicly announce his transformation he has softened Arab society's rigid views on gender.
Formerly known as Zaineb, 34-year-old Hussein Rabei was the first Bahraini to go public with plans to change his sex, triggering condemnation from many Arabs who considered the procedure forbidden by Islam.
But after a flood of media reports attitudes have changed, said Rabei, and a court in the Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain this week ruled that he would be legally considered male.
"I am really excited and thankful for the ruling," Rabei told Reuters on Thursday.
"Peoples' attitudes have really changed, they have begun to understand after all the media coverage and the interviews. Society has changed a lot," he said.
Rabei was raised a girl after being born with genitalia that more closely resembled a vagina than a penis. Arab culture and its strict views on gender meant doctors ignored growing signs that Rabei may in fact be male, he said.
His is one of a range of relatively rare conditions in which there is a mismatch between the body's sexual genetic code and its physical make up. Instead of having two X chromosomes -- the female pattern -- he has an XY or male configuration.
After failing to consummate "her" marriage to a man, doctors advised pills to induce menstruation and surgery to open the hymen, disregarding Rabei's concerns that he may be male.
He turned to a foreign clinic, which found he was genetically male and lacked a female reproductive system.
Rabei's lawyer Fouzia Janahi said she was criticised for helping people to change their sex, but media reports had since prompted hundreds of Arabs to seek her help.
Rabei is the second Bahraini for whom Janahi has helped obtain a sex change ruling. Her first client remained anonymous.
Most Muslim scholars say changing one's sex is forbidden unless it is related to an intersex condition such as Rabei's.
-- Reuters
Formerly known as Zaineb, 34-year-old Hussein Rabei was the first Bahraini to go public with plans to change his sex, triggering condemnation from many Arabs who considered the procedure forbidden by Islam.
But after a flood of media reports attitudes have changed, said Rabei, and a court in the Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain this week ruled that he would be legally considered male.
"I am really excited and thankful for the ruling," Rabei told Reuters on Thursday.
"Peoples' attitudes have really changed, they have begun to understand after all the media coverage and the interviews. Society has changed a lot," he said.
Rabei was raised a girl after being born with genitalia that more closely resembled a vagina than a penis. Arab culture and its strict views on gender meant doctors ignored growing signs that Rabei may in fact be male, he said.
His is one of a range of relatively rare conditions in which there is a mismatch between the body's sexual genetic code and its physical make up. Instead of having two X chromosomes -- the female pattern -- he has an XY or male configuration.
After failing to consummate "her" marriage to a man, doctors advised pills to induce menstruation and surgery to open the hymen, disregarding Rabei's concerns that he may be male.
He turned to a foreign clinic, which found he was genetically male and lacked a female reproductive system.
Rabei's lawyer Fouzia Janahi said she was criticised for helping people to change their sex, but media reports had since prompted hundreds of Arabs to seek her help.
Rabei is the second Bahraini for whom Janahi has helped obtain a sex change ruling. Her first client remained anonymous.
Most Muslim scholars say changing one's sex is forbidden unless it is related to an intersex condition such as Rabei's.
-- Reuters
Saudi Arabia: Women journalists form advocacy group in Abha
ABHA: A media club for women journalists has been set up here with the blessing of Asir Gov. Prince Faisal ibn Khaled. The aim of the club, which is the brainchild of Arab News correspondent Hayat Al-Ghamdi, is to promote women journalists in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern region and provide them a congenial work environment.
Prince Faisal said that women should be accorded their right to work as journalists as they have been serving efficiently in several other areas, including medicine. The governor denied reports that women journalists were not allowed to cover his office.
“I am proud and happy to meet with my sisters in the media world,” Prince Faisal said. “All their proposals in this meeting will be given due consideration and their media activities will be made hassle free. They will be allowed to work in the field without hindrance from any quarter.”
The club was founded in a meeting last week. The members of the club include Samiah Al-Buraidi of Al-Watan, Nasreen Asiri of Al-Riyadh and Riyadh Radio, Sarah Abdullah of Jeddah Radio and Umm Kulthum of Al-Ekhbariya TV.
-- Arab News
Prince Faisal said that women should be accorded their right to work as journalists as they have been serving efficiently in several other areas, including medicine. The governor denied reports that women journalists were not allowed to cover his office.
“I am proud and happy to meet with my sisters in the media world,” Prince Faisal said. “All their proposals in this meeting will be given due consideration and their media activities will be made hassle free. They will be allowed to work in the field without hindrance from any quarter.”
The club was founded in a meeting last week. The members of the club include Samiah Al-Buraidi of Al-Watan, Nasreen Asiri of Al-Riyadh and Riyadh Radio, Sarah Abdullah of Jeddah Radio and Umm Kulthum of Al-Ekhbariya TV.
-- Arab News
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Bahrain: Ministry urged not to hire female doctors from abroad
Manama: A Bahraini doctor has urged the Health Ministry not to hire foreign female doctors, suggesting that it should invest in Bahraini female students instead.
“The ministry should give up the idea of bringing female doctors from abroad to address the shortage of women doctors in some departments. A foreign doctor will not come alone and will be accompanied by her husband and children and eventually by relatives,” Dr Taha Al Durazi, deputy head of the Bahrain Doctors Society, said on Wednesday.
“As a solution to ensure both a sufficient number of female doctors and the satisfaction of the patients, the ministry should annually allocate a specific number of scholarships to women in specialties that require female doctors,” Al Durazi said in a statement.
Faisal Al Hamad, Health Minister, last month said Bahrain had 1,064 foreign doctors in 2007, up from 960 in 2006. “We had 642 doctors in the public sector and 318 in the private sector in 2006. In 2007, we had 710 in the public hospitals and health centres and 354 in private clinics,” he said.
Bahrain has a shortage of female doctors in some specialties, prompting the authorities to hire doctors and nurses from abroad. The situation was compounded last April after a motion was tabled by Al Wefaq, the largest bloc in parliament, and supported by the Islamist-dominated Lower House, demanding that women patients be treated only by female medical staff.
The Bahrain Medical Society vehemently rejected the motion, and threatened to sue doctors who accepted the proposal banning opposite gender medical examination on the grounds of “violating the principles of medical practice and promoting sexual discrimination”.
Al Durazi said the number of Bahraini female doctors would be boosted, if the authorities provided up to four scholarships annually and encouraged female students to take up specific specialties. “Such a measure will help address the current accumulation of female doctors in some areas of expertise that has limited their numbers in other fields,” he said.
Most Bahraini female doctors prefer to study general or family practice medicine, but Al Durazi said more women were needed in other fields. “There are departments where more female doctors are required to deal with patients. Unfortunately, many women doctors do not like departments where there are late shifts or surgeries that could have negative results and eventually put heavy social burdens on women,” he said.
By Habib Toumi, Gulf News
“The ministry should give up the idea of bringing female doctors from abroad to address the shortage of women doctors in some departments. A foreign doctor will not come alone and will be accompanied by her husband and children and eventually by relatives,” Dr Taha Al Durazi, deputy head of the Bahrain Doctors Society, said on Wednesday.
“As a solution to ensure both a sufficient number of female doctors and the satisfaction of the patients, the ministry should annually allocate a specific number of scholarships to women in specialties that require female doctors,” Al Durazi said in a statement.
Faisal Al Hamad, Health Minister, last month said Bahrain had 1,064 foreign doctors in 2007, up from 960 in 2006. “We had 642 doctors in the public sector and 318 in the private sector in 2006. In 2007, we had 710 in the public hospitals and health centres and 354 in private clinics,” he said.
Bahrain has a shortage of female doctors in some specialties, prompting the authorities to hire doctors and nurses from abroad. The situation was compounded last April after a motion was tabled by Al Wefaq, the largest bloc in parliament, and supported by the Islamist-dominated Lower House, demanding that women patients be treated only by female medical staff.
The Bahrain Medical Society vehemently rejected the motion, and threatened to sue doctors who accepted the proposal banning opposite gender medical examination on the grounds of “violating the principles of medical practice and promoting sexual discrimination”.
Al Durazi said the number of Bahraini female doctors would be boosted, if the authorities provided up to four scholarships annually and encouraged female students to take up specific specialties. “Such a measure will help address the current accumulation of female doctors in some areas of expertise that has limited their numbers in other fields,” he said.
Most Bahraini female doctors prefer to study general or family practice medicine, but Al Durazi said more women were needed in other fields. “There are departments where more female doctors are required to deal with patients. Unfortunately, many women doctors do not like departments where there are late shifts or surgeries that could have negative results and eventually put heavy social burdens on women,” he said.
By Habib Toumi, Gulf News
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Yemen: Girls education top priority
More than 400 women of the Yemen Women Union (YWU) called for improvement in girls education aiming to increase by 36 percent by 2012. This came during the Union’s Second General Conference held on Monday, June 16 at the 22 May Hall in Sana’a.
The 400 participants are representing 46 thousand members of the union branches in the 22 Yemeni governorates. The conference aims to elect a chairwoman and 121 female members for the Union’s central council for the next four years as well as electing an administrative board of the Union’s executive office and a committee of monitoring and inspection.
The conference also evaluates accomplishments achieved by Yemeni women along the past four years in addition to discussing the Union’s financial and administrative reports. It also holds a workshop on women’s rights in reproductive health. Union’s branches had conducted their elections in the past two months.
Around 18 female representatives of various Arab and foreign countries have also participated in the conference exchanging experiences in different fields. The chairwomen of the YWU, Dr. Ramzia al-Eryany revealed in a press conference held on Sunday, the Union’s new plan for preparing a strategy for the next four years. According to Dr. al-Eryany, the plan aims to raise the rate of girls’ education to 35 percent, to reduce the illiteracy among Yemeni women and to establish more branches in other three governorates. The union has 145 centers for illiteracy eradication and it seeks to establish more centers in the different governorates.
“Yemen needs to empower women economically, socially and politically for achieving comprehensive development. Thus, we try to struggle against all kinds of discrimination against women, and to apply Islamic teachings which respect to women and their rights,” said Dr. al-Eryany.
She also indicated that the YWU has also tried to raise people’s awareness on kidnapping tourists through producing films, explaining dangers of such bad phenomenon and its consequences. The Vice President, Abdrabu Mansour Hadi, said that Yemeni women have a lot of rights which empower them to attain many achievements in different fields.
“Within the great support for women, the political leadership promised to give 15 percent of the parliament and local councils seats for women in the upcoming elections,” he said in the opening ceremony of the conference’s works.
YWU is one of the oldest and largest volunteer civil society organizations in Yemen. It is an independent organization and it represents all women in Yemen. The YWU’s ambition is to improve social and economic conditions for women. It is trying to guarantee justice for women and empower them so they would be able to fight for their rights and to participate effectively as partners in the developmental process.
YWU, which was formed in 1990, has a Special Consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. It is also where women go when they need help, whether legal or social help. It is also a supporter of the developmental and democratic participation of women and it is helping women all over Yemen to obtain their constitutional and legislatives rights that the Yemeni laws entitle them to have.
- Yemen Observer
The 400 participants are representing 46 thousand members of the union branches in the 22 Yemeni governorates. The conference aims to elect a chairwoman and 121 female members for the Union’s central council for the next four years as well as electing an administrative board of the Union’s executive office and a committee of monitoring and inspection.
The conference also evaluates accomplishments achieved by Yemeni women along the past four years in addition to discussing the Union’s financial and administrative reports. It also holds a workshop on women’s rights in reproductive health. Union’s branches had conducted their elections in the past two months.
Around 18 female representatives of various Arab and foreign countries have also participated in the conference exchanging experiences in different fields. The chairwomen of the YWU, Dr. Ramzia al-Eryany revealed in a press conference held on Sunday, the Union’s new plan for preparing a strategy for the next four years. According to Dr. al-Eryany, the plan aims to raise the rate of girls’ education to 35 percent, to reduce the illiteracy among Yemeni women and to establish more branches in other three governorates. The union has 145 centers for illiteracy eradication and it seeks to establish more centers in the different governorates.
“Yemen needs to empower women economically, socially and politically for achieving comprehensive development. Thus, we try to struggle against all kinds of discrimination against women, and to apply Islamic teachings which respect to women and their rights,” said Dr. al-Eryany.
She also indicated that the YWU has also tried to raise people’s awareness on kidnapping tourists through producing films, explaining dangers of such bad phenomenon and its consequences. The Vice President, Abdrabu Mansour Hadi, said that Yemeni women have a lot of rights which empower them to attain many achievements in different fields.
“Within the great support for women, the political leadership promised to give 15 percent of the parliament and local councils seats for women in the upcoming elections,” he said in the opening ceremony of the conference’s works.
YWU is one of the oldest and largest volunteer civil society organizations in Yemen. It is an independent organization and it represents all women in Yemen. The YWU’s ambition is to improve social and economic conditions for women. It is trying to guarantee justice for women and empower them so they would be able to fight for their rights and to participate effectively as partners in the developmental process.
YWU, which was formed in 1990, has a Special Consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. It is also where women go when they need help, whether legal or social help. It is also a supporter of the developmental and democratic participation of women and it is helping women all over Yemen to obtain their constitutional and legislatives rights that the Yemeni laws entitle them to have.
- Yemen Observer
Kuwait: All-women Kuwaiti firm set up
KUWAIT CITY : Tejarati Holding Co — the first all-women Kuwaiti enterprise was officially launched at Sahara Club, Monday. Aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and business acumen among Kuwaiti women, the new entity will also focus on social development of women in the country.
The event was attended by Nabeela Al-Anjarie, General Coordinator, Haya Al-Sahali, Head of Administration and Ravaa Al-Muhanna, Consultant. The company will be managed by experienced women at all levels and is also funded by Kuwaiti businesswomen.
It will have a fully paid up capital of KD 30 million in 300 million shares with a nominal value of 100 fils per share. Tejarati hopes to make a 14 percent return in the first year of operation and will be primarily focusing in sectors like real estate, finance and rental, and education and health.
Speaking at the occasion, Nabeela said that the company hopes to receive overwhelming response from the women in term of investment subscription and in the event of total subscription exceeding the target capital, the surplus amount will be channelised for the formation of a new subsidiary company.
Nabeela went on to state that there is scope for developing business locally as well as regionally and may also consider going global further down the line. She was also quick to clarify that the whole idea of forming the all women business venture does not imply any grouse against the men folk in general but in fact will seek cooperation from them in achieving the goals set by the company.
Haya on her part said that the company is fully sharia-compliant (investing only in Islamic products) and hopes to make good returns on the investments. It also aims at providing necessary training to groom women into the field of business and thereby utilizing their potential for the benefit of the society and the country at large.
The company has future plans to plough money into education and health sectors which is crucial for the progress of women.
By John MathewsArab Times Staff
The event was attended by Nabeela Al-Anjarie, General Coordinator, Haya Al-Sahali, Head of Administration and Ravaa Al-Muhanna, Consultant. The company will be managed by experienced women at all levels and is also funded by Kuwaiti businesswomen.
It will have a fully paid up capital of KD 30 million in 300 million shares with a nominal value of 100 fils per share. Tejarati hopes to make a 14 percent return in the first year of operation and will be primarily focusing in sectors like real estate, finance and rental, and education and health.
Speaking at the occasion, Nabeela said that the company hopes to receive overwhelming response from the women in term of investment subscription and in the event of total subscription exceeding the target capital, the surplus amount will be channelised for the formation of a new subsidiary company.
Nabeela went on to state that there is scope for developing business locally as well as regionally and may also consider going global further down the line. She was also quick to clarify that the whole idea of forming the all women business venture does not imply any grouse against the men folk in general but in fact will seek cooperation from them in achieving the goals set by the company.
Haya on her part said that the company is fully sharia-compliant (investing only in Islamic products) and hopes to make good returns on the investments. It also aims at providing necessary training to groom women into the field of business and thereby utilizing their potential for the benefit of the society and the country at large.
The company has future plans to plough money into education and health sectors which is crucial for the progress of women.
By John MathewsArab Times Staff
Monday, June 16, 2008
Saudi Arabia: Human rights, lawyers bodies sign MoU
The Human Rights Commission in the Kingdom and the National Committee for Lawyers in the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here on Saturday.
Human Rights Commission Chairman Turki Bin Khalid Al-Sudairi and Chairman of the National Committee for Lawyers Dr. Majed Mohammed Qaroub signed the MoU aimed at consolidating cooperation to achieve the aspired goals.
Al-Sudairi said his body and the National Committee for Lawyers aim at serving the society and boosting human rights in order to reach justice and fairness for the weak and the wronged sections of the society. The two sides agreed on a 7-point mechanism for cooperation including exchange of human rights studies and researches. The two organizations plan lectures to upgrade the legal awareness in the society, Dr. Qaroub said.
The MoU also includes cooperation with the committee to hold workshops for legal departments to acquaint them with new judicial regulations as well as to know the views and comments of the National Committee for Lawyers on the existing regulations.
This would help in bolstering human rights through the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Qaroub said.
The National Committee for Lawyers, according to the MoU, will be a tool to monitor any violations of human rights. The Kingdom needs at least 50,000 judges, 200,000 qualified and well-trained assistants and 10,000 lawyers, Dr. Qaroub said.
He stressed the importance of activating the legal regulations. Litigation should be restricted to only lawyers licensed by the Ministry of Justice, he said.
-- Saudi Gazette
Human Rights Commission Chairman Turki Bin Khalid Al-Sudairi and Chairman of the National Committee for Lawyers Dr. Majed Mohammed Qaroub signed the MoU aimed at consolidating cooperation to achieve the aspired goals.
Al-Sudairi said his body and the National Committee for Lawyers aim at serving the society and boosting human rights in order to reach justice and fairness for the weak and the wronged sections of the society. The two sides agreed on a 7-point mechanism for cooperation including exchange of human rights studies and researches. The two organizations plan lectures to upgrade the legal awareness in the society, Dr. Qaroub said.
The MoU also includes cooperation with the committee to hold workshops for legal departments to acquaint them with new judicial regulations as well as to know the views and comments of the National Committee for Lawyers on the existing regulations.
This would help in bolstering human rights through the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Qaroub said.
The National Committee for Lawyers, according to the MoU, will be a tool to monitor any violations of human rights. The Kingdom needs at least 50,000 judges, 200,000 qualified and well-trained assistants and 10,000 lawyers, Dr. Qaroub said.
He stressed the importance of activating the legal regulations. Litigation should be restricted to only lawyers licensed by the Ministry of Justice, he said.
-- Saudi Gazette
Bahrain: ‘Flirts’ will be taken to task
MANAMA — Bahrain plans to get tough on males as those who flirt in public, indoors or via phone against a woman’s wishes will undergo up to six-month jail or BD100 fine according to a draft law.
The proposed law also recommends a jail term of three to 12 months or fine not less than BD200 for bosses who harass their female staff publicly or privately.
Conservative MP Jassim Al Saidi would retable a proposal that was reviewed by parliament during the first legislative term but could not be approved after the end of parliamentary recess.
“The bodies concerned, including the ministry of interior, should tackle the recklessness of youth in neighbourhoods and commercial malls during the summer,” Al Saidi said.
The lawmaker’s move followed complaints from families who demand measures to stop incidents of harassment and action by youth to get the attention of females.
He said the bill would reduce the incidents of flirting by teenagers and reckless youth, which cause embarrassment to many women, and eliminate the chances of managers and heads of departments using their power to harass their female employees.
The government has been rejecting as according to the executive authority, the present penal law is quite adequate to deal with such offences.
The government said that articles 350 and 351 deal with flirting cases in public, indoors or over the phone, so the bill offers nothing new.
The Ministry of Justice earlier called on the legislative authority to stop submitting amendments to the penal law as the government was in the process of drafting a new law to address the situation.
-- Khaleej Times
The proposed law also recommends a jail term of three to 12 months or fine not less than BD200 for bosses who harass their female staff publicly or privately.
Conservative MP Jassim Al Saidi would retable a proposal that was reviewed by parliament during the first legislative term but could not be approved after the end of parliamentary recess.
“The bodies concerned, including the ministry of interior, should tackle the recklessness of youth in neighbourhoods and commercial malls during the summer,” Al Saidi said.
The lawmaker’s move followed complaints from families who demand measures to stop incidents of harassment and action by youth to get the attention of females.
He said the bill would reduce the incidents of flirting by teenagers and reckless youth, which cause embarrassment to many women, and eliminate the chances of managers and heads of departments using their power to harass their female employees.
The government has been rejecting as according to the executive authority, the present penal law is quite adequate to deal with such offences.
The government said that articles 350 and 351 deal with flirting cases in public, indoors or over the phone, so the bill offers nothing new.
The Ministry of Justice earlier called on the legislative authority to stop submitting amendments to the penal law as the government was in the process of drafting a new law to address the situation.
-- Khaleej Times
Jordan: Stakeholders focus on improving women’s health across the region
AMMAN - Dozens of stakeholders are gathering in the capital this week to explore ways to enhance women’s and reproductive health efforts in the region.
In a workshop entitled, “Sharing Experiences and Learning from Successful Practices in Islamic Region”, which opened yesterday, participants will share their experiences, challenges and successes in implementing such projects in Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan.
Minister of Health Salah Mawajdeh, Japanese Ambassador to Jordan Shigenobu Kato, and officials from the Higher Population Council and the Jordanian National Commission for Women attended the opening session yesterday, which focused on improving women’s health across the region and how to duplicate successful efforts guided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
In particular, participants highlighted the success of a joint project entitled, “Enhancing Self-Empowerment of Rural Women in Karak- with a Reproductive Health Focus”, which was applied in the governorate by JICA and the Ministry of Health between 1997 and 2006.
In a sign of the project’s effectiveness, the Jordan Population and Family Health Survey, released by the Department of Statistics last month, indicated that fertility rates in Karak Governorate stood at 3.2 births per woman in 2007, the lowest among the country’s governorates.
The difference is even more significant when compared to 4 births per woman recorded in Maan and Aqaba, JICA officials pointed out.
In light of success of the Karak project, JICA is now looking to expand further into the southern region, reaching out to six communities classified as poverty pockets in Maan and Aqaba, in an effort to promote family planning and lower fertility rates by 2011, JICA officials added.
The project has employed some 62 health assistants in Karak, Tafileh, Amman and Aqaba and by the conclusion of the third phase, will have covered 76 health centres, according to JICA.
The project is also currently drawing up manuals and training nurses in reproductive health in order to better serve their local communities.
The workshop, which will run until Thursday, will also take participants on field visits to health centres in the south of the Kingdom to see firsthand the programme in action.
JICA, an independent Japanese governmental agency, aids the Kingdom in the sectors of tourism development, environmental protection, water resource management, youth, social welfare and health.
By Taylor Luck, Jordan Times
In a workshop entitled, “Sharing Experiences and Learning from Successful Practices in Islamic Region”, which opened yesterday, participants will share their experiences, challenges and successes in implementing such projects in Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan.
Minister of Health Salah Mawajdeh, Japanese Ambassador to Jordan Shigenobu Kato, and officials from the Higher Population Council and the Jordanian National Commission for Women attended the opening session yesterday, which focused on improving women’s health across the region and how to duplicate successful efforts guided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
In particular, participants highlighted the success of a joint project entitled, “Enhancing Self-Empowerment of Rural Women in Karak- with a Reproductive Health Focus”, which was applied in the governorate by JICA and the Ministry of Health between 1997 and 2006.
In a sign of the project’s effectiveness, the Jordan Population and Family Health Survey, released by the Department of Statistics last month, indicated that fertility rates in Karak Governorate stood at 3.2 births per woman in 2007, the lowest among the country’s governorates.
The difference is even more significant when compared to 4 births per woman recorded in Maan and Aqaba, JICA officials pointed out.
In light of success of the Karak project, JICA is now looking to expand further into the southern region, reaching out to six communities classified as poverty pockets in Maan and Aqaba, in an effort to promote family planning and lower fertility rates by 2011, JICA officials added.
The project has employed some 62 health assistants in Karak, Tafileh, Amman and Aqaba and by the conclusion of the third phase, will have covered 76 health centres, according to JICA.
The project is also currently drawing up manuals and training nurses in reproductive health in order to better serve their local communities.
The workshop, which will run until Thursday, will also take participants on field visits to health centres in the south of the Kingdom to see firsthand the programme in action.
JICA, an independent Japanese governmental agency, aids the Kingdom in the sectors of tourism development, environmental protection, water resource management, youth, social welfare and health.
By Taylor Luck, Jordan Times
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Bahrain: Forum for Public-Private Partnerships
Building Public-Private Partnerships to EnhanceSocial and Economic Progress in the Middle East
Vital Voices Global Partnership (Vital Voices), in cooperation with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), and a number of local partners have launched a ground-breaking project to promote public-private partnerships for social and economic progress in Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
The focus of our work is to promote partnerships that are sustainable, profitable and produce a positive impact on communities, especially for women.
In September 2007, the Bahrain Forum for Public-Private Partnerships was launched with members from the private sector and civil society organizations. The forum is designed to meet the needs of the Bahraini community and is based on meetings and information gathered during Vital Voices advance visits to Bahrain and on MEPI’s previous work there. The Forum, in cooperation with local partners Business Care/Smart Coaching will meet these needs by providing:
Representatives from the Bahrain Forum attended the conference on Leveraging Corporate-Community Partnerships to Support Women’s Progress, held under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah in Amman, Jordan November 3-4, 2007. In addition, members of women’s societies attending an in depth training on partnering with the private sector in December 2007.
In February, 2008 Vital Voices and the National Family Justice Center Alliance conducted a research trip to Bahrain to better understand the needs of women’s NGOs and to discuss opportunities for collaboration.
As a result of these meetings, the VV-FJC team is planning a 2-day workshop for May/June 2008, focused on specific areas of training and planning for the future. In addition, representatives from Bahrain will be invited to be part of an April 2008 study tour, which will include participation in the Family Justice Center International Conference in San Diego, CA.
The study tour will showcase best practices in the field and visits to model co-located services facilities.
Findings of U.S. Study Tour Reviewed
The Bahrain Forum for Public-Private Partnerships to support women's projects held a meeting to review the outcomes of the U.S. study tour. The representatives from various civil societies dealing with family violence attended the June 15 meeting that was held at the headquarters of the Women’s Union.
In addition to the delegates, the meeting was attended by representatives from the public and private sectors, women societies and the media. Representatives from the private sector included Nabil Al-Mahmood, Executive Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and Suhair Al-Ajjawi, Manager of Corporate Communication, from Al-Salam Bank.
Sadiq Ja’afar the President of Business Care Bureau, Vital Voices’ local partner, opened the meeting with a brief presentation explaining the Bahrain Forum for partnership, Vital Voices’ central role and previous activities carried out in Bahrain and Jordan.
Ja’afar said that the tour aimed to expose the Bahraini delegates to U.S. best practices in the field of family violence. The tour also exposed the delegates to partnerships that cross sectors through the engagement of governmental and non-governmental organizations, in addition to private sector companies, in combating family violence. The tour also enabled the Bahraini delegates to interact with the Jordanian delegation and learn of the work being done in Jordan.
Ja’afar summarized preliminary results of the tour by saying that it succeeded in creating a partnership among five NGOs working in the field of family violence. It also added new dimensions and generated ideas for the development and continuation of the project.
After that, lawyer Samy Seyadi, who works as a pro-bono lawyer for AWAL Women’s Society in their Family Counseling Office, spoke about his participation in the tour. He said that the tour lasted for 11 days from April 14 to 25, and that it included tours to several organizations in Washington DC, New York and San Diego.
Seyadi said that the most important lesson learned from the tour was the nature of the cooperative relationships between the government officials, non-governmental organizations and the private sector in fighting family violence. He also admired the efforts of private sector companies such as Liz Claiborne, Inc. which support anti-domestic violence programs by partnering with various non-governmental organizations. He stressed that the rich experience gained during the tour should be materialized into tangible national programs.
Mariam Al-Ruwaie, President of the Women Union, praised the tour programme and its educational benefit. She emphasized the need for coordination with official bodies and the private sector at the highest levels, and the need to motivate the private sector to participate in projects combating domestic family violence through their corporate social responsibility departments by either organizing special programmes or support the existing ones.
She also stressed the importance of training lawyers and judges on family violence, and forming a front of lawyers to deal with such issues. She also expressed the hope that the government will adopt the domestic violence issue at the highest levels and allocate appropriate budgets for it. Al-Ruwaie mentioned a number of recommendations that the delegation hopes to implement, including the coordination of efforts by civil societies, seeking official support, and organizing a national campaign to combat violence.
Al-Rowaie said that Bahrain lacks legislature to tackle the issue which makes it hard for victims of violence to file complaints or receive help. She revealed that several ministries have been distributing awareness pamphlets about existing centers and how to receive services and also, that doctors are creating a statistical database to record the number of family violence cases which would then be available to other doctors.
Ebtisam Khamis praised the tour, pointing out that the American Bar Association (ABA) is one of the most important organisations dealing with violence and that the ABA has a domestic violence commission that provides information and support to lawyers working in the field.
Dr. Shaikha Al-Zayani considered the tour a thorough educational experience. She admired the manner in which various U.S. organizations are empowering volunteers to become leaders by offering intensive training programs. She stated, “this kind of volunteerism [is something…] we should benefit from and try to implement in Bahrain.”
She also pointed out the need to introduce topics about domestic violence law into the curricula at the University of Bahrain. Dr. Shaikha suggested creating an arena for dialogue between the various civil societies that work in the area of family violence, and to develop a joint plan to revitalize the existing shelters.
Dr.Al-Zayani also praised the experience of the Jordanian delegation in coordinating with the private sector, pointing to the significant role of official support, especially by Queen Rania, who personally adopted the domestic violence campaign.
Members of women's organizations who attended the meeting expressed their appreciation of the trip and hailed its importance in combating domestic violence. They also suggested to the Women’s Union a number of proposals that include: holding meetings with local centers dealing with violence to discuss the available services and how a victim can access them, fully documenting the outcome of the study tour, developing and organizing a national action plan, and creating a training course for judges and lawyers, in addition to educating the scholars who deliver the Jum’a (Friday) prayer sermon, in light of their influence on the public.
Study Trip To Washington
On April 14, 2008, delegates from Jordan and Bahrain arrived in Washington, D.C. to take part in an 11-day study tour focusing on U.S. best practices in the field of domestic violence. This tour built upon the on-the-ground work of Vital Voices in the region through a MEPI-supported program on building cross-sector partnerships to support women’s progress.
The thirteen participants, all experts in their fields, included doctors, lawyers, non-governmental organization directors, ministry employees and several leaders from women’s organizations and all are working in their countries to implement coordinated services to aid victims of domestic abuse.
Vital Voices organized a comprehensive program that allowed the international delegates to visit, meet and exchange ideas with representatives from both non-governmental and governmental agencies who work on issues related to domestic violence.
In addition, all of the delegates had a chance to represent their countries and present their work. Some highlights of the trip included a visit with key staff of Senator Joseph Biden, who was instrumental in writing and supporting the Violence Against Women Act.
Through this meeting, the delegates were exposed to the concept of programs financially supported and enforced by law. The delegates also met with representatives from the U.S. Department of State, the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and the National Network to End Domestic Violence in addition to visiting the offices of Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights. The delegates also had the opportunity to sit down with two judges at the D.C. Superior Court, one of whom tries criminal cases and the other, civil cases of domestic violence.
In New York, the group had the opportunity to visit the Brooklyn Family Justice Center and Sanctuary for Families, a local service organization. Additionally, they meet with a number of private sector representatives from companies such as Liz Claiborne, Inc., Verizon Wireless, Lifetime TV, and Goldman Sachs. These companies firmly believe that it makes business sense to invest in programs which support women both within their companies and around the world.
The group learned about workplace programs to combat domestic violence, using public service announcements and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives to impact the bottom line.
Through these visits, the delegates were able to see first-hand how to engage the private sector to support programs and to facilitate corporate social responsibility.
The tour culminated in the attendance of the 8th Annual International Family Justice Center Conference in San Diego. The conference exposed the delegates to wide networking opportunities in addition to further exposing them to best practices across the country. The delegates also attended proceedings in a DV court room, and many surprisingly remarked at the respect the abusers were shown by the judge. Additionally, the female delegates were given the opportunity to tour a women’s shelter.
Among the many successes and lessons learned during the study tour - a few in particular stand out. The participants returned home with a renewed sense of commitment to their work, with regional and U.S. experts to support them and with innovative ideas to explore within their organizations. They built connections within their country groups and learned about the work of their colleagues in the region. Most importantly, the group learned that the efforts to support families and women facing violence are global and that working across sectors is an important way to move forward.
Activists participate in a conference on domestic violence in Washington
Activists working to eliminate domestic violence are leaving to Washington, DC, New York and San Diego to participate in the annual conference of Family Justice Center . The participation is part of a programme that will include visits to some centers offering welfare to violence victims in America.
The visit comes to exchange experience about mechanisms to combat domestic violence and learn more about a partnership programme between Family Justice Center and another center.
For the visit, the Smart Center and Business Support Center held a meeting on 13 March 2008 with the activists and representatives from women societies at the Women Union to discuss the best mechanisms to benefit from the visit.
Executive President of Smart Center Fatima Ahmed said that the activists were selected after the visit of American activists in the field of domestic violence last February in Bahrain.
Dr Shaikha Al Zayani from Country Girl Society, Lawyer Sami Siyadi from Awal Society's Family Guidance Office, Dr Bana Bozabon Director of Batelco Anti-Domestic Violence Center, Nada Yateem from Aisha Yateem Domestic Violence Center and President of Women Union Mariam Al Ruwai will be included in the visit.
The participants of the meeting called upon the delegation to learn new approaches in dealing with domestic violence cases.
-- Women's Gateway
Vital Voices Global Partnership (Vital Voices), in cooperation with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), and a number of local partners have launched a ground-breaking project to promote public-private partnerships for social and economic progress in Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
The focus of our work is to promote partnerships that are sustainable, profitable and produce a positive impact on communities, especially for women.
In September 2007, the Bahrain Forum for Public-Private Partnerships was launched with members from the private sector and civil society organizations. The forum is designed to meet the needs of the Bahraini community and is based on meetings and information gathered during Vital Voices advance visits to Bahrain and on MEPI’s previous work there. The Forum, in cooperation with local partners Business Care/Smart Coaching will meet these needs by providing:
- An opportunity for regular dialogue, program collaboration and networking between women’s NGOs and the private sector in Bahrain.
- Sector-specific training and capacity building to enhance and create more sustainable partnerships on critical social issues.
- Access to a regional and international network of trainers and experts in the field of public-private partnerships.
Representatives from the Bahrain Forum attended the conference on Leveraging Corporate-Community Partnerships to Support Women’s Progress, held under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah in Amman, Jordan November 3-4, 2007. In addition, members of women’s societies attending an in depth training on partnering with the private sector in December 2007.
In February, 2008 Vital Voices and the National Family Justice Center Alliance conducted a research trip to Bahrain to better understand the needs of women’s NGOs and to discuss opportunities for collaboration.
As a result of these meetings, the VV-FJC team is planning a 2-day workshop for May/June 2008, focused on specific areas of training and planning for the future. In addition, representatives from Bahrain will be invited to be part of an April 2008 study tour, which will include participation in the Family Justice Center International Conference in San Diego, CA.
The study tour will showcase best practices in the field and visits to model co-located services facilities.
Findings of U.S. Study Tour Reviewed
The Bahrain Forum for Public-Private Partnerships to support women's projects held a meeting to review the outcomes of the U.S. study tour. The representatives from various civil societies dealing with family violence attended the June 15 meeting that was held at the headquarters of the Women’s Union.
In addition to the delegates, the meeting was attended by representatives from the public and private sectors, women societies and the media. Representatives from the private sector included Nabil Al-Mahmood, Executive Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and Suhair Al-Ajjawi, Manager of Corporate Communication, from Al-Salam Bank.
Sadiq Ja’afar the President of Business Care Bureau, Vital Voices’ local partner, opened the meeting with a brief presentation explaining the Bahrain Forum for partnership, Vital Voices’ central role and previous activities carried out in Bahrain and Jordan.
Ja’afar said that the tour aimed to expose the Bahraini delegates to U.S. best practices in the field of family violence. The tour also exposed the delegates to partnerships that cross sectors through the engagement of governmental and non-governmental organizations, in addition to private sector companies, in combating family violence. The tour also enabled the Bahraini delegates to interact with the Jordanian delegation and learn of the work being done in Jordan.
Ja’afar summarized preliminary results of the tour by saying that it succeeded in creating a partnership among five NGOs working in the field of family violence. It also added new dimensions and generated ideas for the development and continuation of the project.
After that, lawyer Samy Seyadi, who works as a pro-bono lawyer for AWAL Women’s Society in their Family Counseling Office, spoke about his participation in the tour. He said that the tour lasted for 11 days from April 14 to 25, and that it included tours to several organizations in Washington DC, New York and San Diego.
Seyadi said that the most important lesson learned from the tour was the nature of the cooperative relationships between the government officials, non-governmental organizations and the private sector in fighting family violence. He also admired the efforts of private sector companies such as Liz Claiborne, Inc. which support anti-domestic violence programs by partnering with various non-governmental organizations. He stressed that the rich experience gained during the tour should be materialized into tangible national programs.
Mariam Al-Ruwaie, President of the Women Union, praised the tour programme and its educational benefit. She emphasized the need for coordination with official bodies and the private sector at the highest levels, and the need to motivate the private sector to participate in projects combating domestic family violence through their corporate social responsibility departments by either organizing special programmes or support the existing ones.
She also stressed the importance of training lawyers and judges on family violence, and forming a front of lawyers to deal with such issues. She also expressed the hope that the government will adopt the domestic violence issue at the highest levels and allocate appropriate budgets for it. Al-Ruwaie mentioned a number of recommendations that the delegation hopes to implement, including the coordination of efforts by civil societies, seeking official support, and organizing a national campaign to combat violence.
Al-Rowaie said that Bahrain lacks legislature to tackle the issue which makes it hard for victims of violence to file complaints or receive help. She revealed that several ministries have been distributing awareness pamphlets about existing centers and how to receive services and also, that doctors are creating a statistical database to record the number of family violence cases which would then be available to other doctors.
Ebtisam Khamis praised the tour, pointing out that the American Bar Association (ABA) is one of the most important organisations dealing with violence and that the ABA has a domestic violence commission that provides information and support to lawyers working in the field.
Dr. Shaikha Al-Zayani considered the tour a thorough educational experience. She admired the manner in which various U.S. organizations are empowering volunteers to become leaders by offering intensive training programs. She stated, “this kind of volunteerism [is something…] we should benefit from and try to implement in Bahrain.”
She also pointed out the need to introduce topics about domestic violence law into the curricula at the University of Bahrain. Dr. Shaikha suggested creating an arena for dialogue between the various civil societies that work in the area of family violence, and to develop a joint plan to revitalize the existing shelters.
Dr.Al-Zayani also praised the experience of the Jordanian delegation in coordinating with the private sector, pointing to the significant role of official support, especially by Queen Rania, who personally adopted the domestic violence campaign.
Members of women's organizations who attended the meeting expressed their appreciation of the trip and hailed its importance in combating domestic violence. They also suggested to the Women’s Union a number of proposals that include: holding meetings with local centers dealing with violence to discuss the available services and how a victim can access them, fully documenting the outcome of the study tour, developing and organizing a national action plan, and creating a training course for judges and lawyers, in addition to educating the scholars who deliver the Jum’a (Friday) prayer sermon, in light of their influence on the public.
Study Trip To Washington
On April 14, 2008, delegates from Jordan and Bahrain arrived in Washington, D.C. to take part in an 11-day study tour focusing on U.S. best practices in the field of domestic violence. This tour built upon the on-the-ground work of Vital Voices in the region through a MEPI-supported program on building cross-sector partnerships to support women’s progress.
The thirteen participants, all experts in their fields, included doctors, lawyers, non-governmental organization directors, ministry employees and several leaders from women’s organizations and all are working in their countries to implement coordinated services to aid victims of domestic abuse.
Vital Voices organized a comprehensive program that allowed the international delegates to visit, meet and exchange ideas with representatives from both non-governmental and governmental agencies who work on issues related to domestic violence.
In addition, all of the delegates had a chance to represent their countries and present their work. Some highlights of the trip included a visit with key staff of Senator Joseph Biden, who was instrumental in writing and supporting the Violence Against Women Act.
Through this meeting, the delegates were exposed to the concept of programs financially supported and enforced by law. The delegates also met with representatives from the U.S. Department of State, the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and the National Network to End Domestic Violence in addition to visiting the offices of Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights. The delegates also had the opportunity to sit down with two judges at the D.C. Superior Court, one of whom tries criminal cases and the other, civil cases of domestic violence.
In New York, the group had the opportunity to visit the Brooklyn Family Justice Center and Sanctuary for Families, a local service organization. Additionally, they meet with a number of private sector representatives from companies such as Liz Claiborne, Inc., Verizon Wireless, Lifetime TV, and Goldman Sachs. These companies firmly believe that it makes business sense to invest in programs which support women both within their companies and around the world.
The group learned about workplace programs to combat domestic violence, using public service announcements and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives to impact the bottom line.
Through these visits, the delegates were able to see first-hand how to engage the private sector to support programs and to facilitate corporate social responsibility.
The tour culminated in the attendance of the 8th Annual International Family Justice Center Conference in San Diego. The conference exposed the delegates to wide networking opportunities in addition to further exposing them to best practices across the country. The delegates also attended proceedings in a DV court room, and many surprisingly remarked at the respect the abusers were shown by the judge. Additionally, the female delegates were given the opportunity to tour a women’s shelter.
Among the many successes and lessons learned during the study tour - a few in particular stand out. The participants returned home with a renewed sense of commitment to their work, with regional and U.S. experts to support them and with innovative ideas to explore within their organizations. They built connections within their country groups and learned about the work of their colleagues in the region. Most importantly, the group learned that the efforts to support families and women facing violence are global and that working across sectors is an important way to move forward.
Activists participate in a conference on domestic violence in Washington
Activists working to eliminate domestic violence are leaving to Washington, DC, New York and San Diego to participate in the annual conference of Family Justice Center . The participation is part of a programme that will include visits to some centers offering welfare to violence victims in America.
The visit comes to exchange experience about mechanisms to combat domestic violence and learn more about a partnership programme between Family Justice Center and another center.
For the visit, the Smart Center and Business Support Center held a meeting on 13 March 2008 with the activists and representatives from women societies at the Women Union to discuss the best mechanisms to benefit from the visit.
Executive President of Smart Center Fatima Ahmed said that the activists were selected after the visit of American activists in the field of domestic violence last February in Bahrain.
Dr Shaikha Al Zayani from Country Girl Society, Lawyer Sami Siyadi from Awal Society's Family Guidance Office, Dr Bana Bozabon Director of Batelco Anti-Domestic Violence Center, Nada Yateem from Aisha Yateem Domestic Violence Center and President of Women Union Mariam Al Ruwai will be included in the visit.
The participants of the meeting called upon the delegation to learn new approaches in dealing with domestic violence cases.
-- Women's Gateway
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