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Ethiopian MWDWs in Lebanon in the face of prejudice and racism

13-2-2018

Al Akhbar newspaper featured in a special article yesterday the Ethiopian migrant women domestic workers (MWDWs) in Lebanon, spotlighting freelancers working outside the confinement of domestic service. For more insight on the subject, the newspaper spoke to the Ethiopian Ambassador to Beirut, Halima Fakih, who expounded on the conditions of some 300,000 MWDWs. Recounting joyful and sad stories of many of them, Fakih grieved the bad luck of those who are subjected to physical and mental abuse by some employers who refuse to pay their wages, however small, while she remains powerless and can do nothing to help them except to intervene to settle the worker-employer dispute. Al Akhbar also portrayed the experience of two Ethiopian nationals, Jeanette, running a hair salon in Badaro and Martha managing another beauty salon and an Ethiopian eatery in Dora. Asked about the difficulties they face in Lebanon, Jeanette said that although she is married to a Lebanese and pays taxes, yet she did not get a residence permit, nor a Lebanese nationality, for Ethiopia does not allow dual citizenship. Jeanette boasted that the salon gives her a space to live a life and practice a culture which for Ethiopians migrating for employment is initially intended to be confined to domestic work. Ethiopians, Jeanette explained, are not only domestic workers. Her national Martha, who is married to a Lebanese, complained that her children are bullied in schools because their mother is “a Sri Lankan”, as they are told, mentioning that they preferred to quit and return to Ethiopia to live there. For the full article, kindly visit the following links: https://www.al-akhbar.com/node/290642، https://www.al-akhbar.com/node/290640. (Al Akhbar, February 12, 2018)

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Expo in Birzeit on the struggle of Palestinian women

13-2-2018

In partnership with the Birzeit University, Gallery One and Ramallah Cinema Club, Abdel Mohsen Qattan Foundation inaugurated on Saturday the ‘On Women in Revolutions’ exhibition at the University’s Museum with the participation of 25 Palestinian artists of various ages. The exhibition, which runs until April 10, is part of a wider research project on women and the revolution set for 2019. The event brings into prominence leading revolutionary women figures in the history of the Palestinian struggle, namely Leila Khaled and Dalal al- Moghrabi. Works varied between painting, photography, sculpture, video art and the display of old artifacts. The artists showcased the different aspects of the lives of Palestinian women through snapshots or portraits of them in the battlefields during the uprising and revolution or through short films and audio recordings. One participating fine artist, Khaled Hurani, said the event is an attempt to revisit the presence of Palestinian women in the rebellion through art. Bashar Alhrub another artist participating with his artwork, “Visible in War; Marginalized in Peace”, pointed to the many Palestinian women who had and still have a big role in this revolution but that are not very well known. (Al Hayat, February 13, 2018)

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Jumana Haddad on Seven’s Party electoral list

13-2-2018

After journalist Paula Yacubian, Princess Hayat Arslan and activist Zoya Ruhana, the journalist and poet Jumana Haddad announced that she will be running for the minority seat in Beirut 1st Constituency with the Seven Party and on the same electoral list with Yacubian (Armenian Orthodox), Al Hayat reported. Both women are running in the elections according to a secular, civil and social agenda, although they have to concede to the essentially confessional seat system. Fresh blood should be pumped into the “People’s Assembly” to create a positive shock, Haddad maintained, noting the urgency of changing the notion of candidacy and expanding the scope of secular and civil representation. Meanwhile, Nadwatul Ibdaa organized yesterday a talk entitled ‘the participation of women in the Parliament is a requisite’, during which it presented a group female nominees for the upcoming elections. Salwa Khalil, the director, pointed out that women’s political involvement is a natural right given them by the Constitution which guarantees equality to all citizens in rights and duties, without gender preferences. The marginalization of women is a result of the outdated patriarchal mindset, Khalil said. On the other hand, the president of the Lebanese Council of Women, Iqbal Dughan, outlined the Council’s agenda for the coming period, highlighting, the study of the new electoral law, detecting the points of strength in women and encouraging them to run for elections, reassuring the women of Lebanon to vote for lists that include women and to boycott of lists that exclude women. (Al Hayat, Al Mustaqbal, February 13, 2018)

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France bans ‘muhajabat’ from the workplace to "protect secularism"

13-2-2018

In its issue on Saturday, Al Diyar newspaper spotlighted the fate of the Muhajabat (veiled women) in France, reporting the case of Khadija Abiab, French-Moroccan female, who has been forced to resign from her job as an engineer at a French company the moment she decided to wear the hijab. Abiad, the newspaper wrote, had to remove her headscarf every day before entering her office in Paris in keeping with the company’s internal rules supporting the ‘principle of non-alignment’ and barring wearing any religious symbols during the working hours. Khadija recalled the psychological conflict she has lived every day which was close to schizophrenia. She tried hard to get a job elsewhere but did not succeed, which prompted her to accept a low paying remote job with a data analysis firm. According to Al Diyar, public sector institutions are not the only ones restricting the work of muhajabat; private corporations now have the right to reject the muhajabat. To this effect, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled last March that private companies can ban employees from wearing religious or political symbols. In this regard, the French writer and sociologist specializing on issues of discrimination against muhajabat in France, Hanan Karimi, considered that the successive French governments have armed themselves with secularism to legally veto the presence of muhajabat in the labor market, hence preventing them to emerge as an active and integral part of the French society. (Al Diyar, February, 2018)

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Zoya Ruhana, Hayat Arsalan running for Shuf-Aley 2018 elections

12-2-2018

In an inspiring move, the director of Kafa organization, activist Zoya Ruhana, announced on Saturday that she will be running independently for the Shuf -Aley constituency in the upcoming 2018 elections. After years of struggle for women’s rights, Ruhana said she found it necessary to participate in the Parliamentary elections to promote and present women’s issues through a feminist electoral agenda. Ruhana has set a 4-point program which proposes: a law combatting violence against women and girls; a compulsory civil law for personal status; an amended Nationality Law that restores women's basic right to pass citizenship to their family members, and an amended labor law that secures gender equality. For her part, the president of the Committee for Promoting Women’s Role in National Decision-Making, Princess Hayat Arslan, working since 2001 to improve women’s status, disclosed in mid-January her candidacy for a seat in the Shuf -Aley Constituency, saying she will be drafting a 13-candidate electoral list which she will chair. The list, Arslan told L’Orient Le Jour, has currently 5 women on its board. In a related vein, the newspaper pointed to the Women Do Politics project launched last April 2017 by Women in Front to encourage leading women to appear in the media through featured political talk shows. A co-founder of Women in Front, Joelle Rizkallah, pointed out that the NGO is getting so many calls from political parties wishing to nominate women on their electoral lists, while noting that the initiative is funded by the British Embassy. At a later stage, Rizkallah explained, women will be backed in the period between the candidacy and the elections through provision of technical and political consultancy, in addition to receiving training on communication, a project supported by the Embassy of Netherlands. (L’Orient Le Jour, February 9, 12, 2018)

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Future Women support empowerment and honor Najwa Ramadan

12-2-2018

On the 13th anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Rafik Hariri, the Future Movement Women’s Sector- West Beqaa and Rashayya, held yesterday a seminar entitled, ‘Rafik Hariri’s vision on the empowerment of women’ and organized a handicraft fair on the sidelines that showcased artistic creations and traditional mouneh items prepared by local women. On the occasion, the minister of state for women’s affairs, Jean Ogassapian, stressed that Lebanese women have a bursting potential to be productive, and pledged his ministry will do all it can to help realize women’s full rights in order to play an active role in the community. Likewise, the general coordinator of the Women’s Sector, May Tabbal, said the exhibition of homemade crafts and agricultural goodies created a catalyst to motivate women in agriculture, the agro-food industry and in rural development. She stressed that “the political engagement of women and the inclusion of the women’s representation quota in the Parliamentary elections bill is an integral part of our rights and struggle.” Concurrently, the Future Women’s Sector in Central Beqaa screened a video on late Rafik Harir focusing on his advocacy for women’s issues. A graduation event was also organized for a group of women beneficiaries who completed a training course on computer skills aimed to develop the capacities of rural women, as noted Yasmine Sallum, member of the Women’s Sector in the area. Also, on Thursday, the Sector honored in a ceremony at Kantari premises activist Najwa Ramadan, a contemporary of Rafik Hariri who worked to end discrimination against women. (Al Mustaqbal, February 9, 12, 2018)

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Prima facie arrest warrant against wife killer in Ras el Nabeh

8-2-2018

The First Investigative Judge in Beirut, Ghassan Oweidat, questioned yesterday Fadi Assaker accused of killing his wife last month and issued a prima facie warrant for his arrest. To recall, Assaker has killed his wife Nada Bahlawan (born in 1975) in Ras el Nabeh neighborhood of Beirut on January 23 and disappeared but was caught and detained four days later by the General Security forces in Al Masnaa area. (Al Diyar, February 8, 2018)

 

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Man slays his wife in Ras el Nabeh, and another stabs his in Majdal Selem
 

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British scholarship, in memory of Rebecca Dykes

8-2-2018

In commemoration of the death of British diplomat, Rebecca Dykes, who was raped and killed by a taxi driver on the Matn Highway on December 16, 2017, (https://goo.gl/nb1nLW), a ceremony was held yesterday at Mar Elias Church- Kantari, Beirut, during which British Ambassador Hugo Shorter announced the annual ‘Rebecca Dykes Chevening Scholarship’. The latter will be granted each year to a Lebanese or Palestinian refugee residing in Lebanon to pursue her Master’s degree in the UK in majors related to gender, peace and conflict, development and human rights, and refugee and migration studies. To promote her legacy in the humanitarian field, Rebecca’s family hopes to raise adequate funds to set up the charitable Rebecca Dykes Foundation which will focus on humanitarian and stabilization work for refugees and other vulnerable communities, with special focus on women’s empowerment and the prevention of violence against them. For donations, kindly visit JustGiving page on the following link: http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rebecca-j-dykes . (Al Mustaqbal, February 8, 2018)

 

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President Aoun honors novelist Emily Nasrallah with order of the cedar

7-2-2018

President Michel Aoun granted novelist and writer Emily Nasrallah the Commander of the National Order of the Cedar in recognition of her literary contributions. The minister of justice, Salim Jreisati, representing President Aoun handed Nasrallah the medal at her residence in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut instead of the presidential palace in Baabda due to her delicate health condition. Nasrallah thanked President Aoun for his initiative wishing him success in his leadership. To note, Nasrallah (born in 1931) is a Lebanese author from the town of Kfeir, South Lebanon. She published a number of novels and children’s books and received many awards, including Poet Saeed Akl’s Prize in Lebanon, Fairuz Magazine Prize, Khalil Jibran Prize from the Ara Heritage Union, Australia and the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Prize for ‘A Cat’s Diary’ novel. ( Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal, February 7, 2018)

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Achievement of Dina el Mawla, President of Islamic University of Lebanon

6-2-2018

In its issue of January 3, L’Orient Le Jour spotlighted the career path of Dr. Dina el Mawla, the president of the Islamic University of Lebanon since 2016. El Mawla said that during her first year at the University, she introduced significant changes in the administration and education system. She intentionally recruited new deans for the different schools whom she selected according to specific criteria or conditions, such as: They should be between 35-50 years; have completed their higher studies abroad; have extensive experience in administrative and academic positions and are in command of at least two foreign languages. El Mawla made clear that she has actually started recruiting new professors who are bilingual and hold doctorates degrees. On the education system, she said that she has introduced the (bachelor’s, master’s and doctorates degrees) in all faculties and made foreign language as a required course throughout the 5-years of study. Referring to the cooperation with the French Embassy, El Mawla disclosed an intention to conclude agreements with universities in Asia and the Americas. Asked if she has faced challenges as a woman in this position, El Mawla said she has had difficulties but not because she was a woman president, but because of the radical changes she enforced, stating that she was chosen for her extensive experience and serious work. (L’Orient Le Jour, February 3, 2018)

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