News updates

Tens of Palestinian women demonstrated last Friday in front of the UNRWA headquarters in the capital Beirut in denunciation of the inequitable policies of the Organization and the shrinking of its services to refugees. During the protest, Fadia Abdel Majid, Zahrat al Rabii and Khaledat Hussein, uttered their opposition to the policies of the UN agency. They called on UNRWA to immediately change its policy and work on improving the services it provides to the Palestinian refugees in the country. At the end of the sit-in, a women delegation handed a list of demands to the UNRWA director general in Beirut, Mathias Chemaly. As Safir April 9, 2016

 

Following the uncovering of the human trafficking network north of Beirut, and in solidarity with the Syrian victims in particular, a number of Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian feminist and human rights associations organized last Friday a sit-in in front of the Justice Palace in Beirut to demand lifting the political cover for any party accomplice in the crime. On the occasion, the head of the Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering, Caroline Slaybi, said there is a determination on the part of the state not to curb the prostitution business because it is profitable, pointing out that the “advertising of the bodies of women in commercials by the tourism ministry is a blatant proof of this.”

At the end of the demonstration, a statement by participating organizations was issued which called for a transparent investigation into the human trafficking case and the disclosure of the names of persons and parties involved. The statement also demanded strict  punishment for the perpetrators, warning no mercy is justified based on excuses that the nationality of the victims are non-Lebanese. The statement urged security forces to continue their raids against other similar mafia cells. On the legal side, the above organizations called for the following: activating legislations related to protection of women against domestic violence and human trafficking; the creation of a law that criminalizes sex-based violence in Lebanon; amendment of the penal code so as it indicts both the dealer and beneficiary of sex services, in addition to the settling of the status of women refugees and provision by UNHCR of their protection. (Al Akhbar, April 9, 2016)

 

 

The general assembly of the Syndicate of Pharmaceutical Plants in Lebanon elected its board yesterday under the presidency of Dr. Carol Abi Karam, vice president Rida Chaito and secretary, pharmacist Dr. Berta Abou Zeid. Following her appointment, Abi Karam stressed that the purpose of setting up the syndicate is to ensure professional solidarity between the various pharmaceutical factories on the Lebanese territory. It also aims at strengthening collaboration with relevant official departments and persons involved in order to ensure the proper environment necessary for the continuity and development of the health sector, and the national economy at large. Abi Karam concluded by saying that “the essential role of the Lebanese pharmaceutical industry is to reduce the cost of the pharmaceutical bill by providing qualitative and sustainable medications at affordable prices. (Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal, April 7, 2016)

 

Within the framework of the national campaign, ‘Your Right is a Guarantee for your Family, Huda Hbeish and Haifa Banna won the media competition launched by Search for Common Ground (SFCG) non-governmental organization in coordination with Act for Human Rights (ALEF). The above young women were offered the opportunity to publish their articles on An Nahar’s s electronic portal. Hbeish for example, shed light on the imbalanced socio-economic conditions of women in Lebanon, while Banna highlighted the absence of gender equality, in her short film entitled ‘Your Social Security is useless. The two winners will be honored during the closing ceremony of the Campaign as part of ‘Everyone is a Winner: Economic and Social Empowerment of Women in Lebanon’ initiative. The latter it should be noted, is the outcome of cooperation between a number of associations, including, Amel International, Nahar al Shabab, the Progressive Women Gathering, Smart Center for Media and Advocacy, ABAAD, Caritas Lebanon-Migrant Center, the National Community for Following Up Women’s Issues, LOST and the Women Workers’ Union Association in the North. (An Nahar, April 7, 2016)

 

For the 18th edition of the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards, the Scientific Society of Paris honored five exceptional women for their ground breaking scientific work, in addition to 15 promising young women researchers, notably, Hiba Haj from Lebanon. Since its inception in 1998, the above program has sought to ensure a fair representation of women at all the levels of science which is still largely dominated by men. The awards are divided annually among five outstanding scientific experts, from five continents, based on their innovative achievements in relevant research and the extent of their commitment to and impact on society. Throughout the past 18 years, the program has honored some 92 winners and supported another 2438 gifted women. From Lebanon, the program has selected Dr. Hiba Haj from the American University of Beirut, who works in the field of oncology and parasitology. Her ultimate objective, however, is to provide a better understanding of the biology of diseases in order to create better management, care and treatment strategies for the patients. (Al Mustaqbal, April 2, 2016)

 

The Lebanese-American professor, Christiane Farran, is a new name added to the list of Lebanese women achievers for her outstanding invention in identifying the gene related to resistance of organ transplant in the human body. Farran, originally from Saida in the south, has lived through Lebanon’s civil war and had her share of a sniper’s bullet in her leg. Fortunately, she was treated at Hotel Dieu Hospital where she became fascinated with the medical profession and decided to enroll in Saint Joseph university’s school of medicine. Later on, Christiane moved to Paris where she specialized in nephrology and kidney surgery at the University of Paris (V) and later practiced at Necker Hospital in the French capital which, luckily, witnessed the first kidney transplant in the country. Eventually, Christiane discovered the crucial function of the immunity system in tolerating or resisting a transplanted organ, and therefore, decided to turn to scientific research in the field. She received a masters from Pasteur Institute followed by a doctorate in immunology from the University of Paris (VI). Her post doctorate research led her to Harvard in the US where she contributed to advanced studies on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Her efforts culminated with the determination of the gene A-20 responsible for organ transplants. (Al Hayat, April 3, 2016)

 

Al Mustaqbal daily newspaper portrayed in its edition of Monday, the sweet story of a seventy-year old woman called Saadiyah Hariri, and her life experience with the distillation of the famed Lebanese orange blossom water. Um Mhamad, from Saida, boasted that she has been extracting the essence of orange blossom for decades from the confinement of a small room annexed to the family house. She said she spends the whole months of March and April of each year at her private “laboratory”, and described to the reporter the different phases of the ‘making of’. After picking, collecting and sifting the blossoms, she empties them in the traditional copper jar (alembic), the ‘karake’ leaving them to simmer under the burning firewood. A tube permeates a water filled barrel built inside the karake to cool down the vapor of the blossoms passing through it announcing the birth of the product which she proudly pours in special glass bottle.  Um Mhamad expounds on how she brought up her children and provided for them from this very specialized and strenuous job. Her extremely dry but rose-pink hands have been marinated with “the aroma of the southern city’s orchards,” she finally said. (Al Mustaqbal, April 4, 2016)

 

Despite local and national criticism of the “kafala system”, the Minister of Labor perserveres with his attempts to maintain this contemporary trend to enslave migrant women domestic workers.  Within this framework, the meeting yesterday of the ‘National Facilitation Committee’ headed by labor minister Sajaan Azzi on conditions of migrant women domestic workers (MWDW) in Lebanon did not bring any new developments. The only outcome was the announcement by the minister to continue with the newly initiated system to regulate the work of MWDW employment agencies, which, as he claimed, is fair to the employer, the worker and the agency owner. “It aims at rationalizing and stabilizing the profession while giving it an appealing image!” Azzi said, noting that “reform starts with closing down all the illegal or inactive offices and granting permits only to full-fledged establishments and not to one person.” The minister reiterated the main role of his ministry in the protection of MWDWs in accordance with relevant laws in effect. “If the government has repeatedly failed to address broader national issues affecting people, at least it should be there for their everyday grievances,” Azzi maintained.

Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, April 6, 2016

 

Kafa ‘enough violence and exploitation’ organization held a seminar last Friday at the Beirut Bar Association to discuss important updates on activating the implementation of Law No. 293 of the year 2014 related to the protection of women and other family members against domestic violence after two years from its approval. During the meeting, the results of the first national report on the awareness of the Lebanese people, their knowledge and attitudes vis-à-vis domestic violence were also launched. Kafa’s Listening and Counselling Center team presented the main data they collected, with special focus on the remarkable rise in the number of women who took refuge in the organization, particularly after the approval of the above law, (from 292 new cases in 2013 to 624 cases in 2014 and up to 772 cases last year, on top of hundreds of old cases). On the negative side, some 16 women were reported to have been killed by members of their families, mostly by husbands, and this after the endorsement of the protection law. According to the report, only one third of respondents said they heard about the law, of whom 97% followed the news of murder through the various media channels. This, the report maintained, represents a significant and positive change in the attitude of people towards the issue. The report also showed, that in general, there was an inclination (49%) to advise battered women to file complaints, while one third of respondents, within the Druze and Shiite communities in particular, and in the South and Beqaa areas (49%),, said that resorting to the family is the best decision in such cases, against a small percentage (13%) who advised the victim to remain silent and put up with the abuse indefinitely. Moreover, some 68% of respondents said they will intervene to help the domestically battered woman, against 32% who said they will abstain because the matter is “personal and does not concern them.” On the other hand, the confidence of the Lebanese people in the competent religious and civil courts, especially in cases of domestic violence, is still weak. Nearly 42% of respondents said they did not trust religious courts for reasons related to corruption and the male dominant mentality of clergymen, besides the unfairness of confessional laws. The percentage, however, dropped to 38% when asked about the role of civil courts in this matter. (As Safir, Al Akhbar, Al Mustaqbal, April 2, 2016)