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During a Press Conference organized yesterday at the Press Club, five women announced the opening of membership to the so-called ‘Protecting the Privacy of the Family and of the Domestic Worker’ association which is still under establishment. The proud women, Helen Gearah, Arlette Bajani, Fadwa Yacoub, Ghada Zeitoun and Maria Jaarah Bardawil, launched their exceptionally racist undertaking without showing any feeling of remorse or ‘shame’ declaring that they count some 100 members so far. Unsurprisingly, the event started by defending the purpose of this association stating that it is not aimed against domestic workers but seeks to restore the relationship between the employer and the MWDW. However, the second party in this relationship, i.e. domestic workers, were not present at this gathering.  One of the founders, Helen Gearah insisted that “The domestic maids are not here to have a role”.   After Introducing the sponsorship ‘kafala’ system, Gearah then moved to describe the trade union for cleaning workers as a ‘heresy’, preferring that MWDWs join Lebanese syndicates instead but strictly objecting to their right to assemble under their own union.Gearah went on to say, “Imagine that you employ a domestic worker who is at the same time a member of the above trade union. Every now and then she will tell you that she is out to attend a meeting! Are these the qualifications anticipated in a domestic worker?” For her part, member lawyer Arlette Bajani, repeatedly said that the domestic worker is not a wage earner, rather she is a household member”. But this is quite misleading, as the domestic worker is not part of her employer’s family; rather she is paid for a specific job and does not expect kindness or compassion as much as she expects to exercise her natural and basic rights in freedom, justice, compensation and comfort. What really upsets the above association are the campaigns that tarnished the image of the Lebanese women driving sending countries to stop their citizens from travelling to Lebanon for work giving the way to increased smuggling of humans. The racist association is not aware of the risks that could face the domestic worker during trafficking, but is worried about the “excessive cost of bringing them into Lebanon illegally which devalues the quality of those workers”, as Jaarah put it. (Al Akhbar, 23 July 2015)

Al Hayat carried a special article on the occasion of the 20th anniversary this September of the United Nations Basic Program for Advancing Women’s Rights, the ‘Beijing Declaration’ which was endorsed by 189 states. The article noted that attending countries in 1995 could not anticipate the impact of the information technology and communications revolution that opened the doors for unprecedented opportunities. All this said, the newspaper noted that some 60% of world population (i.e. 4.4 billion people) remains not ‘connected’, with women making the largest disadvantaged proportion. The GSM (Group Special Mobile Association) recently published a report entitled ‘bridging the gender gap: mobile ownership and uses in low and middle income countries’ in which it tackled the issue of women’s ownership and uses of mobiles. The report indicated that over 1.7 billion women in countries of the above category do not have a cell phone, i.e. 14% less than men in this regard. Subsequently, the total number of women owning a mobile phone is less by 200 million than men. This gender gap is even wider in some regions, like for example in South Asia, where it is estimated at 38%. The survey also predicted that realizing gender equality in mobile ownership and usage among low and middle income communities could have several economic and social advantages, namely: the creation of jobs and education for some 200 million women, an addition of USD 170 billion in new job prospects in the field of telecommunications per year by 2020. Globally, the report noted some key hindering factors that prevent women from possessing cell phones, mainly, the high charge or cost of phones, lack of proper mobile networks or poor coverage, harassment calls, personal insecurity, lack of confidence in mobile sales persons and inadequate technical skills to use them. (Al Hayat, 14 July 2015)

Civil society and legal lobby groups, including the proposed union of migrant domestic workers and the Notaries of Lebanon, succeeded in forcing the General Security Directorate to repeal its circular that refuses to recognize all forms of emotional and contractual relationships between migrant workers of the third and fourth categories during their contractual work in Lebanon. (for full news: Notaries refuse General Security circular regarding foreign domestic workers). To this effect, the Justice Ministry issued on the first of July a memo asking all notaries to consider the above GS circular as void and nil and return to the previous arrangement regulating the sponsorship system. The new circular was welcomed by all notaries who lauded the Justice Ministry’s positive step in response to a letter issued on June 10, 2015 by the Council of Notaries asking for cancellation of said GS decision. To note, that seven associations, including the “Founding Committee of the General Union of Cleaning and Care Workers” urged in a detailed memo on May 13 the Justice Minister to cancel the GS Circular 1778 which they argued violated international conventions on human rights and all legal principles. In this respect, the Legal Agenda Executive Director lawyer Nizar Saghieh told Al Akhbar newspaper that what happened is one of the rare cases in which a public institution positively responds to a demand of this kind, particularly that the memo was also signed by the proposed union of migrant domestic workers. (Al Akhbar, 8 July 2015)

Once again, An Nahar daily lacks objectivity by choosing to side with the Labor Minister Sajaan Azzi (and with them, the unfortunate position of the General Trade Union) in its objection to establishing a union for migrant women domestic workers (MWDW). The newspaper published an article last Saturday, in fact the second in a short interval, in which the ministry accused civil society organizations defending the rights of migrant domestic workers of opportunism and using this issue to justify their funding from international organizations (refer to the previous link entitled: Is a trade union for migrant domestic workers really a threat? CGTL sides with the government!). An Nahar went on to wonder: “Why do migrant domestic workers keep renewing their contracts if work conditions were not that convenient?” Instead of acknowledging the rights of workers in assembling and organizing similarly to the recruiting agencies which exploits them, the Labor Ministry throws the responsibility on sending countries and their recruiting agencies. And while the Ministry persists in refusing to legalize such a trade union based on the fact that migrant workers in other countries do not boast that right, the president of the National Federation of Trade Unions, Castro Abdallah, confirmed that the proposed union would be the first of its kind in the Arab world but not the first in the world. He then cited the very active International Union of Workers in Domestic Service, which recently held its international conference in Uruguay. In a disturbing move, the Lebanese General Trade Union sent a rather disparaging message to Sajaan Azzi through Ali Mohyddeen, member of its executive council, in which he expressed his “surprise” towards the decision by the International Labor Organization to provide 400 thousand dollars to fund actions in favor of foreign workers. Mohyddeen called upon Azzi to query the ILO on the reasons for and modalities of disbursing such a huge amount to facilitate the organization of protests and activities in favor of “domestic maids”. It is worth mentioning here, the close institutional and strategic relationship which ties the ILO and the General Trade Union. In fact the latter organization was never on the record for refusing donations from the ILO.

The Lebanese-American Amina Audi was elected as a distinguished furniture industry designer in the American Home Furnishing Hall of Fame Foundation for the year 2015. The jury selected the short-listed candidates for their positions among leading designers based on a number of criteria: continued excellence, outstanding achievement, innovation and creativity and generous humanitarian actions. The five newly elected members were chosen by a 7-member committee as per their contributions to the making and development of the US house furniture. Born in Kfarhazir, Kura, in North Lebanon, and a resident of New York City, Amina Audi began her career in the West as a broadcaster in the Voice of America radio station and later as a teacher at a United Nations-run school. Today, she is the CEO of Stickley, Audi & Co. finest furniture stores founded back in 1900. The company is famed for quality handmade oak furniture uniquely distinctive in its manual wood carving. In addition to her work in the furniture field, Audi chaired many US-based charities. To name some, she served as a member on NYU Board of Trustees and represented the American woman at the UN Human Rights Conference in Vienna 1993 and in the United Nations IVth Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Besides, she carried the title of the best 1997 businesswoman in the State of New York. Furthermore, Audi was honored by many institutions, notably the American Red Cross and by the Lebanese American University. She also received an honorary doctorate from Colgate University. (An Nahar, 7 July 2015)