Finding a job is the greatest challenge facing female ex-convicts

In a special feature today, The Daily Star brought to light the difficulties facing former female inmates and their struggle to integrate in society and find a job after their release to freedom.  Asma, an ex-convict who was jailed for six weeks on charges of fraud, told the newspaper that her prison experience has drastically changed her life. She had a public driving license before she was arrested but now she is threatened with losing it due to her criminal record or what the newspaper termed as stigma. According to prevalent laws, convicts charged with a minor offense, like Asma, have to wait 3 years before their criminal record is cleared, unlike convicts with felonies who have to wait at least 7 years. In the meantime, finding a job is a tough task for them. In this context, The Daily Star spoke to a number of persons concerned, including the director of Dar al Amal, Huda Kara, who assists female inmates inside their prison cells and in their post-prison life. Kara stated that her association currently works as an intermediary between ex-convicts and business owners, drawing attention to the painstaking job of convincing employers to hire them. Kara also revealed that Dar al- Amal is organizing training workshops in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce, to inspire businesses to recruit ex-convicts from both sexes. For her part, Sawsan Jabri, member of the board of the Chamber of Commerce Beirut, and owner of Diet Center in Beirut, maintained that a clean record should not be a condition for employment as stipulated by the Government. This condition, she lamented, has prevented her from hiring three women like Asma. Likewise, Sarah Beydun, owner of Sarah’s Bag fashion house that designs women’s bags and accessories with the help of women convicts, said she does not give much importance to the criminal record because a jail sentence, she explained, is a result of poor economic and social circumstances. (The Daily Star, December 22, 2016)