Afghan Businesses Run by Women Suffer Exponentially Under Pandemic
New Age Islam News Bureau
8
Aug 2020
•
Young Saudi Woman Takes Pioneering Role in Male-Dominated Engineering Industry
• Hyderabad Police Re-Registers Sedition Case Against 2 Muslim Women for Protesting Against Ayodhya Verdict
•
Young Palestinian Woman Succumbs to Injuries From Israeli Fire
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-businesses-run-women-suffer/d/122579
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Afghan
Businesses Run By Women Suffer Exponentially Under Pandemic
August
07, 2020
FILE:
An Afghan model displays her outfit at a fashion show in the northern Afghan
city of Mazar-e Sharif in April 2018.
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A
northern Afghan province that once boasted promising business opportunities for
women has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials
and business leaders in Balkh, a strategic province bordering Central Asia, say
the coronavirus pandemic is pushing Afghan women and their businesses to the
brink.
Nearly
half of Balkh’s hundreds of women-owned businesses, which previously employed
more than 2,000 women, are still shuttered weeks after coronavirus restrictions
were lifted.
Nasir
Ahmad Qasimi, CEO of Balkh’s Chamber of Commerce and Industries, tells Radio
Free Afghanistan that a month after restrictions were lifted in Balkh, its effects
are detrimental, leaving business owners concerned for their future.
“Our
female business owners are not active at the moment,” Qasimi said. “In the past
four months, 100 percent of female-owned businesses were halted due to the
pandemic and half of those businesses are currently not in operation.”
Most
of Balkh’s businesses run by women focus on making handicrafts and clothing
that is then sold at local markets. An exhibition marking International Women’s
Day in March saw more than 240 businesses showcase their products and highlight
the potential and value of Afghan women in business.
But
women in Afghanistan are finding it difficult to get business going like before
the pandemic. Women business leaders in Balkh say their businesses suffer from
a lack of consumer demand, closed borders, and the suspension of cargo flights
to Western markets, where Afghan handicrafts often reaped handsome profits.
Sima
Hashimi owns two textile workshops in Balkh’s capital, Mazar-e Sharif. She
decided to reopen them two weeks ago once lockdown restrictions were lifted.
But she says her businesses are now producing only half as much as they
produced before the pandemic because of a lack of consumer demand.
“Most
female business owners are in a similar situation, resorting to loans from the
bank in order to continue operations,” Hashimi told Radio Free Afghanistan.
She
says the women in Mazar-e Sharif who make handmade rugs, shoes, and bags have
slowly started working again, but things are not the same. “Many women have lost
their businesses and gone bankrupt because of the lack of demand,” Hashimi
said.
Sher
Ahmad Sipahizada, provincial director of the Industry and Commerce Ministry,
says his office is looking into helping women market their wares by creating
exhibitions while also transitioning to the production of different goods, such
as dairy products.
Balkh,
which borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, has emerged as a
central hub for commerce, trade, and local craftsmanship in northern
Afghanistan.
While
official figures show Afghanistan to have less than 40,000 confirmed
coronavirus cases and over 1,000 deaths from COVID-19, the actual tally from
the pandemic is thought to be much higher. This week, the results of a survey
conducted through more than 9,000 antibody tests estimated that some 31.5
percent of Afghanistan’s estimated 32-million population has contracted the
coronavirus.
The
World Bank expects economic growth in Afghanistan to decline sharply this year.
It expects a vast majority of Afghans to “to fall under the poverty line due to
the severe impacts of the pandemic on incomes and jobs.”
https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghan-businesses-run-by-women-suffer-exponentially-under-pandemic/30771690.html
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Young
Saudi woman takes pioneering role in male-dominated engineering industry
August
08, 2020
Rawan
Abukhaled. (Supplied)
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Thank
you for reading the news about Young Saudi woman takes pioneering role in
male-dominated engineering industry and now with the details
Jeddah
- Yasmine El Tohamy - JEDDAH: A young Saudi is setting the pace by becoming the
only woman working at a manufacturing plant as a digital transformation
consultant for GE Digital in the Kingdom.
Rawan
Abukhaled, 23, has paved the way for hopeful young Saudi engineers to not be
afraid of being the only woman in the room.
“I’m
probably one of the first women to join the industry in the Kingdom,” she said.
“I want to be the best representation of a female Saudi engineer in this field,
so everyone around me thinks, ‘Hey, we need to hire more women.’ I’m constantly
trying to get that idea through,” she added.
She
is aware of how male-dominated the industry is, not just in Saudi Arabia but
around the world. “When I got my first job in the US as a software developer, I
was one of the very few females in the room as a software developer and now
there are sometimes no other women in the room.”
Abukhaled
is passionate about making change, and her job depends on it. She is keen on
providing companies with digital solutions that help them to cut costs and
raise productivity.
“Today,
I’m learning in the field hands-on, rather than in an office. And for soft
skills, this is a client-facing job. So, I am in situations that challenge me
to grow, especially in my interactions with customers. I’m the only local or
regional person on the ground, so the (GE Digital) team in the US relies on me
to go to customer sites, and that helps me grow both my technical and soft
skills.”
HIGHLIGHT
She
is aware of how male-dominated the industry is, not just in Saudi Arabia but
around the world. She has paved the way for hopeful young Saudi engineers to
not be afraid of being the only woman in the room.
The
industrial and systems engineering graduate gained a sense of how much she
could do for women when she studied at Virginia Tech, US. She took part in a
campaign to become the vice president of the Saudi Student Club and succeeded
in becoming the first woman to be elected to the role in 80 years.
Abukhaled
said that she was flabbergasted at the number of women approaching her to ask
what it was like and the impact it left on female students around her. “I was
the vice president of a student club. Even something that small inspired
women.”
When
she was growing up, Abukhaled wanted to get into medicine. “As I got older, I
realized I wasn’t that great in biology and I was more interested in physics
and math, so I knew engineering was a better fit for me.”
Her
current job with GE Digital allows her to work in the two areas she feels
strongly about: Technology and people. “There’s a geek side to me that likes
the math and problem-solving, and the other side of me that loves the social
network and interacting with people.”
Her
father has supported her throughout. He was an industrial engineer, which ended
up being a great asset as the two of them shared common interests. “We are a
lot alike. He became an influential leader in a multinational organization, and
I want to follow in his footsteps. He’s supported me every step of the way,
ever since I was a little girl.”
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https://alkhaleejtoday.co/saudi-arabia/5028648/Young-Saudi-woman-takes-pioneering-role-in-male-dominated-engineering-industry.html
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Hyderabad
Police Re-Registers Sedition Case Against 2 Muslim Women for Protesting Against
Ayodhya Verdict
08
August 2020
New
Delhi: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Central Crime Station (CCS)
under the Hyderabad police on Thursday re-registered a sedition case against
two women from Saidabad which was previously registered by the Saidabad police
last year.
“We
have re-registered a sedition case against the women. The case will be
investigated by SIT of CCS,” Avinash Mohanty, joint commissioner of police
(detective) told the Times of India.
These
two women are Muslim cleric Maulana Abdul Islahi’s daughters, Shabista and
Zille Huma. They were booked in November 2019 for organising a special
congregation Qunoot-e-Nazilah against the Supreme Court’s verdict in the
Ayodhya title dispute case.
After
going through videos of the congregation, sub-inspector Din Dayal Singh of the
Saidabad police had lodged a complaint against the women, accusing them of
promoting enmity on ground of religion and sedition, and registered a case last
year.
They
were also accused of attacking policemen at the Saidabad police station and a
non-bailable warrant is pending against them.
The
re-registration comes on the heels of Ayodhya being back in the headlines,
after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Ram temple
that is being built where the Babri Masjid once stood. In November 2019, the
Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Hindu party in the Ayodhya title dispute
case and paved the way for the Ram temple’s construction.
The
sedition law, according to the Supreme Court, is only supposed to be applied
when there has been a direct incitement to violence. However, police across the
country continue to misuse it to suppress dissent.
https://thewire.in/rights/hyderabad-police-re-registers-sedition-case-against-2-muslim-women-for-protesting-against-ayodhya-verdict
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Young
Palestinian woman succumbs to injuries from Israeli fire
07
August 2020
A
young Palestinian woman has succumbed to the injuries she sustained from fire
by Israeli forces in the occupied northern West Bank city of Jenin.
According
to Palestinian media, clashes occurred between Israeli forces and Palestinians
in al-Jabriat district in Jenin early on Friday.
The
32-year-old victim, identified as Dalia Ahmed Soleiman Samudi, was shot in the
chest in front of her house when Israeli soldiers opened fire at her.
Mahmoud
al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin, said the Israeli
forces also opened fire on the ambulance carrying the victim.
Tensions
have been running high in the occupied territories amid plans by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime to annex the occupied West Bank and the
Jordan Valley. The plan has been delayed but it has not been called off.
Netanyahu
has been driven ahead by President Donald Trump of the United States, who
unveiled a plan for the Middle East in January that effectively sidelines the
Palestinians.
The
Palestinians want the occupied West Bank as part of a future independent
Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. Trump’s plan
envisions Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allows the Tel
Aviv regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan
Valley. The plan also denies Palestinian refugees the right of return to their
homeland, among other controversial terms.
Israel’s
unlawful annexation push has drawn widespread criticisms from the entire
international community, including the regime’s closest allies. And it has
angered the native Palestinian population.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/07/631286/Palestine-young-woman-Jenin-Israeli-fire
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-businesses-run-women-suffer/d/122579