China counters Female Muslim Uighur Critics by calling them ‘loose’ women
New
Age Islam News Bureau
01
March 2021
-----------
• ‘Protecting
dignity’: Iran’s push to fight violence against women
• ‘Restore
FGM’ for Egyptian women: Reconstructing the body and soul
• Canada:
Muslim women offered self defence classes in wake of attacks in Edmonton
• UAE
is best in region for women economic empowerment
• Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community Switches to Virtual Event to Celebrate International Women’s
Day
• In
oil-rich Iraq, a few women buck norms, take rig site jobs
• Beach
volleyball stars boycott Qatar tournament over bikini ban
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/china-counters-female-muslim-uighur/d/124425
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China
counters female Uighur critics by calling them ‘loose’ women
March
1, 2021
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BEIJING:
China, under growing global pressure over its treatment of a Muslim minority in
its far west, is mounting an unprecedented and aggressive campaign to push back,
including explicit attacks on women who have made claims of abuse.
As
allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang mount, with a growing number
of Western lawmakers accusing China of genocide, Beijing is focussing on
discrediting the female Uighur witnesses behind recent reports of abuse.
Chinese
officials have named women, disclosed what they say is private medical data and
information on the women’s fertility, and accused some of having affairs and
one of having a sexually transmitted disease. The officials said the
information was evidence of bad character, invalidating the women’s accounts of
abuse in Xinjiang.
“To
rebuke some media’s disgusting acts, we have taken a series of measures,”
XuGuixiang, the deputy head of Xinjiang’s publicity department, told a December
news conference that was part of China’s pushback campaign. It includes
hours-long briefings, with footage of Xinjiang residents and family members
reading monologues.
A
Reuters review of dozens of hours of presentations from recent months and
hundreds of pages of literature, as well as interviews with experts, shows a
meticulous and wide-reaching campaign that hints at China’s fears that it is
losing control of the Xinjiang narrative.
“One
reason that the Communist Party is so concerned about these testimonies from
women is because it undermines their initial premise for what they’re doing
there, which is anti-terrorism”, said James Millward, a professor of Chinese
history at Georgetown University and expert in Xinjiang policy.
“The
fact that there are so many women in the camps … who don’t have the faintest
appearance of being violent people, this just shows how this has nothing to do
with terrorism.”
Uighurs
make up most of the 1 million people that a UN estimate says have been detained
in Xinjiang camps under what the central government calls a campaign against
terrorism. Accusations by activists and some Western politicians include
torture, forced labour and sterilisations.
In
rare US bipartisan agreement, the top diplomats of the former administration of
Donald Trump and the new one of Joe Biden have called China’s treatment of the
Uighurs genocide, a stance adopted last week by the Canadian and Dutch
parliaments.
China
faces sanctions such as a ban on US purchases of Xinjiang cotton and tomatoes,
and calls by some Western lawmakers to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter
Olympics.
The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for
comment on Monday. The government denies accusations of abuse at the
“vocational training centres” in the remote western region, and says claims of
systematic sexual abuse are unfounded.
Beijing
has rejected calls for an independent UN investigation into Xinjiang’s
internment programme.
Journalists
and diplomats have not been permitted access to the camps outside of tightly
controlled government tours. Uighurs in Xinjiang have told Reuters they fear
reprisals for speaking to the press while in China
Lies
and slander
China’s
tightly controlled, invitation-only media events on Xinjiang require
journalists to submit questions days or weeks in advance. They include
pre-recorded videos and prepared testimony by former camp inmates and religious
figures.
Beijing
has packaged content from the events in two volumes titled, “The Truth About
Xinjiang: Exposing the US-Led Lies and Slanders About Xinjiang”.
In
January, the Twitter account of China’s US embassy was suspended for a tweet
that said Uighur women had been “baby-making machines” before Beijing
instituted its system of camps.
“The
biological, the reproductive, the gendered aspect of this is particularly
horrifying to the world,” said Georgetown’s Millward. China “seems to have
recognised that… You now see them trying in this clumsy way to respond”.
During
a regular daily press briefing last week, foreign ministry spokesman Wang
Wenbin held up images of witnesses who had described sexual abuse in Xinjiang.
The account of one of them, he said, was “lies and rumours” because she had not
recounted the experience in previous interviews. He gave medical details about
the woman’s fertility.
Xinjiang
officials in January said a woman who had spoken to foreign media had syphilis,
and they showed images of medical records — unsolicited information that was
not directly related to her account.
A
Xinjiang government official said of another witness last month: “Everyone
knows about her inferior character. She’s lazy and likes comfort, her private
life is chaotic, her neighbours say that she committed adultery while in
China.”
Last
week, the top spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, Hua Chunying, tweeted
images of four named witnesses, saying they had “raked their brains for lies”,
adding “they will never succeed”.
China
has declined to provide data on the number of people in the camps. Beijing
initially denied the camps existed but now says they are vocational and
education centres and that all the people have “graduated”.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2021/03/01/china-counters-female-uighur-critics-by-calling-them-loose-women/
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‘Protecting
dignity’: Iran’s push to fight violence against women
By
MaziarMotamedi
28
Feb 2021
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Tehran,
Iran – After almost a decade in the making, Iran may finally be on track to
pass legislation that, while far from perfect, would signal progress in
addressing a wide range of issues relating to violence against women.
A
draft bill called Protection, Dignity, and Security of Women Against Violence,
which has been in the works since the administration of former President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was approved by the government in early January.
While
the administration of President Hassan Rouhani hopes to turn the bill into law
before he finishes his second tenure in June, the bill must first clear the
parliament and the constitutional vetting body called the Guardian Council,
which consists of jurists and religious experts.
Parliament,
which has been at odds with the government over Iran’s nuclear deal with world
powers and the annual budget bill among other things, has yet to begin work on
the legislation.
The
bill finalised by the government is the result of years of work by different
factions of the administration in addition to dozens of legal experts, judges
and executives at the judiciary.
The
judiciary, under the new leadership of former presidential candidate
EbrahimRaisi since early 2019, finished its lengthy review in September 2019.
The
most senior woman in Rouhani’s outgoing government told Al Jazeera that the
bill’s background makes it significant.
“In
addition to being strong legally, this bill has a rare strength and
formidability because it has been devised, reviewed and pursued through the
indirect participation of the two reigning political thoughts of reformism and
principlism [conservatism] across three governments,” said MasoumehEbtekar,
Vice President for Women and Family Affairs.
“Not
only did the judiciary not oppose its principles, but had an effective
cooperation with the government in expert review and follow-up sessions.”
However,
the bill may face opposition at the conservative parliament, and the powerful
Guardian Council, which about two decades ago rejected a bill to join the
United Nations Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women.
That
bill has been in a legislative deadlock ever since as Iran remains one of only
four countries in the world not to have ratified the convention.
“Before
waiting for and expecting the bill to be passed during the tenure of the
current government, the issue of whether it will be passed by the parliament
and approved by the Guardian Council is considered a major concern,” Ebtekar
said in reference to the women’s bill she spearheaded.
“The
parliament can make changes in the bill as per the law. But there’s hope that
considering the amount of expert reviews conducted by both the executive and
judicial branches, because the bill was originally devised by a principalist
government, and because of demands in the society, changes in the bill would
either not take place or be kept at a minimum.”
What’s
in the bill?
The
bill’s dozens of articles and provisions offer up a new definition for violence
against women, set up new responsibilities for various state-run agencies, and
envision new support systems.
The
legislation defines violence as “any behaviour inflicted on women due to
sexuality, vulnerable position or type of relationship, and inflicts harm to
their body, psyche, personality and dignity, or restricts or deprives them of
legal rights and freedoms”.
It
envisages the formation of a fund by the judiciary to support victims of
violence, provide teachings on “life and job skills” to imprisoned women, and
contribute to paying blood money to families of women murdered by men.
The
draft law says the judiciary can issue a protection order in case of a serious
threat of harm to a survivor of violence or her children, which can include a
restraining order, obliging the husband to attend therapy, or transfer the
victim and her children to a safe house.
It
also contains provisions aimed at boosting job creation for vulnerable women,
and reducing or managing working hours for employed women who need to spend
more family time. It further advocates more comprehensive insurance coverage
for housewives.
The
bill dedicates a significant portion of its provisions to education and
expanding knowledge and know-how on women’s issues.
For
instance, in addition to obligating the judiciary to create offices tasked with
providing support to victims of violence, it calls for organising educational
courses for judges and other judiciary staff.
If passed
into law, it will obligate the state broadcaster to produce more programmes
that promote the support of women and the prevention of violence against them
as family values.
It
sees a role for the ministry of education in holding courses for students,
teachers and parents, and in better identifying vulnerable students.
The
legislation also includes the ministry of health, law enforcement and prison
organisations among others as part of its vision.
What’s
missing?
In
a thorough analysis of the bill in December, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the
legislation has a several strong points including coordination of efforts
inside and outside the government.
However,
the New York-based organisation said “the bill falls short of international
standards,” including those stipulated in the United Nations Women’s Handbook
for Legislation on Violence Against Women.
For
one, the HRW said, the bill does not specifically define domestic violence even
though it includes measures that could help better protect women subjected to
it.
Moreover,
while the legislation criminalises various forms of violence against women
including forced marriage, sexual harassment in public and physical and
psychological abuse, it does not criminalise marital rape and virginity
testing, or abolish child marriage.
The
mandatory punishment for rape remains the death penalty, which is one of the
factors that could deter survivors from reporting rape.
The
most recent reflection of this dilemma came in September 2020 after countless
Iranian women took to social media to report sexual traumas, launching their
own version of the #MeToo movement.
At
least one man was arrested and has since been charged with “corruption on
Earth” which carries the death penalty. A number of the accusers elected not to
formally sue him as they did not wish for him to be executed.
The
legislation says in cases of violence where the father or the husband is the
accused, authorities should refer the case to a medical council for a month in
a reconciliation effort, which the HRW said could reduce accountability for the
offender.
Alternative
sentences considered for the victim’s husband, father, or mother could also be
problematic, the organisation said.
Most
recently, the gruesome beheading of 14-year-old RominaAshrafi by her father in
an “honour” killing in May 2020 directed national attention towards lenient
sentences for offenders related to the victims. The father received a sentence
of only nine years.
The
draft law also does not explicitly exclude prosecution for consensual
extramarital affairs that are criminalised under Iran’s current criminal code
even though relationships outside marriage have seen growing social acceptance
in recent years.
It
also fails to remedy a number of existing discriminatory laws, including one that
asserts women must receive permission from their husband or legal guardian to
leave the country.
Earlier
this month, the women’s national alpine skiing team left Iran for Italy to take
part in international competitions without its head coach Samira Zargari,
because her husband did not allow her to leave the country.
‘Frameworks
of Iranian religion and culture’
When
asked about the bill’s shortcomings in terms of international standards, the
vice president for women’s affairs said social and cultural diversity in
nations means that laws that aim to guide people towards positive behaviour
vary across different countries.
But
laws that aim to deter individuals from harmful behaviour, Ebtekar said, tend
to be more uniform, and are contained in the government’s proposed legislation.
“The
innovations predicted in this bill have created a smooth path to combat
violence proportionate to the necessities and needs of Iranian women and within
the frameworks of Iranian religion and culture,” she told Al Jazeera.
“This
bill pays attention to three important and vital elements in women’s issues:
the dignity and position of women, their rights, and their security at home and
in society. Considering how important these three elements are, if the bill is
passed, approaches toward the elements will change and will be reformed. This
will be the most important thing for women’s issues.”
Ebtekar
also pointed out that in his report for UN Women’s upcoming session of the
Commission on the Status of Women, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also
pointed to Iran’s efforts to support vulnerable women.
‘More
societal sensitivity’
An
Iran researcher at the HRW told Al Jazeera that, like other legislative reforms
that have had a positive effect on the situation of human rights in Iran, this
bill could also help build consensus among different factions of governance.
“I
think this bill with all its shortcoming is still an attempt to recognise the
importance of providing adequate legal protection for women in society, and
creates opportunities to push the authorities to do more awareness raising, and
even for lawyers who work on protecting survivors of violence,” Tara Sepehri
Far said.
“I
think this law is also going to contribute to empowering women to demand better
protections, but it does not go far enough to address all the issues.”
The
HRW researcher noted that like other countries, legislation on women’s rights
is easily politicised in Iran and has been slow-moving, but a majority of
authorities dealing with social issues recognise the need for reform.
“Iranian
women and the civil society have been shaping the cultural shift that is
probably facilitated by easier access to information through social media,”
Sepehri Far said.
“You
can’t deny the fact that there is a lot more societal sensitivity about issues
such as femicide and violence against women with media openly discussing them,
and this will continue to create pressure on elected officials to take action.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/2/28/protecting-dignity-irans-push-to-fight-violence-against-women
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‘Restore
FGM’ for Egyptian women: Reconstructing the body and soul
Dina
Ezzat
1
Mar 2021
AmrSeifeddin
has been a practicing gynaecologist for over 35 years. He works in public
hospitals, where he caters for the majority of economically challenged women,
and private hospitals that provide medical services to more economically
advantaged women. Seifeddin doesn’t recall a day in which he didn’t come in
contact with a Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) survivor.
“It
is really widespread, to a devastating point,” he said.
While
statistics have roughly estimated that close to 90 percent of women in Egypt,
between the age of seven and 70, have undergone FGM, Seifeddin, like other
gynaecologists, would argue that it is perhaps more.
“We
are talking about a range of harm really – sometimes it is much more
devastating than others, but in general what one sees often is the cut of a big
part, if not all, of the external part of the clitoris,” he added.
During
the past 10 years, Seifeddin has been providing a medical service that could
help some of these women find a way out of the harm that they had to endure –
“unfortunately sometimes at the hands of medical doctors who agree to do this
operation.”
Seifeddin
has indeed been one of the first in Egypt to introduce restorative surgeries
that allow the unharmed part of the clitoris to regain its function.
“The
clitoris is an 8-12cm organ. Only the palpable part is removed during genital
cutting, the rest lies within the body. We can remove peri-clitoral adhesions,
basically the tissues around the clitoris, and with a delicate surgical
technique, make the clitoris more accessible to stimulation and thus able to
function, as close as possible, like the uncut clitoris,” he explained.
Surgical
intervention is one of the options FGM survivors Seifeddin and RihamAwwad are
offering at their medical centre Restore FGM, which they co-founded to help FGM
survivors overcome the damage they suffer from.
“Overcoming
the damage is a process that starts essentially with psychological assistance
to help women overcome the trauma they had and to make sure that their
perception of their bodies is not undermined,” he said. “Then there is a range
of therapies that help improve the functions of the sexual organs to allow for
women to better enjoy sexuality,” he added.
Then,
Seifeddin added, there is always the surgical path that helps women with their
body functions and with the aesthetics of their bodies “and the latter is very
important.”
Throughout
the past 10 years, Seifeddin and Awwad have helped dozens of women through the
medical services of their centre.
According
to Seifeddin, the “restorative operation of the clitoris” will be in higher
demand once the centre is registered as an NGO. This will help funds to flow to
provide the centre’s services at at no or very low cost for the majority of
women who need the operation but cannot afford the cost, “which varies a great
deal depending on the case.”
“The
government has been encouraging families to abandon this practice which is part
of a deeply rooted culture all across East Africa,” Seifeddin said.
Since
1995, several legal penalties have been introduced to put a cap on the
widespread practice. Only in January this year, the penalties have been
relatively toughened against those who pursue FGM and those who practise it.
Still,
Seifeddin believes it is a very long way before the numbers could significantly
drop. And in any case, he argued, “we are talking about millions of women”
today who are into their reproductive age and are suffering the many
complications of FGM.
“So,
yes, we need tougher laws, more awareness campaigns, and of course the medical
services to help those who had to go through this ordeal to find their way
out,” he said.
At
the end, Seifeddin argued, the restoration of the clitoris is part of the wider
and growing cosmetic gynaecology that has been finding its way in Egypt during
the past 10 to 15 years.
Women
who require these medical services are not necessarily victims of FGM.
According to Seifeddin, the most non-FGM related cosmetic surgeries are the
vaginoplasty and labiaplasy that often attend to the side effects of recurrent
childbirth.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/404986.aspx
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Canada:
Muslim women offered self defence classes in wake of attacks in Edmonton
March
1, 2021
AhlulBayt
News Agency (ABNA): There’s a sense of
fear in Edmonton’s Muslim community after several attacks on Black, Muslim
women in recent weeks.
“It’s
been a trend where we’ve seen five in a span of weeks so the community came
together and felt that action needed to be taken,” said Noor Al-Henedy, the
communications and public relations director for Al Rashid Mosque.
“It
is really in a way taking a stand and saying we will not tolerate the abuse
that our women are going through,” she said. “It’s not right.”
She
said they were given permission from Alberta Health but must keep class sizes
to a maximum of 25 people and follow other public health guidelines.
Al-Henedy
believed the need for such a class was urgent and participants were grateful to
learn ways to keep themselves safe.
“I
think it’s really important that we all get to know the basics so we’re not in
a situation where we’re too afraid or we panic,” said one participant who asked
not to be identified.
The
goal is to replace the fear the women feel with confidence.
“Believing
and understanding that you can and you are strong enough,” said Aisha Barise, a
World Taekwondo Federation 3rd Dan Black Belt and class instructor.
“It
really starts before an attack. It starts within yourself. You have to have the
right mental state. You have to have the right sort of confidence and as
females that really tends to be very difficult,” Barise said.
“Any
woman, regardless of whether she’s a Muslim or not need to be very vigilant and
very aware especially if she’s walking alone,” said Al-Henedy.
“There
could be a form of harassment or attack against her unfortunately it’s just
something women around the world have to go through.”
Al-Henedy
said Edmonton is home to Canada’s oldest mosque which was built in 1938 and
doesn’t understand why Muslim women are being targeted now.
“We
kind of built our city together so to see right now that Muslim sisters are
being targeted for hate attacks 80 years after the first mosque was built it
raises a lot of questions of where is this coming from? How did we get here?
And how can we undo it,” said Al-Henedy.
https://en.abna24.com/news//canada-muslim-women-offered-self-defence-classes-in-wake-of-attacks-in-edmonton_1119532.html
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UAE
is best in region for women economic empowerment
February
24, 2021
The
UAE has topped the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region when it comes to
the economic participation of its women, a new report has found.
According
to the World Bank’s newly released 2021 ‘Women, Business and the Law’ (WBL)
report, the UAE has topped the Mena region rankings, as a result of several
legislative reforms related to women’s economic participation that were enacted
over the last three years.
Considered
one of the most significant global indexes that analyses laws and regulations
affecting women’s economic inclusion in 190 economies, the annual report is
composed of eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the
law as they begin, progress through, and end their careers. The indicators are:
Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and
Pension.
This
year, the UAE achieved 82.5 points out of a total of 100 points, compared to 56
points scored in the report’s 2020 edition and 29 points in the 2019 edition.
The UAE also achieved a full score (100 points) in five indicators in the
latest report: Movement, Workplace, Wages, Entrepreneurship, and Pension.
SheikhaManal
bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of the UAE Gender Balance
Council, said that the massive strides made by the UAE in the latest report are
the result of new laws and more than 20 legislative reforms focused on
enhancing women's economic participation. She said that these achievements are
significant additions to the UAE’s scientific, economic and social
accomplishments that are set to propel the country’s accelerated progress in
the next fifty years.
She
also stressed that the UAE’s successes in promoting gender balance have been
driven by the unwavering support of the UAE’s leadership, which has been
committed to ensure women have equal opportunities to contribute to the
nation’s sustainable development. Right from the country’s foundation in 1971,
the leadership granted equal rights to women and worked tirelessly to protect
women’s freedoms and rights, and to remove all barriers to their advancement.
Their vision inspired all stakeholders to work together to raise women’s
participation in every sphere of life, she noted.
Some
of the legislative reforms that are credited with enhancing the UAE’s ranking
include amendments to the laws regarding discrimination in the workplace,
parental leave, access to credit for business, political participation, as well
as protection and social security. This year, the UAE became the first and only
country in Mena region to offer parental leave. The UAE labour law also
prohibits the termination of a woman’s contract due to pregnancy. It also
prohibits discrimination between employees in the workplace, granting women
equal access to employment and promotion opportunities.
The
UAE Central Bank has also issued a notice for all banking and financial
institutions in the UAE to promote gender equality and prohibit any gender
discrimination in all banking and financial transactions, including obtaining
loans and credit facilities. In 2019, the UAE government issued a Federal
Decree to ensure equality in the representation of both genders in the
judiciary sector. In addition, as per a directive of the UAE President, His
Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Emirati women must occupy 50 per
cent of the Federal National Council’s seats.
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/uae-is-best-in-region-for-women-economic-empowerment
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Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community Switches to Virtual Event to Celebrate International Women’s
Day
By:
Jackie Kozak
March
1, 2021
The
Women’s Auxiliary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMWA) is hosting a free,
virtual event for women on Sunday March 7, 'Role of Women in My Faith' starting
from 3 to 5 p.m.
Organized
by Interfaith Symposium, the event will have a number of guest speakers from
different faith groups discussing the role women play in each religion.
Guest
speakers will include Rabbi Audrey Kauffman,
a registered nurse, representing Judaism, teenager Alexia Seedial,
representing Christianity, Dr.NaureenSohail, a physician at Sick Kids Hospital
and Vice President of the Women's Auxiliary AhmadiyyaMuslimJammat, representing
Ahmadiyya Muslim, and KekaDasgupta, a Public Relations and Marketing
professional who is also a TEDx speaker and will be representing Hinduism.
Participants
can register online for this inspirational event at:
http://nrointerfaithsymposium.eventbrite.com
The
Women’s Auxiliary of the AMWA is a group of Muslim women who follow and
practice the principles of the Islam faith. They are inclusive of all religions
and faiths and respect others' spiritual practices. The group consists of women
who are mothers, doctors, teachers, social workers, and entrepreneurs, who
strive to support one another as well as the community through education and
charitable acts. Their motto is “Love for All, Hatred for None”.
“An
Interfaith Symposium is held every year to encourage dialogue among different
faith groups,” explains SadafNaseem, Regional Outreach Coordinator of the AMWA
Northern Ontario Group. “The purpose is to invite speakers from multiple faiths
and backgrounds, listen to their views and involve in peaceful conversation
with them. Moreover, it also helps to highlight the true and beautiful
teachings of Islam and to remove misconceptions.”
Last
year, the group was able to ‘squeeze in’ their in-person, live event before the
pandemic, and although this year they must resort to virtual events, event
organizers share they are excited to have further reach across the world.
“We’re
so blessed,” expresses NaheedKhokhar who is the group’s national social media
secretary. “It’s allowed us to have these events and unify us across the
country. It’s bringing people together like we’ve never imagined.”
AMWA
has 17 regional chapters and 107 local chapters in Canada with 50 in the
Greater Toronto Area. The group is a non-profit, charitable, religious
organization that was founded in 1889 and spans over 212 countries with
memberships exceeding tens of millions.
“The
objective of our community is to share the true and peaceful teachings of
Islam. To achieve that, we organize and endorse open houses, interfaith
dialogue and exhibitions educate and ultimately foster religious tolerance and
understanding,” explains Naseem.
https://www.bradfordtoday.ca/local-news/ahmadiyya-muslim-community-switches-to-virtual-event-to-celebrate-international-womens-day-3460053
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In
oil-rich Iraq, a few women buck norms, take rig site jobs
February
28, 2021
BASRA:
It’s nearly dawn and ZainabAmjad has been up all night working on an oil rig in
southern Iraq. She lowers a sensor into the black depths of a well until sonar
waves detect the presence of the crude that fuels her country’s economy.
Elsewhere
in the oil-rich province of Basra, AyatRawthan is supervising the assembly of
large drill pipes. These will bore into the Earth and send crucial data on rock
formations to screens sitting a few meters (feet) away that she will decipher.
The
women, both 24, are among just a handful who have eschewed the dreary office
jobs typically handed to female petroleum engineers in Iraq. Instead, they
chose to become trailblazers in the country’s oil industry, donning hard hats
to take up the grueling work at rig sites.
They
are part of a new generation of talented Iraqi women who are testing the limits
imposed by their conservative communities. Their determination to find jobs in
a historically male-dominated industry is a striking example of the way a
burgeoning youth population finds itself increasingly at odds with deeply
entrenched and conservative tribal traditions prevalent in Iraq’s southern oil
heartland.
The
hours Amjad and Rawthan spend in the oil fields are long and the weather
unforgiving. Often they are asked what — as women — they are doing there.
“They
tell me the field environment only men can withstand,” said Amjad, who spends
six weeks at a time living at the rig site. “If I gave up, I’d prove them
right.”
Iraq’s
fortunes, both economic and political, tend to ebb and flow with oil markets.
Oil sales make up 90% of state revenues — and the vast majority of the crude
comes from the south. A price crash brings about an economic crisis; a boom
stuffs state coffers. A healthy economy brings a measure of stability, while
instability has often undermined the strength of the oil sector. Decades of
wars, civil unrest and invasion have stalled production.
Following
low oil prices dragged down by the coronavirus pandemic and international
disputes, Iraq is showing signs of recovery, with January exports reaching
2.868 million barrels per day at $53 per barrel, according to Oil Ministry
statistics.
To
most Iraqis, the industry can be summed up by those figures, but Amjad and
Rawthan have a more granular view. Every well presents a set of challenges;
some required more pressure to pump, others were laden with poisonous gas.
“Every field feels like going to a new country,” said Amjad.
Given
the industry’s outsized importance to the economy, petrochemical programs in
the country’s engineering schools are reserved for students with the highest
marks. Both women were in the top 5% of their graduating class at Basra
University in 2018.
In
school they became awestruck by drilling. To them it was a new world, with it’s
own language: “spudding” was to start drilling operations, a “Christmas tree”
was the very top of a wellhead, and “dope” just meant grease.
Every
work day plunges them deep into the mysterious affairs below the Earth’s crust,
where they use tools to look at formations of minerals and mud, until the
precious oil is found. “Like throwing a rock into water and studying the
ripples,” explained Rawthan.
To
work in the field, Amjad, the daughter of two doctors, knew she had to land a
job with an international oil company — and to do that, she would have to stand
out. State-run enterprises were a dead end; there, she would be relegated to
office work.
“In
my free time, on my vacations, days off I was booking trainings, signing up for
any program I could,” said Amjad.
When
China’s CPECC came to look for new hires, she was the obvious choice. Later,
when Texas-based Schlumberger sought wireline engineers she jumped at the
chance. The job requires her to determine how much oil is recoverable from a
given well. She passed one difficult exam after another to get to the final
interview.
Asked
if she was certain she could do the job, she said: “Hire me, watch.”
In
two months she traded her green hard hat for a shiny white one, signifying her
status as supervisor, no longer a trainee — a month quicker than is typical.
Rawthan,
too, knew she would have to work extra hard to succeed. Once, when her team had
to perform a rare “sidetrack” — drilling another bore next to the original —
she stayed awake all night.
“I
didn’t sleep for 24 hours, I wanted to understand the whole process, all the
tools, from beginning to end,” she said.
Rawthan
also now works for Schlumberger, where she collects data from wells used to
determine the drilling path later on. She wants to master drilling, and the
company is a global leader in the service.
Relatives,
friends and even teachers were discouraging: What about the hard physical work?
The scorching Basra heat? Living at the rig site for months at a time? And the
desert scorpions that roam the reservoirs at night?
“Many
times my professors and peers laughed, ‘Sure, we’ll see you out there,’ telling
me I wouldn’t be able to make it,” said Rawthan. “But this only pushed me
harder.”
Their
parents were supportive, though. Rawthan’s mother is a civil engineer and her
father, the captain of an oil tanker who often spent months at sea.
“They
understand why this is my passion,” she said. She hopes to help establish a
union to bring like-minded Iraqi female engineers together. For now, none
exists.
The
work is not without danger. Protests outside oil fields led by angry local
tribes and the unemployed can disrupt work and sometimes escalate into violence
toward oil workers. Confronted every day by flare stacks that point to Iraq’s
obvious oil wealth, others decry state corruption, poor service delivery and
joblessness.
But
the women are willing to take on these hardships. Amjad barely has time to even
consider them: It was 11 p.m., and she was needed back at work.
“Drilling
never stops,” she said.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1817111/business-economy
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Beach
volleyball stars boycott Qatar tournament over bikini ban
22
Feb 2021
German
beach volleyball stars Karla Borger and Julia Sude have said they will boycott
a tournament in Qatar because it is “the only country” where players are
forbidden from wearing bikinis on court.
“We
are there to do our job, but are being prevented from wearing our work
clothes,” Borger told radio station Deutschlandfunk on Sunday. “This is really
the only country and the only tournament where a government tells us how to do
our job – we are criticising that.”
Qatar
is hosting the upcoming FIVB World Tour event but strict rules about on-court
clothing have led the world championships silver medallist Borger and her
doubles partner Sude to shun the event.
The
event in March is the first time that Doha has hosted a women’s beach
volleyball event, after seven years hosting a men’s competition.
Yet
female players have been asked to wear shirts and long trousers rather than the
usual bikinis, a rule which the world beach volleyball federation, FIVB, claims
is “out of respect for the culture and traditions of the host country”.
Borger
and Sude told Spiegel magazine during the weekend they “would not go along
with” the rules imposed by the Qatari authorities. Borger said that they would
normally be happy to “adapt to any country”, but that the extreme heat in Doha meant
that bikinis were necessary.
Her
team mate Sude pointed out that Qatar had previously made exceptions for female
track and field athletes competing at the World Athletics Championships in Doha
in 2019.
Though
not as hot as the scorching summer months, temperatures in the Gulf state can
reach as high as 30C (86F) in March.
Speaking
to Deutschlandfunk on Sunday, Borger questioned whether Qatar was a suitable
host nation.
“We
are asking whether it’s necessary to hold a tournament there at all,” she said.
Qatar
has hosted an increasing number of major sporting events in recent decades,
though its human rights record, lack of sporting history and brutally hot
weather make it a controversial venue.
Heat
and humidity were major issues during the road races at last year’s World
Athletics Championships, while discriminatory labour practices and alleged
human rights abuses have been the subject of intense scrutiny ahead of next
year’s football World Cup.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/22/qatar-beach-volleyball-bikini-ban-karla-borger-boycott
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/china-counters-female-muslim-uighur/d/124425
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