New
Age Islam News Bureau
23
October 2021
•
A Women’s Well-Being App Builds on Saudi Arabia’s Health-Tech Success
•
Women Reportedly Linked to IS Set Syria Camp on Fire
•
UNESCO, L’Oreal Program Supports Female Scientists
•
Egypt Must End State Oppression of Women and Girls; It Has One Of The Worst
Records In The World For Gender Equality
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/maghrebi-paris-massacre/d/125632
--------
Maghrebi
Women Writers in France Pull Down Wall of Silence on Paris Massacre
22/10/2021
Algerian-French journalist and novelist Lilia
Hassaine poses during a photo session in Paris. (AFP)
-----
PARIS--When
writer Kaoutar Harchi was a little girl growing up in Strasbourg two decades
ago, her teacher gave her a book with the inscription, “To my little Arab”.
“It
profoundly shocked me and I’ve never forgotten it,” said Harchi, now 34 and a
successful novelist and sociologist in Paris.
“It
was a way of assigning me to my origins, to say that I was not French.”
A
reckoning is belatedly underway in France over its colonial past.
It
is led by young female writers, filmmakers, and researchers like Harchi who are
challenging the old myth that the millions who were brought for work after
World War II, from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, were perfectly-integrated
under the welcoming umbrella of French citizenship.
“France
in the 1950s and 1960s was a place where, if you were Algerian and you were
taking the metro, you would stick close to the wall because you were afraid
someone would push you,” said Salima Tenfiche, a researcher at Paris
University.
This
past weekend marked the 60th anniversary of the Paris Massacre, when dozens,
perhaps hundreds, of Algerian independence protesters were killed by police,
many of them drowned in the Seine, an incident blotted out from the national
memory for decades. The first generation of immigrants responded by building a
wall of silence.
“All
these stories, this racism, these humiliations, they couldn’t talk about it
with their children. There was a lot of shame and suffering. Many never found
their place in society,” said Tenfiche.
Language of exile
Now
a slew of novelists and artists is helping to pull down that wall.
Lilia
Hassaine’s “Soleil Amer” (Bitter Sun), Alice Zeniter’s “The Art of Losing”,
Faiza Guene’s “La Discretion”, all are inspired by the arrival of their
Algerian families in the 1960s by writers in their thirties.
Or
there’s Leila Slimani’s bestselling “The Country of Others”, which recounts how
her Moroccan grandfather met her French grandmother.
“For
the first generation, they had to remain discreet to survive. For the second,
who had witnessed the sacrifices of their parents, the question of memory was
secondary. It’s the third generation, with enough distance from this painful
history, who are able to tackle these questions,” said Tenfiche.
Lina
Soualem, 31, has just released a documentary, “Leur Algerie” (Their Algeria)
that digs into the experience of her grandparents coming to France in the
1950s.
“We
never spoke about these things because the norm was silence. A silence that was
transmitted from generation to generation as if the language of exile was
ultimately silence,” she said.
Her
grandfather, largely mute through the film, finally opens up when Soualem
returns to Algeria and finds her family’s graves, something none of her
relatives had done since coming to France.
He
had worked in a knife factory in Clermont-Ferrand.
The
town is world-famous for its knives, but she could find no pictures of him in
the town’s museum because none were ever taken of the Algerian workers.
“It’s
not about forgiveness or reconciliation. It’s about memory, the fact that we
can finally talk about these people who have always been forgotten in the
French national narrative,” said Soualem.
It
is the same for Hassaine, whose “Soleil Amer” was nominated for France’s top
Goncourt literary prize.
“The
subject isn’t so much Algeria, it’s departure, unrooting,” said Hassaine, 30.
“I
wanted to speak about France and the way that first generation of immigrants
was treated, the racism. But I didn’t want to do it in an angry way. I just
wanted to tell the story as it was, because it was also a beautiful story.”
Source:
The Arab Weekly
https://thearabweekly.com/maghrebi-women-writers-france-pull-down-wall-silence
--------
A
Women’s Well-Being App Builds on Saudi Arabia’s Health-Tech Success
October
22, 2021
A preview of the IMC Women’s Health App.
(Supplied)
-----
DUBAI:
Saudi Arabia’s growing health tech sector will soon get a new smartphone
application dedicated to monitoring women’s well-being.
The
IMC women’s health app, due to launch on Nov. 1, will — according to its
creators — track users’ body metrics, offering them more control over their
health and promoting overall well-being.
More
than just a dieting and fitness tracker, the new app also gives information on
gynecology services, polycystic ovary syndrome, fertility, fatigue and
hormones. It includes a calendar and calculator for menstrual cycles, ovulation
and fertility tracking, as well as for pregnancy and wellness management.
“We
focus a lot on wellness and well-being,” Farhaa Abdelhaq, who is in charge of
the app’s design and analysis, told Arab News. “It connects to our vision of
healing the mind, body and soul by taking a holistic approach. Biologically, we
know that women have longer life expectancies, but that longevity does not
equate to better quality of health.”
Different
features allow women to predict their fertility, record and track their
symptoms, and monitor contraception, blood pressure, blood sugar and
medication. As Abdelhaq explained, such metrics require a service tailored
specially for women to provide them with more control over the management of
their health.
“It’s
really about dedicating a special app for their specific needs, for diseases
that affect them, and to give them more opportunity and information, without
visiting the doctor all the time,” she said.
“It’s
about enabling and empowering patients to have information at their fingertips,
which they can receive from a more (reliable) source rather than reading
online.”
Available
on the Apple App Store and Google Play, the app will initially be released to
patients at the International Medical Center Hospital in Jeddah, where it was
developed in both Arabic and English, before it is offered to women across the
country and, eventually, the world.
“We
will assess, based on the feedback from our patients, whether any features need
to be improved,” Abdelhaq said. “There is no specific app for women to date in
Saudi Arabia, so it’s important this is done for them.”
Technology
geared toward women’s health, known as femtech, is a rapidly emerging industry.
According to a report from Research and Markets called “FemTech Market — Global
Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026,” the sector was expected to grow at a
compounded annual rate of over 13 percent during those five years.
With
the health care industry increasingly adopting digital tools, the report found
that 80 percent of women spend money on health products and make 90 percent of
household decisions related to health issues. Overall, the global femtech
market linked to maternal health is expected to reach over $19 billion by 2026.
“It’s
a huge tech-based industry focusing on developing female health,” Abdelhaq
said. “It focuses on very specific issues for women.
“There
are a lot of stages women go through — from menstruation cycles and pre- and
post-menopause, to pregnancy, postpartum and using birth control. The idea is
to improve our overall well-being, and digital tools are one way we can do
that.
“Women
are the primary decision makers when it comes to health care, but they also
have little information, or they’re misunderstood.”
Such
digital tools can be especially important for women in Saudi Arabia, as they
take into account travel arrangements and religious duties, such as Umrah.
“It
gives them that data, information and awareness overall to have everything
listed out so that, when they go to the doctor, they know what symptoms to
mention,” Abdelhaq said. “It helps early diagnosis.”
In
particular, Abdelhaq highlighted the app’s role in monitoring polycystic ovary
syndrome, which affects fertility, weight and hormones, and can be difficult to
diagnose.
The
app is part of a set of digital solutions that the IMC Hospital aims to provide
to women throughout Saudi Arabia.
“As
health care is progressively becoming more patient-centric and personalized, it
is imperative we take into account the different needs of Saudi women and use
technology to ensure it is both affordable and accessible,” Omer Sayyid, the
app’s project manager, told Arab News.
“Globally,
for decades, health-care products were developed, designed and delivered without
considering the fact that women’s health care issues and needs are different
from those of men. Machine learning, the internet of things, and artificial
intelligence all have enormous potential to help devise interactive health
solutions for women.”
From
improved cancer screening and diagnosis of women-specific diseases, to better
self-care management and engagement in dealing with pregnancy, menstruation
cycle issues, or treating diseases such as arthritis, osteoporosis, depression
and Alzheimer’s Disease, technology and science can work wonders at a faster
rate if diverse needs and voices are incorporated into solutions, Sayyid
believes.
“The
majority of software, wearables and apps are focused on the fertility or
pregnancy category of the femtech market, but we need to move beyond that,” he
said. “We need to take into account the needs of women of all ages, not just
the reproductive age — menopause and senior care are also important, as well as
addressing chronic conditions and hormonal disorders.”
Abdelhaq
admitted that there is also a financial incentive. Globally, software and tech
companies addressing female biological needs generated $820 million in 2019.
“But more importantly, it is a necessity, not a choice, that we include women
to ensure we are healthier in current and future generations,” she said.
The
new app will no doubt find a ready market. More than 34 percent of patients who
use digital tech to track their health feel more in control, according to the
Philips’ Future Health Index.
“The
app is an extension of the ‘digital front door’ — which is an integrated
digital strategy for engaging patients,” Muhammad Siddiqui, the chief
information officer at Jeddah’s IMC, told Arab News.
“The
digital front door empowers patients and offers them a greater sense of
autonomy, making it easier and less stressful to enter an insightful
conversation about their care. With more transparency and communication, the
patient-provider relationship is enhanced.”
The
initiative also falls in line with Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom’s economic
diversification and reform agenda. Saudi Arabia launched the health sector
transformation program earlier this year to develop the health care system
across the whole country.
The
program is designed to restructure the Kingdom’s health sector and improve its
capabilities, setting the health of every member of society at the forefront of
its priorities.
“Overall,
the IMC has a goal of aligning our facilities to Vision 2030,” Abdelhaq said.
“We are looking — from a health perspective — to use more technology for the
right purpose, rather than just innovating in the tech sector for the sake of
it.
“We’re
looking at empowering people, because without this process of improvement,
technology is just a tool. In health care, we’re lagging behind in adopting
technology compared with banking and finance. But now is an opportune moment to
take that leap.”
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1953276/middle-east
--------
Women
Reportedly Linked to IS Set Syria Camp on Fire
October
21, 2021
Zana
Omer
FILE - Women and children walk at Roj camp, where
relatives of people suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group are held,
in the countryside near al-Malikiyah in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province,
March 28, 2021.
-----
QAMISHLI,
SYRIA — Dozens of women linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group set
several tents on fire Wednesday in a refugee camp in northeast Syria, a local
security source told VOA.
The
arson reportedly caused damage to at least 16 tents in the Roj camp, which
holds nearly 2,500 women and children with ties to IS militants. No casualties
were reported.
A
camp official, who requested anonymity, said fighters were quick to respond by
putting out the fire and containing the situation.
In
recent days, tensions have escalated between families of IS fighters and local
security forces inside the camp. A protest preceding the fire was staged by
dozens of women who reportedly hurled stones at the camp's security forces.
The
camp official said the U.S.-Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has deployed female
anti-terror units to control the situation inside the camp.
Roj
is one of several detention camps in northeast Syria that have been housing
thousands of people, including many foreign nationals, since the SDF and the
anti-IS global coalition declared the territorial defeat of the terror group in
March 2019.
Local
authorities are urging countries to repatriate their citizens from Roj, al-Hol
and other detention camps in northeast Syria. While some have been returned to
their countries of origin, most of them are still held in the war-torn country.
"Many
women held at the Roj camp are still strict believers of Daesh's radical
ideology," said Dilbirin Khelo, a political analyst based in Qamishli,
Syria, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
"Every
time there is a Turkish threat against northeast Syria, these women think they
might have a chance to be freed, so they cause trouble, hoping that chaos will
help them flee the camp," he told VOA.
Turkish
officials have recently increased their threats for a possible military
incursion in northeast Syria against SDF-linked Kurdish forces, whom they
consider to be terrorists.
Source:
Voa News
https://www.voanews.com/a/women-reportedly-linked-to-is-set-syria-camp-on-fire/6280350.html
--------
UNESCO,
L’Oreal Program Supports Female Scientists
OCT
22, 2021
The
world needs science and science needs women more than ever.
That
was the motto of this year's L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science program, which
has been supporting female scientists from all over the world for more than 20
years. Each year, the program supports more than 250 talented young female
researchers. Through its 52 regional and national programs, the L'Oreal
Foundation and UNESCO support them at a crucial period in their careers, during
their thesis or post-doctoral studies.
Globally
the program has been taking place since 1998, while in Turkey it was held for
the first time in 2003. Since then, more than 3,000 female scientists,
including 112 in Turkey, have been given financial support to help them turn
their scientific projects into reality, and some of them have also been awarded
the Nobel Prize.
The
applicants have to go through a few steps to qualify for the program, Country
General Manager at L'Oreal Turkey Sinem Sandıkçı Gökçen told Daily Sabah. They
first have to enter a competition held locally in each country. Winners of the
competition are included in the global fellowship program.
For
example, in Turkey, L'Oreal UNESCO Fellowships For Women in Science, in
partnership between L'Oreal Turkey and the Turkish National Commission for
UNESCO, offers awards to promote, enhance and encourage the contribution of
women pursuing their research careers in Turkey in the fields of life and
material sciences.
The
winners of the local program take part in the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science
International Awards that are presented every year to five outstanding female
scientists, one from each of the following regions: Africa and the Arab States,
Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North
America in recognition of their scientific accomplishments.
Working
in the physical, formal and life sciences on five different continents, these
eminent female researchers are helping to change the world through their
discoveries and are also role models for younger generations of female
researchers who want to pursue their scientific careers and break the glass
ceiling, UNESCO says.
“One
of the main goals of the program is to empower women and give them the value
they deserve and the place they deserve in society. Therefore, when you look at
science, it is one of the areas where gender inequality is experienced at the
highest level. If we take a look at the statistics, we see that an equal number
of boys and girls choose to study science and have careers in this field, however,
the number gradually drops in the process. Only 33% of researchers and only 3%
of Nobel laureates are women,” Gökçen explained.
“We
have science in 'our DNA.' That's why we wanted to combine these two and
provide real support to women scientists. That is why we have been continuing
this project for many years,” she added.
“Women
are very creative and innovative, they bring different perspectives, and we
think that women should be involved in the solving of world problems as much as
men are. That's why we provide financial support so that they can bring the
projects to life, and we try to encourage them to be role models for younger
generations,” she said.
Gökçen
highlighted that L’Oreal has a few more social projects that are being
implemented this year. One of them is named “Stand up against street
harassment.”
As
harassment is one of the biggest problems of modern women, this project is very
important for the company, she added. The project includes very simple training
on what you should do if you are exposed to or witness any kind of harassment.
“Our
aim is both to raise awareness on this issue and to encourage people to be a
little more courageous and intervene in this matter,” she said, adding that
sometimes we don’t really know what to do in these cases to protect ourselves
or people around us. Another project is about a global sustainability program
called “L'Oreal for the future.”
For
women in science 2021
The
winners of the Turkish leg of the "For Women in Science" program,
which has been implemented for the 19th time in Turkey through the cooperation
of L'Oreal Turkey and the UNESCO Turkish National Commission, were announced
this week. The event was held in Istanbul with the participation L'Oreal Turkey
General Manager Gökçen, UNESCO's Turkey National Commission president,
professor Öcal Oğuz, and Turkish writer and actress Gülse Birsel.
Eda
Aydoğan Güngör from the METU Department of Metallurgical and Materials
Engineering and associate Dr. Saniye Söylemez from Ordu University, faculty of
arts and sciences, department of chemistry were awarded for their projects in
physical sciences. Güngör is working on a project that aims to reduce carbon
emissions in energy, aviation and space systems, while Söylemez is planning to
develop a mechanism for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, one of the biggest
problems of our time.
“Developing
such projects requires a lot of time, and sometimes for us as women it can be
hard. However, programs like this give us great motivation,” Söylemez said.
Gülcihan
Gülseren from Konya Food and Agriculture University, molecular biology and
genetics department and Nihal Terzi Çizmecioğlu from the METU Department of
Biological Sciences were awarded for projects in life and environmental
sciences. Gülseren’s project aims to develop an effective treatment against
human pathogenic viruses, including COVID-19. New potential pandemics are
looming, she said, and developing an adaptive biomaterial against different
respiratory pathogens is crucial. Çizmecioğlu’s project aims to better
understand embryonic stem cell differentiation, which can lead to a better
understanding of the formation of neurodevelopmental disorders and possible
treatment pathways.
“It
is critically important to encourage young scientists at an early stage. In
this respect, the existence of an award for women of science is also very
important in terms of gender equality,” Çizmecioğlu said. “You should always
think about your goal and remember that you will have to work very hard to
achieve it. But, you should know, dreams come true,” she added.
Each
of the four Turkish scientists who were deemed worthy of an award in the
program this year was supported with a prize of TL 120,000 (around $12,400) for
their scientific research.
The
winners were selected by the independent UNESCO jury, taking into account
criteria such as their academic backgrounds, the contribution of their projects
to science, their applicability, sustainability and scientific innovation,
Gökçen said.
Source:
Daily Sabah
--------
Egypt
Must End State Oppression Of Women And Girls; It Has One Of The Worst Records
In The World For Gender Equality
Reem
Abdellatif and Nimco Ali
21
Oct, 2021
The
fate of Egyptian women and girls delicately hangs in the balance as the country
continues to have one of the worst records in the world for gender equality.
With oppression often state-sanctioned, Egyptian women face a daily struggle
against sexual harassment and other violations of their basic human rights,
including institutionalised violence.
Today,
African Women Rights Advocates (AWRA) and The Five Foundation, The Global
Partnership To End FGM, have come together with Equality Now, Democracy for the
Arab World Now and several prominent voices from the region and beyond, to
demand that the Egyptian government takes immediate steps to fix this
situation. It needs to take clear action to enhance the rights of women and
girls in all areas of life, including by ending child marriage and banning
articles that perpetuate sexual violence and gender discrimination in the text
of the country’s laws.
The
signatories to today’s open letter are also demanding that the Egyptian
government enforces laws against female genital mutilation (FGM). With 27.2
million affected – around 90 percent of the female population – Egypt has one
of the highest number of survivors of FGM in the world, yet the government is
failing to act effectively.
It’s
clear that if and when perpetrators are eventually arrested and convicted, they
are given extremely short and suspended sentences, such as when 17-year-old
Mayar Mohamed Moussa was killed in 2017 — and just over one year ago when yet
another girl, 12-year-old Nada Hassan Abdel-Maqsoud, died in a private medical
clinic in Manfalout.
In
2013, 13-year-old Soheir al-Batea’s killer Dr. Raslan Fadl only spent a couple
of months behind bars in 2016, after evading arrest for three years. The
anti-FGM law was strengthened earlier this year, but we know of first hand
reports of clinics in Cairo still openly offering to medicalise the harmful and
sometimes deadly practice.
Furthermore,
women cannot fully claim their basic right to bodily autonomy in a state where
public laws do not criminalise marital rape or virginity testing. The
government has made no effort to address domestic violence in Egypt, which has
been long tolerated and accepted in society.
Egyptian
women and girls have had enough. In the last couple of years they have come
forward in unprecedented numbers to break the fear barrier and reveal harrowing
lived experiences with sexual abuse. Survivors demanded justice and called on
the state to help end impunity for perpetrators of sexual harassment. However,
their pleas for bodily autonomy fell on deaf ears when in January 2021, the
Egyptian cabinet proposed a personal status bill that would strip women of
their basic rights even further.
Human
rights activists and grassroots women protested the regressive proposal, which
would have given fathers priority over mothers in child custody. It would also
have allowed fathers to prevent mothers from travelling abroad with their
children. In matters of marriage, a male guardian such as an uncle, father or
brother would have had to sign a marriage contract on behalf of the wife.
Although
this particular draft law is now unlikely to be passed, signatories of the Open
Letter want more clarity to make sure it does not reappear in a new format
since the law was proposed by the government as opposed to one political party
representative.
In
Egypt, the internet remains one of the only public avenues of alternative
expression; and yet Egyptian female social media influencers who are unaffiliated
with the state or ruling elite have been targeted with arrests.
Since
2020, authorities launched a highly abusive campaign against women social media
influencers and have prosecuted over a dozen of them under vague
"morality" and "public indecency" laws, accusing the women
of violating “family values.”
When
famous influencer Haneen Hossam was acquitted after her arrest, authorities
re-arrested her in 2021 and charged her with "human trafficking" for
merely using social media in ways that challenged patriarchal norms.
Regional
and global women’s rights activists who are familiar with Egypt’s bureaucratic
and oppressive history towards women maintain that this is a state-sponsored
crackdown to rein in female social media influencers by resorting to sexist
“morality” charges that violate women’s rights to freedom of expression, bodily
autonomy, and non-discrimination.
Donors
and corporations investing in Egypt should also take note of all of these
violations against its female population, and provide support where it’s
critically needed - particularly to grassroots women activists.
The
prosperous, fair, and peaceful vision that the United Nations and global powers
hold for “Generation Equality” cannot be achieved when the Arab world’s most
populous nation grossly undermines its women and girls.
Egypt
must live up to its role as a beacon of hope and civilization, and so the
Egyptian government must be held to account to carry through the changes that
are needed so that young girls are free to live dignified and fulfilled lives.
Later this month, Egypt will have an ideal opportunity to do so, when it will
be asked to be part of a review by the United Nations Committee on the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW).
Egypt’s
economic transformation is already happening. It is one of the leaders in the
region in terms of attracting foreign direct investment, but its potential will
never be fully realised until its government allows the female half of its
population to be safe, free and be able to contribute socially and economically
to the country’s future.
Reem
Abdellatif is Director & Chief Operating Officer of the African Women
Rights Advocates movement (AWRA). Nimco Ali is CEO of The Five Foundation, The
Global Partnership To End FGM.
Source:
The News Arab
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/opinion/egypt-must-end-state-oppression-women-and-girls
--------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/maghrebi-paris-massacre/d/125632
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism