To Enhance Work Opportunities For Women, Female Entrepreneurs Open Women’s Market in Herat, Afghanistan
New
Age Islam News Bureau
22
November 2022
UK
Court Told ‘Daesh Bride’ Shamima Begum Was Child Trafficking Victim
Qatar’s
Women Can’t Work, Study Or Travel Without A Man’s Permission – Where’s Their
Armband?
Geidea
Empowers Women To Compete In Saudi Fintech Boom
Deal
Signed To Train, Employ 15 Saudi Women As Desalination Plant Technicians
Lebanon
Beats Saudi Arabia In Women’s Volleyball
Pakistan
First Lady Samina Alvi Inaugurates Facility To Promote Artisans’ Works, Empower
Women
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/female-entrepreneurs-herat-afghanistan/d/128461
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To
Enhance Work Opportunities For Women, Female Entrepreneurs Open Women’s Market
in Herat, Afghanistan
The market is dedicated for only women clients.
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19
NOVEMBER 2022
A
number of female entrepreneurs have opened a market dedicated for women in the
capital city of Herat.
The
market aims to enhance work opportunities for women, according to
entrepreneurs.
More
than 30 women are working in this market ... There are shops of women dresses,
handmade crafts and local foods,” said Nargis Hashimi, head of the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry of western Zone.
Many
women who are working in this market are the breadwinner of their families.
“When
I receive some profits here. I help my parents and family who encouraged me and
thus today, I am here,” said Maliha, a shopkeeper.
“It
is a proud time for us that we are able to work at a market despite difficult
conditions,” said Maliha Amiri, a shopkeeper.
The
market is dedicated for only women clients.
“This
is fortunate that women can come here and work without worries and sell their
products,” said Masouda Muwahid, a resident of Herat.
“When
the women with good educational backgrounds come and work here, it motivates
other women too,” said Azita Barakzai, a client.The economists believes that
the women’s activities in business is a serious need for the Afghan economy.
“This
is very effective. First for women, second for the society and country,” said
Bahnaz Saljoqi, an economist.
Source:
Tolo News
https://tolonews.com/index.php/afghanistan/provincial-180812
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UK
Court Told ‘Daesh Bride’ Shamima Begum Was Child Trafficking Victim
Shamima Begum, 19-year-old British teenager who
joined Daesh in Syria four years ago [Twitter]
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November
21, 2022
LONDON:
Lawyers for a woman who was stripped of her British citizenship after traveling
to join the Daesh group in Syria challenged the decision on Monday, arguing she
was a victim of child trafficking.
Shamima
Begum is one of hundreds of Europeans whose fate following the 2019 collapse of
the extremists’ self-styled caliphate has proved a thorny issue for
governments.
Begum,
then 15, left her home in east London in 2015 with two school friends to travel
to Syria, where she married a Daesh fighter and had three children, none of
whom survived.
She
was later “found” by British journalists, heavily pregnant in a Syrian camp in
February 2019 — and her apparent lack of remorse in initial interviews drew
outrage.
Dubbed
a “Daesh bride,” she was stripped of her British citizenship, leaving her
stranded and stateless in Syria’s Kurdish-run Roj camp.
Monday’s
hearing at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) follows a Supreme
Court decision last year to refuse her permission to enter the UK to fight her
citizenship case against the Home Office, or interior ministry.
Begum’s
lawyer, Samantha Knights, told the court that “at its heart this case concerns
a British child aged 15 who was... influenced... with her friends... by a
determined and effective Daesh propaganda machine.”
There
was “overwhelming” evidence she had been “recruited, transported, transferred,
harbored and received in Syria for the purposes of ‘sexual exploitation’ and
‘marriage’ to an adult male.”
But
she said the process by which the Home Office took the decision to remove
Begum’s citizenship was “extraordinary” and “over hasty” and failed to
investigate and determine whether she was “a child victim of trafficking.”
A
book published earlier this year by journalist Richard Kerbaj alleged that
Begum, now 23, and her friends were taken into Syria by a Syrian man who was
leaking information to the Canadian security services.
Mohammed
Al-Rashed is alleged to have been in charge of the Turkish side of an extensive
Daesh people smuggling network.
“It
is now fairly well settled that she and her friends were transported across
borders... by a Canadian asset of the Canadian security forces,” Begum’s lawyer
Tasnime Akunjee told AFP before the hearing.
“The
very definition of trafficking is pretty well established by that,” he added.
Despite
her initial comments, Begum has since expressed remorse for her actions and
sympathy for Daesh victims.
In
a documentary last year, she said that on arrival in Syria she quickly realized
the extremist group was “trapping people” to boost the caliphate’s numbers and
“look good for the (propaganda) videos.”
Some
900 people are estimated to have traveled from Britain to Syria and Iraq to
join Daesh. Of those, around 150 are believed to have been stripped of their
citizenship.
Human
rights group Reprieve told AFP there were currently 20-25 British families,
including 36 children, still in camps in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria,
where suspected relatives of Daesh fighters have been held.
Other
European nations have also been grappling with how to handle the return of
their own nationals.
Some
countries, such as Germany and Belgium, have tried to carry out regular
repatriation operations.
Last
month, Berlin said it had settled “almost all known cases” of German families
in extremist prison camps in Syria, claiming to have repatriated 76 minors as
well as 26 women.
According
to Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office, in mid-2022 there remained “a few
women and a few children” in the Syrian camps.
Faced
with hostile public opinion, however, France had carried out repatriations on a
case-by-case basis.
But
it picked up the pace in recent months after criticism from the European Court
of Human Rights.
Since
July, Paris has repatriated 31 women and 75 children in two operations.
Some
175 French children and 69 women are believed to still be in the camps.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2203581/world
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Qatar’s
Women Can’t Work, Study Or Travel Without A Man’s Permission – Where’s Their
Armband?
SUZANNE
MOORE
22
November 2022
The
problem for women, I often think, is that we are not a handy acronym. We don’t
have a recognisable flag unless, I suppose, you count the Suffrage colours,
which got one poor soul wearing a purple, green and white scarf “accidentally”
thrown out of the Scottish Parliament last week. Women’s rights are not much of
a fashionable cause these days and are mentioned often as an afterthought.
This
is particularly evident in Qatar, where footballers and commentators are
struggling to make righteous statements about the tiny but hugely rich country
they are in. The agonising around wearing a rainbow flag armband seems to me a
substitution for real thought. Obviously, it is terrible to stage the
tournament in a place where homosexuality is illegal and even punishable by
death, but identity politics flails against the reality of choosing to play in
a country that adheres to the strict sect of Salafism, often referred to as
Wahhabism, which is prevalent in both Qatar and Saudi.
This
interpretation of Islam also has severe consequences for women, who live under
a repressive regime of guardianship. Human Rights Watch calls it “deep
discrimination”. Women have to obtain men’s permission (usually their father’s
or brother’s) to marry, to travel, to get educated. (An app that allows men to
veto travel permits, driving licences and other government services for
unmarried women under 25 has been downloaded a million times.) Neither rape nor
domestic violence is illegal. Men can marry up to four wives but can divorce
any wife without even informing them about it. Divorce for women is limited,
even if the marriage is abusive. Women are not guardians of their own children.
They do not have the authority to make decisions about their own children’s
schools, finances or medical treatment. A woman who reports rape may be sent to
prison.
During
the pandemic, one such woman, “Asma”, compared her life with a permanent
lockdown. “For girls – you are [constantly] in quarantine. What the whole world
experiences now, this is the normal life for girls [in Qatar]. I wanted to
study abroad but it was a no from my parents, even though I had a scholarship.”
I
don’t expect footballers to understand all the ways in which Qatari women’s
lives are curtailed. After all, on the surface it is true that many Qatari
women live privileged lives and are very sophisticated and educated. They have
maids, drivers and nannies who do all the domestic work and are paid a
pittance. (It is not just the migrant workers who built the stadiums that are
treated badly.)
Yet
even with an army of servants, Qatari women’s lives are still ruled by the
whims of their families. What is difficult to grasp is that guardianship does
not operate simply through law, but through households. It is a mix of policies
and practices, cultural and religious.
And,
although the government and an increasing number of Qatari women talk about
gender equality, women’s rights and female empowerment, the reality is that
there is nowhere to go to complain and no monitoring of how women are treated.
What the government really does is hand down a mandate to families to keep
control of their girls in every way possible. If a father wants to pull his
daughter out of education and beat her, then that is fine. The extreme
patriarchal nature of Wahhabism means that everything a woman does is
controlled; the honour and reputation of her family is paramount.
The
scrutiny that the World Cup has brought is welcomed by some young women who
want the system exposed, but freedom of expression is also limited in Qatar.
When
Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who is said to be well integrated into Qatari
society and must surely know some of this, gave his deranged monologue about
feeling gay, disabled, African etc, it was pointed out that he had missed out
half the world’s population so he added: “I feel like a woman, too.” The
backdrop to all this are surely the protests in Iran, whose courageous male
football team refused to sing their national anthem before the match against
England.
But
Qatari women and their rights? Hidden away, invisible, not displayed on any
armband. It is as if their lives were but a postscript to this whole sordid
enterprise.
Source:
Telegraph UK
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Geidea
empowers women to compete in Saudi fintech boom
November
20, 2022
RIYADH:
Saudi fintech firm Geidea has launched a training program in partnership with
The London Institute of Banking and Finance to support women in the fintech
sector.
The
program stands firmly in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 blueprint for
women’s empowerment, which aims to increase women’s participation rate in the
labor market.
The
fully-funded GeideAct course is virtual, part-time and six weeks long, and its
graduates will receive a Certified Fintech Practitioner qualification upon
completion, it said.
The
GeideAct which begins in February 2023 will be accessible to any women in the
Kingdom who work in tech, fintech or financial services. The program is part of
the company’s commitment to learning and creating an inclusive fintech sector
in Saudi Arabia, it said.
The
training program contains several major fintech topics, such as the impact of
fintech on business models across banking and finance and different strategies
for growth. It also includes how risk and regulation impact the sector, the
newest technologies and how they affect product design and distribution.
“By
providing women in Saudi Arabia with access to training and development,
GeideAct delivers a more inclusive and diverse Saudi fintech talent bank,” said
Renier Lemmens, Group CEO at Geidea.
He
added: “GeideAct is all about accelerated learning, and we are giving back to a
vast pool of young talents to help them to become future fintech leaders.”
The
company said its training program is flexible as it targets professionals in
the early to mid-phases of their careers, and so it takes place twice a week
for 45 minutes each.
Lemmens
is also considering more training programs when he called it “the first of many
GeideAct programs” and hoped to introduce the initiative across all markets in
which they operate.
Saudi
women have been taking up key responsibilities and contributing to the growth
of Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom pushes for inclusive development as part of
Vision 2030.
With
the female unemployment rate at a record low of 19.3 percent in the second
quarter, the Kingdom is looking at bolstering the presence of women in the
workforce.
Nuwair
S. Al-Shammari, deputy dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication at
Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University, said that Saudi women have
progressed because of historical decisions taken under the Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman.
The
reforms enabled Saudi women to be active partners in national development — the
cornerstone of the National Transformation Program and Saudi Vision 2030.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2203096/business-economy
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Deal
signed to train, employ 15 Saudi women as desalination plant technicians
HEBSHI
ALSHAMMARI
November
18, 2022
RIYADH:
A deal to train 15 Saudi women as desalination plant technicians has been
signed with a multinational utility company.
The
Rabigh-based Higher Institute for Water and Power Technologies inked the
agreement with ENGIE on Thursday during a ceremony in Riyadh.
The
two-year program will see participants receive theoretical and practical
hands-on training in water desalination, power generation, maintenance, and
operations.
On
successful completion of the course, the women will be employed as full-time
operations technicians at Yanbu 4 or Jubail 3B, ENGIE’s Saudi reverse osmosis
desalination plants.
Tariq
Al-Shamrani, executive managing director of the HIWPT, and Turki Al-Shehri,
ENGIE’s chief executive officer in Saudi Arabia, penned the deal in the
presence of Saudi Water Partnership Co. CEO Khaled Al-Qureshi.
Al-Qureshi
said: “As part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 to build a bright, vibrant, and
thriving economy, it is essential that our nation’s youth are provided with the
right education, training, and opportunities to unlock their talent.”
Al-Shamrani
said: “Female empowerment is instrumental to realizing our nation’s ambitions,
and we are delighted to launch together with ENGIE a unique program targeted at
fresh Saudi women graduates, which will equip them with the skills required for
a career in the desalination industry.”
And
Al-Shehri said: “The program further reinforces our commitment to achieving
gender equality, supporting women in STEM (science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics) careers, and ensuring knowledge transfer to the local
population.
“We
are firmly committed to promoting greater female participation across the
industry, and indeed STEM more generally, in line with the UN sustainable
development goals of gender equality.”
Clean
energy transition, Al-Shehri pointed out, was an opportunity to support the
sustainable economic and social development of local communities, which were
home to vital infrastructure.
“In
the case of Saudi Arabia, this includes the many highly educated and skilled females
graduating from universities across the country,” he added.
The
ENGIE CEO noted that by providing training and jobs for Saudi women in
reverse-osmosis processes at the firm’s desalination plants, the company hoped
to open up new engineering opportunities for women in the energy industry,
supporting long-term and sustainable employment opportunities.
He
said: “We hope this encourages more doors to open across science and
engineering for women, inspiring the following generations.”
As
part of the program, participants must complete an introductory one-year
foundational technical core training course spanning three trimesters at the
HIWPT in Rabigh.
Throughout
the phase, students will learn about scientific concepts and engineering
principles. In the second phase, the trainees will be provided with vocational
training at ENGIE’s Yanbu and Jubail reverse osmosis desalination plants.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2202101/saudi-arabia
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Lebanon
Beats Saudi Arabia In Women’s Volleyball
Karine
Keuchkerian
November
21, 2022
The
Lebanese women’s volleyball team finished its matches in the 1st round of the
West Asian Volleyball Championship with a full score, achieving its 4th
consecutive victory in the 1st round without losing any match and leading Group
A’s standing.
With
a score of (3-0), the Cedars women beat their Saudi counterparts by showcasing
a great performance all match long.
After
beating Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and now Saudi Arabia, Lebanon’s team will play
the quarter-final match on Monday.
Source:
The961
https://www.the961.com/the-cedars-women-scoring-4th-consecutive-win-wava/
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Pakistan
First Lady Samina Alvi Inaugurates Facility To Promote Artisans’ Works, Empower
Women
November
20, 2022
First
Lady Samina Alvi on Saturday inaugurated a facility here aimed at preserving
and promoting Pakistan’s rich cultural heritage and supporting the women
artisans from various parts of the country.
The
first lady inaugurated the new office of Indus Heritage Trust – a non-profit
organisation engaged in preserving and promoting the country’s heritage of arts
and crafts while empowering the communities.
The
facility marked the display of various women-created products including shirts,
jackets, shawls, jewellery and bags besides homewares including embroidered
cushions, mats and tea cozies. The first lady took a round of the new office
and appreciated the skills of the artisans which she believed would also help
financially empower the women, particularly those living in the backward
communities.
Supporting
a network of around 5,000 women in Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the
IHT is working to enhance and strengthen the skills of artisans to help them
create high-quality handcrafted products and to create a sustainable future for
rural communities.
The
first lady also cut a cake to mark the occasion and wished the organisation to
achieve more milestones by enhancing its outreach to more women. Women from
different walks of life including business and diplomatic corps attended the
event and took a keen interest in the handcrafted products.
Source:
Pak Observer
https://pakobserver.net/first-lady-inaugurates-facility-to-promote-artisans-works-empower-women/
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