An Iraqi Court Adjourned a Hearing to Allow a Man to Formalise His Marriage to a 12-Year-Old Girl: Mother Opposes, Activists Protest
New Age Islam News Bureau
22 November 2021
• Women Banned From Appearing In Television Dramas in
Afghanistan: Taliban Militant Islamist Government
• Women’s Cyber Security Forum in Saudi Arabia Brings
Opportunities to Horizon
• G20 Empower: Private Sector Sets the Pace to Advance
Female Leadership Representation
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iraqi-court-child-marriage-activists/d/125820
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An Iraqi Court Adjourned a Hearing to Allow a Man to
Formalise His Marriage to a 12-Year-Old Girl: Mother Opposes, Activists Protest
WOMEN demonstrate near a court in protest against the
marriage.—AFP
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November 22, 2021
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court adjourned a hearing on Sunday
to allow a man to formalise his religious marriage to a 12-year-old girl,
according to a lawyer for the girl’s mother, who opposes the union.
Rights activists protested outside the Baghdad court
with banners such as “the marriage of minors is a crime against childhood”,
while lawyer Marwan Obeidi said the case had been postponed until November 28.
The legal age for marriage in Iraq is 18 but can be
lowered to 15 in cases of parental or judicial consent, according to charity
Save the Children.
“Religious marriages are not permitted outside civil
or religious courts but these types of marriages still happen regularly and can
be formalised on the payment of a small fine,” it said in a recent report.
The mother, who refuses to be identified, said her
daughter Israa had been “raped” and that the girl’s father kidnapped her.
But a department of the interior ministry dealing with
violence against women said in a statement that it had met with Israa, her
father and husband, seen the religious contract, and said she had assured them
she had not been coerced.
Child marriage is not uncommon in conservative and
rural areas of Iraq, as well as in other Arab countries.
Source: Dawn
https://www.dawn.com/news/1659512/12-year-old-girls-marriage-causes-stir-in-iraq
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Women Banned From Appearing In Television Dramas in
Afghanistan: Taliban Militant Islamist Government
New guidelines set out by the Taliban prohibit female
presenters from appearing on TV without headscarves
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November 22, 2021
KABUL — Women have been banned from appearing in
television dramas in Afghanistan under new rules imposed by the Taliban
government, BBC reported.
Female journalists and presenters have also been
ordered to wear headscarves on screen, although the guidelines do not say which
type of covering to use.
Reporters say some of the rules are vague and subject
to interpretation.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August
and many fear they are gradually imposing harsh restrictions.
The militant Islamist group, which took control
following the departure of US and allied forces, almost immediately instructed
girls and young women to stay home from school.
During their previous rule in the 1990s, women were
barred from education and the workplace.
The latest set of Taliban guidelines, which have been
issued to Afghan television channels, features eight new rules.
They include the banning of films considered against
the principles of Sharia - or Islamic - law and Afghan values, while footage of
men exposing intimate parts of the body is prohibited.
Comedy and entertainment shows that insult religion or
may be considered offensive to Afghans are also forbidden.
The Taliban have insisted that foreign films promoting
foreign cultural values should not be broadcast.
Afghan television channels show mostly foreign dramas
with lead female characters.
A member of an organization that represents
journalists in Afghanistan, Hujjatullah Mujaddedi, said the announcement of new
restrictions was unexpected.
He told the BBC that some of the rules were not
practical and that if implemented, broadcasters may be forced to close.
The Taliban's earlier decision to order girls and
young women to stay home from school made Afghanistan the only country in the
world to bar half its population from getting an education.
The mayor of the capital, Kabul, also told female
municipal employees to stay home unless their jobs could not be filled by a
man.
The Taliban claim that their restrictions on women
working and girls studying are "temporary" and only in place to
ensure all workplaces and learning environments are "safe" for them.
Source: Saudi Gazette
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Women’s Cyber Security Forum in Saudi Arabia Brings
Opportunities to Horizon
Ameera Abid
November 21, 2021
JEDDAH: The number of female cyber security experts in
Saudi Arabia is rising due to support and encouragement from the private and
public sectors, and there will be a further boost for them in a forum being
held next year.
A women’s forum on cyber security will be held in
Riyadh on March 1-2, with the participation of specialists, academics, and
researchers from the sector.
It comes within the framework of the National Cyber
security Authority’s initiatives to empower women, support and encourage them,
develop their skills, exchange experiences, and enable careers and leadership
in cyber security.
Forum topics will cover the current situation to
represent women in cybersecurity, and review efforts to build national
capabilities in this arena.
Saudi women represent more than 50 percent of
university graduates, representing a national asset with the potential to play
an instrumental role in the Kingdom’s socio-economic development.
Jude Altalhi, a cybersecurity analyst and recent
graduate, told Arab News that making this field more accessible to everyone
would get more women interested and involved.
Cybersecurity is a relatively new area that has gained
popularity in the last few years, and she recalled her own journey. “I was glad
to find that there were training camps for women and was surprised to find many
women (are) interested and are excelling in it,” she said.
Altalhi added that the help she received online was
beneficial and valuable.
“The online resources that are available help as well,
there is a whole community around cybersecurity and that has been a massive
help. You can find walkthroughs and solutions that will help you in your
journey. So, I feel like the community of women and the cybersecurity community
as a whole is progressing very rapidly.”
The forum also aims to enhance women’s participation
in cybersecurity, introduce opportunities in education and training to qualify
them, and develop their professional and leadership capabilities to boost their
competency.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1972571/saudi-arabia
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G20 Empower: Private sector sets the pace to advance
female leadership representation
November 18, 2021
ROME/RIYADH — The G20 Empower this year, under the
Italian Presidency, identified concrete actions to be taken across three key
areas of focus: the measurement of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to improve
companies’ Diversity & Inclusion policies and actions, the creation of a
more resilient and sustainable women talent pipeline, and the development of
STEM and soft skills and of leadership opportunities to enable women to face
and lead the challenges and companies of the future.
The G20 Empower Alliance disclosed the results of this
year’s work by delivering its communiqué to Italian Minister for Family and
Equal Opportunities Elena Bonetti and G20 Sherpa Luigi Mattiolo — representing
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Co-Chair of G20 Empower and the Private Sector
Representative for Saudi Arabia Lubna S. Olayan shared the communiqué with the
Saudi Sherpa Office and all members of the Saudi private sector.
The Alliance brings together representatives of the
private and public sectors of the G20 countries with the common goal of
accelerating women’s leadership opportunities and empowerment in the private
sector. This unique alliance was set up in 2020 during the G20 Saudi
Presidency, after Japan and Canada supported and advocated for its creation in
the preceding year.
The Alliance is intended to report on its progress and
concrete efforts undertaken at the G20 Leaders’ Summit, where it delivers its
recommendations on the measures and policies that the governments and private
sectors of the G20 countries should take to accelerate leadership opportunities
for women.
The main outcomes, embedded in the Alliance
Communiqué, represent the commitment of companies and government to promote
change to address the gender gap in the workforce and in leadership positions
which the official data very clearly evidences.
In this Communiqué, the G20 Empower Alliance
highlights that evidence:
• Women’s global labor force participation is only at
38.8%.
• Women occupy only 27% of all managerial positions.
• Women sit on just 26%3 of seats on Boards of
publicly listed companies across OECD countries.
• On an international scale, the pandemic has
amplified the already existing inequalities.
In contrast, the pandemic did not affect the speed of the progress
towards gender equality in Saudi Arabia.
According to the General Authority for Statistics,
women’s labor force participation rates increased from 17.4% in the first
quarter of 2017 to a record high of 33.8% by the second quarter of 2021; their
employment rate also rose by 13% during that period. This rate of acceleration
may be at least partly attributable to the efforts of the Saudi government that
has the economic inclusion of women as an essential goal in its Vision 2030.
Paola Mascaro, chair of G20 Empower and president of
Valore D, explained: "The document we have delivered is the result of the
collaboration between the representatives of companies and institutions from
the G20 countries, and is characterized by an action-oriented approach,
indicating in detail the methods and steps that should be adopted to achieve
tangible results.
“The work carried out in the past months enables
companies to immediately start implementing the priority measures and KPIs we
have identified to provide a clear roadmap for the advancement of female
leadership.
“The presence of women in leadership positions is
fundamental for the economic growth of any country, and for this reason we have
asked the World Economic Forum and the International Monetary Fund to consider
women's leadership as a key indicator to assess countries’ competitiveness."
In collaboration with Boston Consulting Group, the
Alliance was pleased to launch its 2021 Best Practices Playbook, “Empowering
Women to Lead the New Normal World,” on Monday, Oct 11, with the participation
of different private sector leaders within the G20 countries.
The report gathered over 150 best practices from 23
countries and various industries, providing live examples of policies and
actions adopted by the private sector to strengthen the advancement of women as
leaders.
“Women must have the opportunity to gain financial
independence through equal access to any job or position of their choosing,
with talent and work ethic determining their career trajectory, rather than
gender, “ said Lubna S. Olayan, the co-chair of G20 Empower and the Private
Sector Representative for Saudi Arabia.
“That is true gender parity. And that is fair, that is
necessary, and that is good for business and society. Personally, I look
forward to my grand children never hearing that a woman was the first to serve
in a role or to achieve something, because theirs is a future where true gender
parity is the norm,” she added.
The 2021 best practices report focuses on three
fundamental axes of work to close the gender gap at leadership positions:
measuring to improve, building a women's talent pipeline, and enabling women to
lead the future.
Of the best practices analyzed in the survey conducted
by BCG, the most common area of focus is building a women talent pipeline (68%
of the 134 organizations analyzed), then enabling women to lead the future
(19%) and measuring to improve (13%).
In a panel discussion titled: "Stories from the
Best: What Leaders Do to Empower Women," the Olayan Saudi Holding Company
shared their 20-year Diversity experience and emphasized the importance of
having precise KPIs accompanied by solid engagement lines with all relevant
stakeholders.
This 2021 Playbook builds on the practices collected
in 2020, during the Saudi Presidency, supported by the OECD, ILO, and McKinsey,
that led to the publication of the G20 Empower report “Policies and Practices
to Promote Women in Leadership Roles in the Private Sector.”
It aims to be a living knowledge sharing platform for
organizations and leaders working on accelerating women’s leadership and
empowerment in the private sector and beyond. — SG
Source: Saudi Gazette
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/613742
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