Rayyanah Barnawi, First Saudi Arabian Woman In Space, Following The Iconic Exemplar Of The UAE For Space Exploration
19 March 2023
• Rayyanah Barnawi, First Saudi Arabian Woman In
Space, Following The Iconic Exemplar Of The UAE For Space Exploration
• Female Entrepreneurs From Across Afghanistan Seek
Out Foreign Markets
• ICC Board Set To Decide The Future Of The Exiled
Afghanistan Women's Cricket Team At A Meeting In Dubai
• Women Agencies at Grand Holy Mosque Ready with Technological,
Human Potential to Provide Services to Visitors
• Gwen Wunderlich And Dara Kaplan, The US Women Who
Have Just Opened A PR Office In Saudi Arabia
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/rayyanah-barnawi-saudi-woman-space/d/129354
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Rayyanah Barnawi, First Saudi Arabian Woman In Space,
Following The Iconic Exemplar Of The UAE For Space Exploration
Rayyanah Barnawi, 33, will
become the first woman astronaut from Saudi Arabia (Saudi Space Commission /
Twitter)
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Elf Habib
March 19, 2023
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, following the iconic
exemplar of the United Arab Emirates for space exploration, is about to send
its first ever woman astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, for a ten-day mission to the
International Space Station (ISS). The Kingdom would thus become the first ever
Muslim and Arab nation to send a woman astronaut to space and Barnawi would
have the honour to be the first ever Muslim astronaut to venture as a mission
specialist in space. She would also be accompanied by Ali Al-Qarni another
Saudi astronaut and the programme would be executed by a by private space
corporation, Axiom Space, as a part of its Ax-2 mission. Saudi Arabia, in fact,
has followed the United Arab Emirates that made history by becoming the first
Arab nation to launch a citizen into space in 2019 as its Astronaut Hazzaa
al-Mansoori visited the International Space Station (ISS) for an eight days
trip.
In 2020, it launched its first interplanetary space
mission, the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) to Mars. Meant to glean more
information about the Mar’s atmosphere, it was the culmination of a project
conceived in 2014 by a team of Emirati and American engineers that worked
across two continents for its completion. Its launching from a USA launch pad
even defied a global covid pandemic crisis. It reached the Mars in February
2021and the success synchronised with the 50 anniversary of the UAE, with the
laurels to become the first Arab and the fifth country to reach the red planet.
It took seven months to traverse 306 million miles and its Hope Probe is still
hopping the Mars.
Its latest mission known as the Rashid Rover, meant to
land on the Moon, sent on December, 2022, has already entered the lunar
trajectory and is scheduled to land on the lunar surface by the end of next
month. The success of Rashid that means a ‘person pursuing the right path’,
would make the Emirates not merely the fourth nation to land on the Moon
following the United States, Soviet Union and China but also the first ever
Arab and Muslim country to meet the Moon. Even one of its first ever woman
astronaut Nora Al Matrosshi, a mechanical engineer from Sharja, has been
selected for its next mission to the moon.
Space for its spectacular promise of a rare thrill and
romance of exploration, new vast, virgin resources and human settlements to
skip the worsening climate and resource constraints on Earth, has stirred a
great interest in flights for research and exploration. But the Muslim
countries, for their mindset, problems of poverty, primitive thought, political
strife, lack of stability and governance, lack of modern science, tech and
innovative expertise, economic and investment constraints, have avoided their
space ventures. The UAE, however, imbued with a global perception and economic
affluence, established its Space Agency in 2014.
Saudi Arabia, in contrast, had not been that active in
space prior to the ascent of Prince Muhammad Salman, still historically Barnawi’s
flight may not be taken as its first space visit as even in 1985, it sent its
royal Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, an air force pilot on a mission
organised and managed by the USA. Its own space programme, however, started
four years later than the UAE but it sent an astronaut to space in 2022 to
pioneer yet another part of Prince Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda, for economic
diversification.
Rayyanah Barnawi, likewise would be the first Muslim
woman astronaut on a space mission being initiated, funded and organised by a
pristine Muslim country. Coming to a broader roll of the visitors to the space
as cosmonauts, astronauts, payloads and other special research and visit
expertise, two other Muslim women have already been to the space as a part of 75
women who have this honour. Anoushe Ansari, an American citizen, born in Iran,
for instance, actually may be taken to be the first ever Muslim woman to be in
space albeit as a tourist. She flew to the ISS by the Russian Soyuz TMA on
September 18, 2006.
Anoushe, an electrical and computing graduate and with
MS in electrical engineering, cofounded a telecommunication company with her
husband and brother-in-law and sold it for about half a billion in 2006. She
has also been quite enthusiastic to promote and optimise the innovative space
travel facilities and make generous contribution to the related organizations.
A $10million award by them to the first ever private company capable to launch
a reusable crewed spacecraft into space within two weeks was quite exceptional.
Sara Sabry, an Egyptian woman, a medical and
biomedical engineer, was selected from seven thousand applicants from 160
countries. She flew on August 4, 1922, on a suborbital mission operated by the
Blue Origin Mission NS 22. Blue Origin is a privately owned American aerospace
manufacturing and suborbital services company conducting such flights. Her main
focus was space for Humanity Citizens’ programme or sifting the Overview
aspects meant to examine the Earth as a single entity as it appears suspended
like a ball or big organism in space, surpassing the boundaries that divide it
for the Earthlings.
Their exemplar, the success of the first Saudi woman
on her mission, followed by Nora, the UAE astronaut, would evidently spur some
other richer Muslim nations to emulate their strides and taking more Muslim men
and women into space.
Source: Nation.Com
https://www.nation.com.pk/19-Mar-2023/first-muslim-women-in-space
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Female Entrepreneurs From Across Afghanistan Seek Out
Foreign Markets
Afghan customers wait for
their food to be served at a restaurant named ‘Banowan-e- Afghan’ that employs
female staff in Kabul on March 16, 2023. (AFP)
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REUTERS
March 19, 2023
KABUL/DUBAI: Dozens of Afghan businesswomen took part
in an exhibition in Dubai remotely this week to promote carpets, jewellery,
dried fruit and other handmade goods as part of a push to access international
markets after work options for women shrank in Afghanistan under the Taliban
administration.
The three-day exhibition, held at a hotel in Dubai and
organized by the United Nations Development Programme and the Afghan Women’s
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI), began on Thursday and includes 26
female-run businesses.
Due to visa and travel restrictions, most business
owners joined via video link from the Afghan capital, where they said some
restrictions on women in public life as well as the country’s struggling
economy were hampering their businesses.
Rayhana Karim, from the AWCCI, said at the exhibition
in Dubai that they were working to create a brand for products, labelling them
“Made by Afghan Women,” to reach consumers abroad wanting to support women’s
rights.
“The end-consumers in Europe, the United States and
the UAE, they want to support Afghan women, we need to provide them with an
opportunity,” Karim told Reuters.
“You are supporting an Afghan woman when buying a
quality product ... and you are enabling her to stand on her own two feet, to
gain financial independence and to start to have a seat at the table.”
The International Labour Organization recently
estimated that 25 percent of women’s jobs had disappeared since the Taliban
took over as foreign forces withdrew in 2021. Many women, they noted, had
turned to home-based businesses, which had stopped the female employment
figures falling further.
The country’s economy has been severely hampered after
foreign governments froze central bank assets and enforced sanctions on the
banking sector.
The Taliban administration has banned many female NGO
workers and some Taliban-run ministries do not allow female staff to work in
their offices. Some, including the Taliban’s acting commerce minister, have
said they support female-led businesses.
“We lost our hope when Afghanistan collapsed ... but
Afghan women are fighters, we will struggle and fight. We will never allow
losing our business to happen,” said Ziagul Jahani, who produces handmade
clothes and carpets from central Parwan province.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2271261/world
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ICC board set to decide the future of the exiled
Afghanistan women's cricket team at a meeting in Dubai
By Tracey Holmes
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will decide –
or delay further — the fate of the exiled Afghanistan women's cricket team at a
council meeting in Dubai on Monday, even though the all-male working group has
not spoken to a single member of the team.
It is expected the sub-committee, headed by ICC deputy
chair and Singaporean lawyer Imran Khwaja, will recommend that no action be
taken against the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) as the situation is
"very complex", leaving the women, now based in Australia, in a
prolonged limbo.
During a visit by Afghanistan officials to Australia
for the men's ICC T20 World Cup in November 2022, a member of the women's team
was given the name of the restaurant where the chairman of the Afghanistan
Cricket Board, Mirwais Ashraf, was dining.
Beatings from her mother and jeers from her neighbours
never stopped Noura from playing football, and later boxing. Then the Taliban
came.
"When I was running … I was just praying that I
could talk to him because it was very important for me and my teammates to have
his support.
"It is very painful for me that he, and all
officials of the ICC and ACB, are running away from us and they do not want to
answer us, especially Mirwais Ashraf.
"He was a player like us, and no one can
understand us better than him. We learned the love of cricket from people like
Mirwais Ashraf.
"Players like him make us want to play cricket,
but it is very painful that he runs away from what is his responsibility and
ignores us."
According to ESPNCricinfo, the working group has been
"provided assurances that the government has not interfered in cricket
affairs," and they acknowledge that "any women's cricket while the
Taliban are in power is near impossible".
The assurance of no Taliban-government interference is
akin to the emperor's new clothes — it simply is not true. Any recommendation
based on that premise cannot be worth the paper it is written on.
Once the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August
2021, women were prevented from playing cricket and all other sport. The 25
already-contracted players had their payments stopped, and they fled the
country after receiving threats and fearing for their future.
Afghanistan is one of only 12 full-members of the ICC,
and is currently in breach of its obligations to support and develop women's
cricket.
If all the money given to Afghanistan was invested in
women's cricket only, and the men's team suddenly found themselves banned with
payments stopped, it would be hard to imagine the men who run international
cricket not finding a solution — and quickly.
The ACB received more than $50 million from the ICC in
the past round of funding, which was presumably to be invested in both the
men's and women's game.
While the Taliban has banned women playing in
Afghanistan, the cricketers and their supporters point out they are not in
Afghanistan and they should be supported to play in Australia with the funds
that should have been earmarked for their development.
Australia has pulled out of a scheduled one-day
cricket series against Afghanistan, in response to the Taliban regime’s
discrimination against women. While Afghan cricket officials have reacted
angrily, the national women’s team is supporting Australia’s boycott. #abc730
pic.twitter.com/jObJuOexNj
"We want to put on our uniform and see our flag
in the middle of the ground and play in the World Cup. [We want to] shine and
make our country proud," Firooza Afghan told The Ticket in January.
"Could you please advise what the official stance
is on our national playing contracts and future playing opportunities, noting
that we are no longer living in Afghanistan?" they wrote.
Source: Abc.Net
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-19/icc-to-decide-fate-of-afghanistan-womens-team/102116536
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Women Agencies at Grand Holy Mosque Ready with
Technological, Human Potential to Provide Services to Visitors
19 Mar, 2023
Advisor and Assistant President for Women Development
Affairs at the Grand Holy Mosque Dr. Al-Anoud Al-Abboud has stressed the
readiness of women agencies at the Grand Holy Mosque and affiliate
administrations to offer the best services to women at the mosque during the
holy month of Ramadan, and the availability of all technological and human
potential, both in the administration and on the field, to deliver services, in
line with the bright guidance offered by the wise leadership of the country.
Al-Abboud said that women's prayer areas in the Grand
Holy Mosque are ready to receive worshippers, and highlighted the quality of
services provided to women during the holy month of Ramadan in various
administrative field aspects, with the agency having designated several
departments and units to provide the best services to the visitors, in several
languages, and organize the movement of crowd inside and outside the Grand Holy
Mosque, with special care for persons with disabilities and older women, and
services that suit the needs of different groups.
She noted that the agency is responsible for the
disinfection and sterilization of women's prayer areas and securing a safe and
comfortable worship environment, providing Zamzam water in closed packages, or
refrigerated and non-refrigerated containers, as well as for measuring women's
level of satisfaction with the services, to be considered in further
development plans concerning women at the Grand Holy Mosque.
Source: Alriyadh Daily
http://alriyadhdaily.com/article/d9c8536d104e413aa5bc6a4cb9c8ad37
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Gwen Wunderlich And Dara Kaplan, The US Women Who Have
Just Opened A PR Office In Saudi Arabia
Jasmine Bager
March 18, 2023
RIYADH: With New York savvy, Miami flair and a Saudi
spirit, Gwen Wunderlich and Dara Kaplan took a chance on themselves and entered
the ever-changing space of Saudi Arabia’s women empowerment.
With more than two decades of experience and a solid
friendship, they launched the Riyadh branch of their first women-led US-based
PR firm Wunderlich Kaplan Communications.
“We partnered this time for this division with Noor
Taher, she is partners with Good Intentions and she brought us over here and
agreed to partner up with us so generously to bring big projects to us, to
guide us and to be a lead here to make sure things go smoothly,” she said.
The two women expect to work on PR communications,
marketing branding for local companies that are looking for national exposure,
but also US companies that are looking to come into Saudi Arabia and find
exposure and benefit.
They started their first official project in the
country in December 2022, with the Jeddah Art Project that took place during
Formula One.
“It felt very fantastical to do, because we were kind
of breaking barriers and bringing new kinds of information and content from a
country that really hadn’t been heard of in that light when it came to culture
and creativity.
“Those were not two words that really were related to
Saudi Arabia in the mind of where we come from. So we worked on the Formula One
project, I worked on the Alicia Keys’ concert and Women to Women event,” said
Wunderlich.
While sitting in AlUla with Keys, Princess Reema and other
women, Wunderlich knew that she was “being part of a great piece of time.
History is being made here. That event was probably one of my favorite things .
. . I would say in my entire career.”
Kaplan told Arab News that she had a misconception
about the Kingdom on her first trip. “Women’s empowerment is really rooted in
our mission. I thought I’m going to go to Saudi Arabia because the narrative
we’ve always been fed is that women are lesser than and they need our help.
“When I came here, I realized that these women do not
need me to empower them. They are already amazing, strong, educated, kick-ass
women. That, to me, was a real eye-opener and I talked to so many local women.
It made me think like, wow, what else do I have wrong?”
While women in Saudi Arabia still have a long way to
go, they wanted to ensure that people had a clearer and more accurate picture
of women in the Kingdom.
“I think that, unfortunately in the past, how it’s
been positioned is so wrong and I think there’s a lot of value in repositioning
that story and the narrative that’s been force-fed to everyone and they just
don’t know better, and if they knew better, I think there’ll be a lot of
support. You know, if the average person knew what we knew about Saudi, I think
it would be you having a very different conversation right now with us.”
Wunderlich has visited the Kingdom five times and
Kaplan twice. But they plan to visit frequently once their Jax office opens in
few months.
“We’re bringing our passion at the end of the day. We
run our own business — we do it from our heart. We love storytellers and we
love people with great narratives,” said Wunderlich.
“We want to take meetings with Saudi women, we want
people to contact us with interesting projects. We want for the country to
start digging deep. We already worked with the Royal Commission of AlUla, which
is amazing. And we’ve worked with Craft and we’ve worked with Good Intentions
and the people that we’ve worked with so far we have great relations,”
Wunderlich said.
“I think what’s unique about us — and correct me if
I’m wrong — I know there are local PR firms and then there’s corporate American
PR firms, but I don’t think there’s the blend of the boutique firm that’s
having startup experience to publicly traded experience with global experience
and local experience. So I feel like we do bring celebrity and pop culture and
Fortune 500 companies and everything in between. With having a Saudi partner, I
think that we are delivering something that’s really different,” Kaplan said.
Taher is the co-founder of Good Intentions along with
US legend Swizz Beatz, the husband of Alicia Keys. Good Intentions recently
hosted their second Women to Women dialogue in AlUla.
They are a trusted voice in the digital world and they
are beyond influencers — they are visionary women who want to go past
smartphones and into the IRL space.
While hosting such lavish events in AlUla and Riyadh
is something they have a knack for, they are adamant about integrating and
inviting motivated Saudis to come together alongside them to build a
metaphorical sand castle in the Kingdom together.
They are not trying to hog the mic, take the spotlight
or speak for anyone. They want to be in the Kingdom because they simply fell in
love with the country and its people.
The women are here for Vision 2030 and everything else
before it and after it. And Taher, who is native to Riyadh, is excited to see
it go ahead.
“I have known these women for years and there hasn’t
been one project or client — no matter how big or small — they haven’t put
their absolute all into. What sets them apart is the passion and courage they
have to share the untold stories, that’s why I decided to enter into a
partnership with them.
Being from Saudi Arabia, there are a lot of stories
the world has yet to hear, it took a couple of trips to AlUla together to
realize the inevitable. No one tells a story quite like them — they can sell
sand in the desert,” Taher said.
Wunderlich and Kaplan were also guests on the Pass the
Kabsa podcast, in which talent in Saudi Arabia is at the center of
conversations.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2271096/saudi-arabia
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/rayyanah-barnawi-saudi-woman-space/d/129354