World Bank highlights Saudi progress in women’s legal reforms
New
Age Islam News Bureau
25
February 2021
The Kingdom’s strong performance comes as a result of a raft of reforms implemented last year to further expand female participation in the economy. (Reuters/File Photo)
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• Time
to ensure women get fair chance in science
• The
Yazidi Women Who Do Not Want to Be Known
• Police
force trials anti-grab hijabs that have already been rolled out to female
officers in New Zealand in bid to recruit more Muslim women
• Annual
lecture honours three Black Muslim women leaders
• Grad
student honoured as Inspiring Arab Woman
• Travel
restrictions eased for Saudis married to non-Saudis
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/world-bank-highlights-saudi-progress/d/124395
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World
Bank highlights Saudi progress in women’s legal reforms
February
24, 2021
The Kingdom’s strong performance comes as a result of a raft of reforms implemented last year to further expand female participation in the economy. (Reuters/File Photo)
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JEDDAH:
Saudi Arabia continues to make notable progress in women’s economic inclusion
and empowerment, according to a World Bank report.
The
World Bank Group’s “Women, Business and the Law (WBL)” report, released on Feb.
23, showed that the Kingdom scored higher than last year on a global measure of
legal reforms to boost gender equality.
On
a scale of one to 100, Saudi Arabia scored 80 in 2021, up from 70.6 in 2020.
The
increase in performance was notable in five indicators on which it scored at
the top of the scale: Mobility, workplace, pay, entrepreneurship and pension.
These
scores put Saudi Arabia on a par with many advanced economies with long
traditions of women’s legal reforms.
The
Kingdom’s strong performance comes as a result of a raft of reforms implemented
last year to further expand female participation in the economy.
Saudi
Arabia equalized women’s access to the labor market, lifted restrictions on
their employment in sectors previously considered unsafe, and eliminated a ban
on women’s night work.
Last
year’s report ranked Saudi Arabia as the world’s top reformer in advancing
women’s economic participation for 2019, a recognition of the legislative
policies the country established to boost female participation in the
workforce, which it aims to increase from an average of just under 20 percent
to more than 40 percent as part of Vision 2030.
Commenting
on the report, Majid Al-Qasabi, commerce minister and chairman of the National
Competitiveness Center, said that the Kingdom’s performance reflects King
Salman’s commitment to enabling Saudi women to fully participate in the social
and economic development of the country. It also reflects Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman’s efforts to ensure an effective whole-of-government approach to
implementing women’s legal reforms.
Saudi
Arabia’s reforms build on changes implemented since the launch of Vision 2030
in 2016, including lifting restrictions on women’s mobility, equalizing access
to public services, guaranteeing equal benefits in the labor market, and
instituting protections against harassment in the workplace and in public
spaces.
The
WBL, a yearly publication by the World Bank Group, assesses women’s legal
reforms in 190 countries, using an index with eight indicators: Mobility, pay,
parenthood, assets, workplace, marriage, entrepreneurship and pension.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1815291/saudi-arabia
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Time
to ensure women get fair chance in science
MAHA
AKEEL
February
25, 2021
A
student at Khalifa University Abu Dhabi conducts an experiment in the
university’s fluids and low speed aerodynamics lab. (Khalifa University)
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I
was not fond of physics when I was in school, although I was very much aware of
its importance as a subject, having grasped the significance of gravity, the
atom and the theory of relativity. On the other hand, I did enjoy biology and
chemistry, dissecting frogs and mixing chemicals in the lab. I was also good at
math, algebra and geometry.
At
one point, I considered going for a scientific field of study or becoming a doctor
like my father wished, but I did not think I could tolerate the bloody part of
medicine. And female members of the family who had pursued a degree in science
or math either became teachers or stayed at home without work after graduation
due to the limited job opportunities for women. Many women also drop out of
medical school and other scientific fields or leave work after getting married
and having children. Generally, fewer girls go into scientific fields compared
to the humanities, business or the arts.
But
things have changed considerably for women during the past 10 years, with more
colleges in computer science and engineering, in addition to medicine and
medical sciences, opening up. There are more job opportunities too, especially
under Vision 2030, which identified female empowerment and gender equality as
one of its main objectives.
However,
women around the world still face many hurdles during their education and
careers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
On
Feb. 11, we celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
Unlike in previous years, this time we felt the critical role of science and
medicine in our lives first-hand. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus
pandemic, scientists and medical personnel have been fighting the virus,
advancing our knowledge of it, and developing techniques for testing and
vaccinating against it, all while also treating and caring for the infected.
And female scientists and doctors have been at the center of this effort. The
scientists who developed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were a husband and wife
team.
Nevertheless,
just as the coronavirus disease has had a negative impact on women’s family
life and employment, it has also had a significant negative impact on women scientists,
particularly those in the early stages of their career. This will contribute to
widening the existing gender gap in science and will reveal the gender
disparities in the scientific system, according to UNESCO. At present, fewer
than 30 percent of researchers worldwide are women.
According
to UNESCO data from 2014 to 2016, only 35 percent of all female students around
the world select STEM-related fields in higher education. Globally, female
students’ enrolment is particularly low in information and communications
technology (3 percent), natural science, mathematics and statistics (5
percent), and engineering, manufacturing and construction (8 percent).
UNESCO
has called for new policies, initiatives and mechanisms to support women and
girls in science. In order to do that, we need to understand the factors that
deter women from pursuing careers in STEM. Among these factors are gender
biases, social norms and expectations influencing the quality of the education
girls receive and the subjects they study. This gender disparity is a serious
problem in all countries, especially as STEM careers are often referred to as
the “jobs of the future,” driving innovation, social well-being, inclusive
growth and sustainable development. Scientists will play a key role in
addressing the challenges of food security, climate change, clean energy,
health, water and sanitation, in addition to our everyday lives and activities
through computers and gadgets. It is imperative that we encourage girls and
women to enter STEM education and careers, and continue in the field.
Statistics
show there has been an incremental increase in the enrolment of female students
on STEM degree courses, but this is not translating into a greater presence of
women in high-level decision and policymaking roles. According to recent
studies, 41 percent of Ph.D. students in STEM fields are women. Among these,
just 28 percent are on the tenure track. Disproportionate differences in the
share of women researchers also exist at regional and national levels. In
regions such as Central and Eastern Europe, the Arab world, Latin America and
the Caribbean and Central Asia, women make up between 39 percent and 48.5
percent of researchers. In North America, Western Europe, sub-Saharan Africa,
East Asia and the Pacific, and South and West Asia, the figure is between 23.1
percent and 32.9 percent.
It
is interesting to note that many Arab and Muslim countries are doing much
better than many Western countries of the Global North, such as Switzerland,
Germany, the UK and Norway, which is extremely encouraging and reassuring that
investment made in women’s education can have a great dividend in terms of
socioeconomic transformation.
According
to UNESCO, 34 to 57 percent of STEM graduates in Arab countries are women. They
make up 64 percent of Jordanian students in the natural sciences, medicine,
dentistry and pharmacy, as well as 60 percent of engineering students in the
Gulf (compared with only 30 percent in the US and Europe). Irrespective of
these numbers, the translation of STEM graduates into a skilled workforce and
high-level decision-makers is marred by various dropouts. In Arab countries,
the average proportion of women scientists stands at 17 percent. This
persistent problem in higher education and academia is the “leaky pipeline” — a
term that refers to the disproportionate rate at which qualified women leave
science as they move up the educational and career ladder. Globally, women
account for only 16 percent of managers in the information technology industry,
3 percent of CEOs and 20 percent of chief financial officers.
According
to experts who participated in a webinar organized by the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC) last year, this dropout rate is due to various
reasons, including: Work-life balance conflicts, a hostile environment from
coworkers, gender discrimination, relatively few professional development
opportunities, especially in fieldwork, and a lack of role models and mentors.
Participants
in the OIC webinar recommended enhancing national policies that encourage girls
and women to enter STEM fields of education by investing in quality, inclusive
education, and investing in major potentials for science, technology and
innovation as strategic engines for economic growth. They also recommended
increasing early orientation and awareness on the importance of STEM for girls,
as well as providing training programs for marginalized and disadvantaged girls
and women to integrate them into the various available professions and
projects. It is also important to highlight, promote and reward women achievers
in the field. As a result, the OIC last week launched a platform on its website
and social media celebrating women scientists in its member states.
Maybe
if I had more encouragement and support and knew the potential of studying any
of the STEM fields, I would have had a different career.
MahaAkeel
is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. Twitter: @MahaAkeel1
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1815386
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The
Yazidi Women Who Do Not Want to Be Known
By
Zana Omer, Namo Abdulla
February
25, 2021
In
this Feb. 12, 2020, photo, Malak Saad Dakhel, 11, is anointed by a holy man
inside a Yazidi shrine as she is welcomed home by her relatives after her
escape from Syria, in Sharia, Iraq.
------------
AL-HOL
CAMP, SYRIA - At this camp in northeastern Syria, women are often seen wearing
niqab, the dress that ultra-conservative Muslim women wear to cover their
entire bodies, except for their eyes.
Nowadays,
this religious attire serves another purpose: hide the identities of as many as
250 Yazidi women who were forced into sex slavery by Islamic State in 2014
after the terror group took their small town of Sinjar in northern Iraq.
Al-Hol
is Syria’s largest camp for refugees and internally displaced persons, with a
population of roughly 62,000. The United Nations says more than 80% of its
residents are women and children.
Many
of the camp’s female residents survived the 2014 genocide in Sinjar, where IS
killed most of their brothers and fathers but kept them alive, forcing them to
convert to Islam and marry its jihadist members. As a result, many of the women
became mothers raising children fathered by members of IS.
More
than six years later, many of these women prefer to be known as IS wives rather
than members of the ancient religious group they were born into. They fear that
by revealing their identities, they could permanently be separated from their
children, according to experts and Yazidi survivors.
That
fear remains, despite a decision made in 2019 by the Yazidi Supreme Spiritual
Council to allow children born to IS fighters to live within the secluded
community, reversing a previous stance the council held on the issue.
A
Yazidi female survivor, who identified herself only as Layla, recently unveiled
her identity to authorities.
“The
Yazidi women all heard that if they returned to Sinjar, they would lose their
children,” Layla told VOA. “Because of our children, we hid ourselves. However,
when the decision was made that we can keep our children, I revealed myself.”
Jabir
Jendo, a Syria-based researcher on the Yazidis, explained a dilemma from which
Yazidi women have suffered.
“These
women have children, and the fathers of these children are IS terrorists,” he
said. “That has caused a problem for these women. They either had to abandon
their children and return to their families or stay with their children and
live the way they do now.”
Mahmoud
Rasho, a member of the Syrian Yazidi Council, is helping to identify the Yazidi
women who remain in hiding and wants to reassure them that they can continue to
live with their children.
“We
have information that some Yazidis are indeed inside the camp,” Rasho told VOA.
“We are working to get those women out of the camp in phases.”
VOA
talked to other female Yazidi survivors who said that despite returning to
their communities, they continue to worry about their children’s futures,
growing up with the stigma of being born to IS militants, also known as ISIS.
Some
figures show an increase in suicide among Yazidi survivors. On Tuesday, Iraq’s
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced that at least 13 Yazidi survivors
have committed suicide so far this year.
“The
suicides are believed to be linked to the trauma caused by the Yazidi genocide
at the hands of ISIS, the difficult living conditions inside the(displacement)
camps, lack of prospects for the future, and economic and social problems,” the
KRG said.
https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/yazidi-women-who-do-not-want-be-known
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Police
force trials anti-grab hijabs that have already been rolled out to female
officers in New Zealand in bid to recruit more Muslim women
24
February 2021
A
police force is trialling anti-grab hijabs in a bid to encourage more Muslim
women to join its ranks.
Leicestershire
Police has given the hi-tech headwear to a Muslim officer with a view to
rolling them out to female colleagues on the front line.
The
hijab is made from a sports fabric and fastened with magnetic buttons which
allow for quick release if a suspect attempts to grab it.
The
hijab is designed to sit comfortably with police issued headwear such as caps
and radio ear pieces.
A
team spent 16 months designing the new-look hijabs at New Zealand's Massey
University College in Wellington.
New
Zealand Police introduced them into its uniform last November and they are now
expected to be rolled out to forces in the UK.
Detective
Constable Yassin Desai, joint chair of Leicestershire Police's Association of
Muslim Police (AMP), said: 'We saw the New Zealand hijab and liked the look of
it so got in contact, built a really good relationship and have been trialling
it for a number of weeks.
'We
have had several failed attempts to get the right product but we are very
hopeful with what we have seen so far.
'If
everything goes well and the necessary tests and approvals are met then we
could be rolling this out in Leicestershire.
'I
have also been talking to other forces in England and Wales and the Home Office
about it being a national solution for emergency services and frontline staff.
'It's
really important for our Muslim officers who wear the hijab. Operationally, a
standard hijab is needed.
'It
looks professional, uses very similar material to our current police uniform
and has relevant design and safety features.
'More
importantly it will help attract other Muslim females to become police
officers.
'It
will also help to provide role models to the community to show them they too
can follow a career in policing.'
Student
Officer Khadeejah Mansur, who joined the force in October, is trialling the
new-look hijab.
She
said: 'Wearing the hijab had made me very comfortable and complements my
uniform very well, it is comfortable and far from restricting.
'I
am able to conduct my training just as well as everyone else and still be
covered.
'I
believe it is important to have it as part of our uniform to make other Muslim
females aware that Leicestershire Police caters to all individual's needs,
especially with our uniform.
'Once
fellow Muslim females see myself as a frontline hijab wearing officer, I hope
it will inspire them to look at a career in policing as there are no
restrictions or setbacks.'
Deb
Cumming, Senior Lecturer within the School of Design at Massey University in
New Zealand, created the hijab with colleague Nina Weaver.
She
said: 'The hijab fits the head and neck shoulder area for freedom of movement
and rigorous performance with contoured panels and reinforced zones for
durability, access for communication device and quick release fastening system
for safety reasons.
'It
is made from a technical sports fabric which is light to wear, antibacterial,
moisture wicking and robust. We carried out extensive wear trials to ensure the
hijab was fit for purpose.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9294871/Police-force-trials-anti-grab-hijabs-bid-recruit-Muslim-women.html
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Annual
lecture honours three Black Muslim women leaders
SIMISOLA
FAGBEMI
FEB
24, 2021
On
Saturday, Rutgers professor and anthropologist Donna Auston held a talk titled
“If It Wasn’t For the Women: The Activist Legacies of Louise Little, Ella
Collins and Betty Shabazz,” which highlighted the contributions of the three
leaders to the civil rights movement.
The
Zoom webinar, which started at 6 p.m., is the third annual lecture honoring the
life and work of Malcolm X — who is also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz —
and Betty Shabazz.
This
year’s event took place on the 56th anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination
and was sponsored by the Muslim Leadership Lab at Dwight Hall at Yale in
partnership with the Muslim Life Program at the Yale Chaplain’s Office. The
lecture explored the impacts that Little, Collins and Shabazz left on their
communities and broader society.
“We
want to begin to think about Black women’s perspectives in a different way.”
Auston said during the talk. “I would like to try or implore us together to
begin to take these women out of the margins and move them into the center. And
help us to understand them not just as accessories to Malcolm’s legacy, but
actually creators of it.”
The
lecture was introduced by Abdul-Rehman Malik, director of the Muslim Leadership
Lab, and Yousra Omer ’22, president of the Yale Muslim Students Association.
Malik
founded the Muslim Leadership Lab in 2018 to promote advocacy amongst Muslims
and their allies both at Yale and in the broader New Haven community. The lab
holds workshops, discussions and readings of religious and contemporary texts.
During
the first half of the event, Auston summarized the lives and contributions of
the three women.
Little,
who was fluent in multiple languages, organized for the Universal Negro
Improvement Association, a national group focused on Black empowerment. She
directly engaged with white supremacists who came to her house when she was
pregnant with her son, Malcolm X.
Shabazz
was raised largely sheltered from racism as a child and experienced extreme
discrimination while in college in the South. Despite this, she became a nurse,
raised six daughters and later received a doctorate in education.
Finally,
Collins owned real estate with her sisters and helped many of her family
members migrate north during the Great Migration. She founded a school in
Boston, worked as a secretary to a New York City representative and, later,
became the guardian of her half-brother, Malcolm X, who was in foster care.
In
the second half of the event, Auston opened up the floor to questions. Humera
Khan, an attendee from the United Kingdom, said that she “really empathized”
with the women described in the talk. Khan and her late husband have been
activists for decades.
“This
is something I’ve been fighting for myself,” she said. “You can’t overlook the
contribution that women make, the choices women make in being the nurturers, in
being the supporters, in being the ones who are facilitators, the ones who are
picking up the pieces.”
According
to Malik, the annual lecture series was started in 2019 to remember Betty
Shabazz and Malcolm X and to “think about what their legacies have looked like
and could look like.” The first lecture — which was led by Sylvia Chan-Malik,
an associate professor at Rutgers University — focused on revolution and the
uncovering of Black female stories. The second lecture, led by historian Rasul
Miller, was about Black radical activism inspired by post-Malcolm X Muslim
movements.
“We’ve
tried to keep the lecture contemporary and lively and speak to the moment,”
Malik told the News. “Leadership isn’t something that’s rarified for the
privileged, but each and every one of us expresses and can express leadership
in our families, our communities, in our societies, in our neighborhoods.”
Sheikh
Nahiyan ’24, an attendee, said that he appreciated hearing from Auston, noting
that a lot of what he learned was “totally new.” According to Nahiyan, this
lecture provided a new perspective that he had not gotten before due to the
lack of Muslim-focused classes at Yale.
Auston
mentioned that while progress has been made in uncovering the histories of
these women — such as a recently published biography of Betty Shabazz — there
is still much work to do. She added that she “learned a lot” while doing
research for the lecture. As a Black Muslim woman, she describes studying the
histories of the three women as relevant to her own life.
“Part
of the impetus for the talk for me is my own questions,” she said in an
interview with the News. “I have to be able to figure out how to make the
generality [of faith] work for my specificity. And these women provide very
good examples of how it might be done.”
A
recording of the event is available on the Dwight Hall at Yale Facebook page.
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2021/02/24/annual-lecture-honors-three-black-muslim-women-leaders/
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Grad
student honoured as Inspiring Arab Woman
February
24, 2021
By
Chelsea Hylton
If
you have met Claudia Ramly, a UW–Madison second-year PhD student in the School
of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology, you know that she is a
compassionate and outgoing learner.
Even
after only speaking to her for about 15 minutes I could instantly grasp the
feeling that Ramly is well-deserving of the Women in Business Arabia’s “365
Inspiring Arab Women” selection.
Ramly
came to UW–Madison for graduate school, attracted by its outstanding research
labs and well-known education psychology department.
Back
in December Ramly found out that she was selected to be one of the 365 Arab
Women after a friend nominated her.
“I
was very very surprised. I had actually forgotten about it,” she said.
Ramly
was selected because in 2018 she created the “Hidden Gem Walking Tour,” a tour
that showcases the Gemmayzeneighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon. Gemmayze is a town
full of historic architecture and has been able to preserve its French,
Ottoman, and Lebanese character even after the civil war in Lebanon.
“We
will reveal through 11 stops, the hidden gems in architecture, theater, art,
and history as we walk down Gouraud Street and through the Sursock Quarter,”
says the Hidden Gem Facebook page.
The
walking tour is paused now, due to COVID and Ramly being in Madison finishing
her studies.
Ramly
for a time as a training and education
specialist for medical devices. While she was stationed for her company in
Lebanon she discovered Gemmayze. Ramly was not a complete stranger because she
had grown up in Lebanon as a child.
“While
I was in Lebanon there were a lot of traffic jams by the office and so I would
park my car in a neighborhood close to my office and just go for a walk,” she
said.
While
on her walks, Ramly discovered Gemmayze’s beautiful and historic architecture.
Gemmayze is the name of a tree that is no longer in that neighborhood but Ramly
became interested and wanted to learn more.
She
wanted to document the history and allow people to experience the same things
she did. Looking back now, she is grateful that she did, as Gemmayze suffered a
terrible bombing that severely damaged most of the neighborhood.
“There
was a very big explosion that took place in the Beirut Port. After the
explosion a lot of people who had seen pictures of my walking tour were so glad
I was able to document it,” she said.
She
was also selected for this award because of her work creating the virtual “Lean
International Women Circle.”
“Being
an international student in Madison and being away from home and I felt a bit
disconnected,” she said. “I wanted to create a group for international women
who were away from their homes to talk
about different topics that affect the group.”
Ramly
says that she wants to encourage other people and not just students to take
different opportunities because they might have a huge impact on your life.
“Saying
yes to those opportunities will open up a lot of things. Even if you don’t feel
ready, just showing up and being willing to learn is good,” she said.
https://news.wisc.edu/grad-student-honored-as-inspiring-arab-woman/
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Travel
restrictions eased for Saudis married to non-Saudis
February
24, 2021
RIYADH
— Saudi Arabia's General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) announced on
Wednesday the lifting of travel restrictions for Saudi men and women who are
married to non-Saudis.
The
higher authorities have issued an order that enables Saudi women married to
non-Saudis to travel with their husbands or join their husbands who are abroad
after submitting proof of marriage to officials at the departure points
directly.
The
order also allows travel for Saudi men who are married to non-Saudi women if
the latter reside outside the Kingdom due to work or other conditions that do
not enable them to come to the Kingdom to join their husbands, the Saudi Press
Agency reported.
The
Jawazat stated that in the event that a Saudi citizen is unable to submit
documents that prove the wife’s presence outside the Kingdom and her inability
to come to the Kingdom, he can apply for a travel permit through the “Absher”
electronic platform with attaching all the required documents, in order to
facilitate the procedures for obtaining a travel permit.
The
new initiative is in implementation of the directives of the higher authorities
regarding procedures for traveling abroad and coming to the Kingdom during the
period of suspension of international flights ever since the outbreak of the
pandemic.
The
Ministry of Interior has decided to lift the temporary travel ban and resume
all international flights effective from May 17.
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/603844
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