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Egyptian potato entered the country notwithstanding farmers’ protests

15-2-2018

The Beqaa potato growers staged a sit-in at the Agricultural Research Center in Riyaq-Tal Amara on Monday to protest the entry of Egyptian potatoes to the local markets before February 20th as was requested by the Lebanese farmers (c.f: http://bit.ly/2Esi17c). A ship loaded with 7,000 tons of potato has arrived at the Port of Beirut, despite a reported agreement that Lebanon imports nearly 50,000 tons close to the harvest season of the Akkari potato this mid-March. On the subject, Al Diyar newspaper today cited the president of the Beqaa Farmers’ Association, Ibrahim Tarshishi, as saying, “truth has been defeated” and the Egyptian goods have secured their entry into the country purposely ignoring local farmers’ concerns and complaints and the supposed pledges they received in this regard. He said 4 container ships loaded with Egyptian potato have arrived and freely unloading their cargo, which shows that “the pressures exerted on Lebanon are bigger than the country,” Tarshishi grieved, adding, that today the port is expected to receive more than 5 thousand tons. “The farmer is the scapegoat that is always used to lay the blame on for all that goes wrong and it is no one’s concern,” Tarshishi lamented. (Al Diyar, February 13, 15, 2018)

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Penal code amendments for more gender equality

15-2-2018

The minister of state for women’s affairs, Jean Ogassapian, referred to the cabinet a draft bill to amend some provisions of the Penal Code allowing the perpetrator of any sexual assault against a minor to escape arrest, trial or be exempted from punishment in he marries his victim, and to maximize the penalties against the perpetrator of incest rape. The said legislation also notes, in addition to the changes to Articles 505 and 518 proposed by Ogassapian earlier in August (c.f: http://bit.ly/2Etmarp), the introduction of new amendments to Articles 508, 513 and 514, whereby the term ‘imprisonment’ be replaced by the term ‘arrest’ thus considering the crime a felony and not an offence. Besides, Article 490 related to incestious crime provides for at least 10-year provisional detention and life imprisonment if the felon has a physical or legal custody on his victim. On the other hand, British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hugo Shorter, held on Tuesday a reception for the political parties in the presence of Ogassapian and over 70 women, mostly candidates in the upcoming elections. The event was an occasion to celebrate one hundred years to granting women the right to vote in the United Kingdom. Shorter said that women in Lebanon were given the right to vote back in 1952, but that boosting their political representation requires the readiness of those in power be ready to share that power. “It is time that 50% of the Lebanese population seize 3% of the Legislative,” Shorter said. (L’Orient Le Jour, Al Mustaqbal, February 13, 14, 2018)

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Saudi public prosecutor to recruit women

15-2-2018

Following respective decrees that allowed women to drive, enter football stadiums and be hired at the justice ministry, the Saudi Public Prosecutor announced on Sunday that vacancies are available for women holders of bachelor degrees on the staff of the public prosecution, the rank of lieutenant investigator. A press release issued by the Saudi Center for International Communication affiliated with the ministry of culture and information, said this is the first time in the history of the Kingdom that the public prosecutor seeks female employment. The Public Prosecutor’s office called on women wishing to apply to visit its electronic portal. To recall, Saudi Arabia has taken many measures to reduce female unemployment rates which as a result, dropped drastically from 34.5% by the end of 2016 to 32.7% by the end of the third quarter of 2017, according to the official statistics authority. (Al Diyar, February 13, 2018)

 

Previous related news: 
Saudi justice minister hires women for the first time
Saudi women into sports stadiums
It is never too late: Women in Saudia allowed to drive!
 

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Ethiopian MWDWs in Lebanon in the face of prejudice and racism

13-2-2018

Al Akhbar newspaper featured in a special article yesterday the Ethiopian migrant women domestic workers (MWDWs) in Lebanon, spotlighting freelancers working outside the confinement of domestic service. For more insight on the subject, the newspaper spoke to the Ethiopian Ambassador to Beirut, Halima Fakih, who expounded on the conditions of some 300,000 MWDWs. Recounting joyful and sad stories of many of them, Fakih grieved the bad luck of those who are subjected to physical and mental abuse by some employers who refuse to pay their wages, however small, while she remains powerless and can do nothing to help them except to intervene to settle the worker-employer dispute. Al Akhbar also portrayed the experience of two Ethiopian nationals, Jeanette, running a hair salon in Badaro and Martha managing another beauty salon and an Ethiopian eatery in Dora. Asked about the difficulties they face in Lebanon, Jeanette said that although she is married to a Lebanese and pays taxes, yet she did not get a residence permit, nor a Lebanese nationality, for Ethiopia does not allow dual citizenship. Jeanette boasted that the salon gives her a space to live a life and practice a culture which for Ethiopians migrating for employment is initially intended to be confined to domestic work. Ethiopians, Jeanette explained, are not only domestic workers. Her national Martha, who is married to a Lebanese, complained that her children are bullied in schools because their mother is “a Sri Lankan”, as they are told, mentioning that they preferred to quit and return to Ethiopia to live there. For the full article, kindly visit the following links: https://www.al-akhbar.com/node/290642، https://www.al-akhbar.com/node/290640. (Al Akhbar, February 12, 2018)

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Expo in Birzeit on the struggle of Palestinian women

13-2-2018

In partnership with the Birzeit University, Gallery One and Ramallah Cinema Club, Abdel Mohsen Qattan Foundation inaugurated on Saturday the ‘On Women in Revolutions’ exhibition at the University’s Museum with the participation of 25 Palestinian artists of various ages. The exhibition, which runs until April 10, is part of a wider research project on women and the revolution set for 2019. The event brings into prominence leading revolutionary women figures in the history of the Palestinian struggle, namely Leila Khaled and Dalal al- Moghrabi. Works varied between painting, photography, sculpture, video art and the display of old artifacts. The artists showcased the different aspects of the lives of Palestinian women through snapshots or portraits of them in the battlefields during the uprising and revolution or through short films and audio recordings. One participating fine artist, Khaled Hurani, said the event is an attempt to revisit the presence of Palestinian women in the rebellion through art. Bashar Alhrub another artist participating with his artwork, “Visible in War; Marginalized in Peace”, pointed to the many Palestinian women who had and still have a big role in this revolution but that are not very well known. (Al Hayat, February 13, 2018)

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Jumana Haddad on Seven’s Party electoral list

13-2-2018

After journalist Paula Yacubian, Princess Hayat Arslan and activist Zoya Ruhana, the journalist and poet Jumana Haddad announced that she will be running for the minority seat in Beirut 1st Constituency with the Seven Party and on the same electoral list with Yacubian (Armenian Orthodox), Al Hayat reported. Both women are running in the elections according to a secular, civil and social agenda, although they have to concede to the essentially confessional seat system. Fresh blood should be pumped into the “People’s Assembly” to create a positive shock, Haddad maintained, noting the urgency of changing the notion of candidacy and expanding the scope of secular and civil representation. Meanwhile, Nadwatul Ibdaa organized yesterday a talk entitled ‘the participation of women in the Parliament is a requisite’, during which it presented a group female nominees for the upcoming elections. Salwa Khalil, the director, pointed out that women’s political involvement is a natural right given them by the Constitution which guarantees equality to all citizens in rights and duties, without gender preferences. The marginalization of women is a result of the outdated patriarchal mindset, Khalil said. On the other hand, the president of the Lebanese Council of Women, Iqbal Dughan, outlined the Council’s agenda for the coming period, highlighting, the study of the new electoral law, detecting the points of strength in women and encouraging them to run for elections, reassuring the women of Lebanon to vote for lists that include women and to boycott of lists that exclude women. (Al Hayat, Al Mustaqbal, February 13, 2018)

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France bans ‘muhajabat’ from the workplace to "protect secularism"

13-2-2018

In its issue on Saturday, Al Diyar newspaper spotlighted the fate of the Muhajabat (veiled women) in France, reporting the case of Khadija Abiab, French-Moroccan female, who has been forced to resign from her job as an engineer at a French company the moment she decided to wear the hijab. Abiad, the newspaper wrote, had to remove her headscarf every day before entering her office in Paris in keeping with the company’s internal rules supporting the ‘principle of non-alignment’ and barring wearing any religious symbols during the working hours. Khadija recalled the psychological conflict she has lived every day which was close to schizophrenia. She tried hard to get a job elsewhere but did not succeed, which prompted her to accept a low paying remote job with a data analysis firm. According to Al Diyar, public sector institutions are not the only ones restricting the work of muhajabat; private corporations now have the right to reject the muhajabat. To this effect, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled last March that private companies can ban employees from wearing religious or political symbols. In this regard, the French writer and sociologist specializing on issues of discrimination against muhajabat in France, Hanan Karimi, considered that the successive French governments have armed themselves with secularism to legally veto the presence of muhajabat in the labor market, hence preventing them to emerge as an active and integral part of the French society. (Al Diyar, February, 2018)

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Zoya Ruhana, Hayat Arsalan running for Shuf-Aley 2018 elections

12-2-2018

In an inspiring move, the director of Kafa organization, activist Zoya Ruhana, announced on Saturday that she will be running independently for the Shuf -Aley constituency in the upcoming 2018 elections. After years of struggle for women’s rights, Ruhana said she found it necessary to participate in the Parliamentary elections to promote and present women’s issues through a feminist electoral agenda. Ruhana has set a 4-point program which proposes: a law combatting violence against women and girls; a compulsory civil law for personal status; an amended Nationality Law that restores women's basic right to pass citizenship to their family members, and an amended labor law that secures gender equality. For her part, the president of the Committee for Promoting Women’s Role in National Decision-Making, Princess Hayat Arslan, working since 2001 to improve women’s status, disclosed in mid-January her candidacy for a seat in the Shuf -Aley Constituency, saying she will be drafting a 13-candidate electoral list which she will chair. The list, Arslan told L’Orient Le Jour, has currently 5 women on its board. In a related vein, the newspaper pointed to the Women Do Politics project launched last April 2017 by Women in Front to encourage leading women to appear in the media through featured political talk shows. A co-founder of Women in Front, Joelle Rizkallah, pointed out that the NGO is getting so many calls from political parties wishing to nominate women on their electoral lists, while noting that the initiative is funded by the British Embassy. At a later stage, Rizkallah explained, women will be backed in the period between the candidacy and the elections through provision of technical and political consultancy, in addition to receiving training on communication, a project supported by the Embassy of Netherlands. (L’Orient Le Jour, February 9, 12, 2018)

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Future Women support empowerment and honor Najwa Ramadan

12-2-2018

On the 13th anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Rafik Hariri, the Future Movement Women’s Sector- West Beqaa and Rashayya, held yesterday a seminar entitled, ‘Rafik Hariri’s vision on the empowerment of women’ and organized a handicraft fair on the sidelines that showcased artistic creations and traditional mouneh items prepared by local women. On the occasion, the minister of state for women’s affairs, Jean Ogassapian, stressed that Lebanese women have a bursting potential to be productive, and pledged his ministry will do all it can to help realize women’s full rights in order to play an active role in the community. Likewise, the general coordinator of the Women’s Sector, May Tabbal, said the exhibition of homemade crafts and agricultural goodies created a catalyst to motivate women in agriculture, the agro-food industry and in rural development. She stressed that “the political engagement of women and the inclusion of the women’s representation quota in the Parliamentary elections bill is an integral part of our rights and struggle.” Concurrently, the Future Women’s Sector in Central Beqaa screened a video on late Rafik Harir focusing on his advocacy for women’s issues. A graduation event was also organized for a group of women beneficiaries who completed a training course on computer skills aimed to develop the capacities of rural women, as noted Yasmine Sallum, member of the Women’s Sector in the area. Also, on Thursday, the Sector honored in a ceremony at Kantari premises activist Najwa Ramadan, a contemporary of Rafik Hariri who worked to end discrimination against women. (Al Mustaqbal, February 9, 12, 2018)

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Lebanon showcases fruits in Germany and food in Beirut festival

12-2-2018

The chairperson and general manager of the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL), Nabil Itani, inaugurated the Lebanese pavilion at the fresh produce Fruit Logistica in Germany (from 7th to 9th of February) in the presence of representatives of participating Lebanese companies. To recall, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Lebanon (FCCIAL) is organizing the pavilion for the 8th consecutive year under the sponsorship of IDAL with some 28 exporters and 12 companies occupying this year’s 104 square meter pavilion. According to IDAL, Lebanon’s presence in the trade show features the competitiveness of the Lebanese agricultural products on world markets, especially that Fruit Logistica represents a vital gateway for exports of the sector to European and global markets. The event also comes within the framework of IDAL’s support to productive sectors, namely agriculture. Itani made clear that while made-in-Lebanon goods cannot compete in quantity, today they compete with the high quality they boast after complying with international standards and specifications. On the other hand, the Cheese Meats Bread-Winter Festival organized by Art Monit opened last Friday at the Trainstation Mar Mikhael, Beirut under the sponsorship of industry minister represented by director general Dani Jad3on. After touring the pavilions of the exhibition, Jad3on emphasized the role of the ministry in promoting Lebanese industry, stressing the need to familiarize domestic consumers with the local production, especially that many countries are not facilitating Lebanon’s exports as can be seen in the import-export trade deficit. (Al Diyar, February 10, 2018)

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