News

In its issue of today, L’Orient Le Jour daily uncovered the 2016 list of the most powerful Arab women for the year as published by the Arabian Business online magazine. The list showed a drop in the number of Lebanese women from 12 and 17 women for 2014 and 2015 to only 10 women the present year. Among the names published by the newspaper is Nayla Hayek, CEO and Co-Founder of the world’s biggest watch companies, Swatch, who came seventh in the list, whereas the British-Lebanese lawyer, Amal Alam Eddine Clooney, came 17th, falling from the second position in 2015. For her part, former minister, and current vice-president of Al Waleed Bin Talal Humanitarian Foundation, Leyla El Solh Hamadeh, came 24th with a decline of  7 grades from last year. Among other prominent women on the list, the international journalist Raghida Durgham, came 28th, followed by journalist and writer, Joumana Hadad, 36th, going up from 54. Grace Najjar, on the other hand, the management consultant for a number of private and public sector projects, came 42nd after having occupied the 39th position in 2015. Feyrouz, the legend singer, moved up the list from 86th rank last year to 63 this year, followed by activist Christine Tohmeh who came 68th. Finally, Lebanese entertainers Elissa and Miriam Fares ranked 71st and 81st respectively. (L'Orient Le Jour, March 15, 2016)

 

The activities marking the International Women’s Day (IWD), on March 8, continued in Lebanon throughout then end of last week. Following is a new batch of selected events. 

 

 Conferences, celebrations and more

 

● League for Lebanese Women’s Rights demands amendments of discriminatory laws

● Progressive Women’s Union’s seminar on domestic violence in the North

● ESCWA celebrates IWD with the banner ‘A step to reach gender equality’

●  ‘Women and Crafts’ workshop at the Center for International Intellectual Property Studies

● Future Movement recalls the struggle of Arab women

● UNIFIL competition in Marje3yoon under the heading ‘The woman role model’

 

New programs and actions

 

● Girls Got It’ initiative to encourage women and girls to study engineering

 

 

(An Nahar, Al Mustaqbal, March 12-13-14, 2016)

 

In a special feature published yesterday, Al Mustaqbal daily newspaper highlighted the current clash of views between traders concerning the final stage of the extensive rehabilitation project of Saida’s commercial district. According to Al Mustaqbal the disagreement centers largely around the

organizational nature of the would-be marketplace and whether it should be restricted to pedestrians or if cars should be permitted to

park inside. The newspaper argued that while the southern city’s municipality favors the first option, traders favor the second but are still undecided over the matter. As a result, the Traders’ Association for Saida and Suburbia called for a referendum upon which a decision will be taken. 

Also as part of the feater, Al Mustaqbal interviewed the advisor of the initiative for the rehabilitation of Saida’s Centre Ville, engineer Abdel Wahed Shehab, who disclosed that the function of the new souk is to become a super mall that will accommodate restaurants, cafes and entertainment, i.e. places basically targeting families with the aim of attracting new investments.(Al Mustaqbal, March 13, 2016)

 

The Basma Charity Association organized last week a graduation ceremony for the first of five groups of women who completed an intensive 12-session training course on the skills required by the labor market. The workshops took place at the Primary Health Care Center in the Beirut suburb of Cheyah (PHCCC), in collaboration with the local municipality. Women entrepreneurs also contributed to the training by sharing their experiences in various issues, such as, personal skills, orientation and preparedness, accounting, communication and organization, and access to small credits. During the graduation ceremony, Basma founding president, Sandra Khlat Abdel Noor, said that the women’s empowerment programme which is supported by ‘Recettes de Vie’ (Recipes of Life) initiative, will contribute to the improvement of women’s livelihoods, and will also have a positive impact on all other family members. Finally, Abdel Noor pointed out that the graduation event is only a starting point for participants who are now qualified to apply for jobs through the Association’s recruitment offices or by directly contacting private sector institutions. (L’Orient Le Jour, March 11, 2016)

 

The Ministry of Industry launched yesterday the ‘Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in Lebanese Food Industries Orientation Guide’ targeting poultry, red and processed meat, breads, pastries and ready-made food sectors, and which is the outcome of collaborative work between the Ministry and the UNDP program ‘Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals Lebanon (TOKTEN). On this, Minister Hussein Haj Hassan underlined the importance of such an endeavor which reflects clear engagement and cooperation between all the partners involved in the food manufacturing sector. “We would like to preserve and develop the prosperity of this sector for it represents a large part of the domestic industry, is an important source of job creation and accounts for 20-25% of exports. “Besides, it provides consumer food commodities to the local community,” Haj Hassan stated. Finally, he stressed the need to implement legislations related to this sector, to improve technical standards, conduct regular lab tests and promote interaction between state-control agencies and self-control systems existing within the private establishments. (As Safir, Al Diyar, March 11, 2016)

 

On the occasion of International Women Day (IWD) the AUB Red Oak Club organized this Tuesday a march under the banner ‘The Street is Ours Even at Late Night’ in clear protest against the continuing sexual harassment of women. The demonstration which took off from Ain Mreiseh coastal corniche towards the Riyadi Sports Club, coincides with and is inspired by the annual feminist night march known as ‘Reclaim the Night’ to regain the safety of public spaces. Participants hoisted posters that contained answers to questions put to them when they decide to speak up about their disagreeable experiences of harassment. Like for example, ‘the question is not what you were wearing’, or ‘the street has no opening hours’, or ‘no, it is not ok’ and ‘to talk dirty to me is not gallant’. The local police also had their share in a banner that said, ‘even security is not secure’, pointing out to the alleged harassment of women by security forces. Elaborating on the above march, the Red Oak Club activist, Aya Adra, explained that choosing the coastal corniche had two reasons: first to reclaim public spaces that are being systematically appropriated through privatization schemes, and secondly because the corniche is a typical place for sexual harassment incidents. Adra stressed that “harassment is not the problem of one person; rather it is interconnected with a greater patriarchal male chauvinist system that rips women of their natural right to walk safely in the streets at night.” Concerning rape, Adra indicated that three women were raped only last week in Beirut, adding that the three women live in the same area and know each others. Adra concluded by stressing that these women had the courage to disclose what happened to them, while the actual number of women cases who experienced rape but did not declare, remains unknown. (As Safir, March 10, 2016)

 

The former dean of the Lebanese University School of Dentistry and head of the Maronite Diaspora Institute, NSW Branch, Professor Fadia Ghosn, won the ‘Woman of the Year 2016’ title for the New South Wales State of Australia. Ghosn, it should be recalled, founded the Lebanese Australian Institution at the University of Sydney after she emigrated to Australia in 2001. The said institution provides annual scholarships for students with outstanding performance. Upon receiving the award in an official ceremony held at the NSW Parliament, Ghosn pledged to accomplish more similar social and women-related missions. She did not forget to extend her gratitude to her homeland, Lebanon, and to her own family and everyone who supported her. (An Nahar, March 10, 2016)

 

The French delegate to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Jean Paul Thuillier, emphasized the gains Lebanon could reap from its accession to the WTO, while acknowledging the need of taking into consideration the country specific interest while dispelling any concerns on the Lebanese side. Thuillier’s statement was made after his meeting with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Tamam Salam, and the Economy Minister Dr. Alan Hakim. The latter underlined the importance of such accession, particularly that the WTO constitutes around 90% of global trade and includes some 162 member states and 20 observer countries. The WTO delegation later on met with the Industry Minister, Dr. Hussein Haj Hassan, who described Lebanon’s bad experiences with the Agreement for the Facilitation and Promotion of Intra-Arab Trade and the Lebanese-European Partnership Agreement. He pointed out to the negative outcomes of theses two agreements namely the fall of exports, and in growing trade deficit. He went on to say that these agreements have laid down a list of stringent trade requirements; at a time when Lebanon places no restrictions on countries members of these trade agreements. However, Haj Hassan said, that Lebanese officials and not Arabs or Europeans are to be blamed for the present situation and for giving too much in the course of negotiations. In a related vein, the National Economy, Commerce, Industry and Planning Committee endorsed two draft laws in a meeting held yesterday. The first gives permission to enter the Regional Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement in the framework of the Euro-Med Partnership Agreement and the second involves allowing the government to approve amendments introduced on Articles 8 and 18 of the Establishment of the Customs Cooperation Council Treaty. Lebanon, it should be noted, became member in the latter since 20/5/1960. (An Nahar, Al Diyar, March 10, 2016)

 

As customary on IWD every year, women groups celebrated the occasion with increased activities which included conferences, launch of studies and reports, public events, sit in and marches, in an attempt to highlight the important role of women in society as well as the persistent discrimination against them.  This year, the celebration IWD is taking place amidst a noticeable vacuum at the level of social and women movements, high security, political, and livelihood pressures and in the absence of any indication of a possible breakthrough on either of these fronts.  These factors, as well as the rather limited transformatory vision of the feminist struggle in the country resulted in modest activities which raised a redundancy of demands focusing on the need for legal reforms and on enhancing political, social and economic opportunities for women. For more highlights about IWD selected celebration events that took place during the last two days, please check: http://www.weeportal-lb.org/news/modest-activities-celebrate-iwd