BySCEME
Kuwait questions the future role of women in the country’s political landscape.
The most recent elected parliament saw no women elected to parliament.
A number of female leaders in the country criticized the male-dominated patriarchal society.
If we compare the performance of male MPs and female MPs, the women were much more productive. They were attending committees in Parliament, and they proposed law drafts.
Women contributed in political life even before getting their political rights. Masouma Al-Mubarak, for instance, was a minister in 2003, and Nouria Al-Subeih was a minister as well. This shows that there is unawareness of the issue of women in the community.
The main reason for the failure of women in this Parliament is because Kuwaiti society is still a male dominated society. The community still preserves old social traditions which empower men.
However, women should not lose confidence. Participants should hope to create an atmosphere that is open for women to contribute equally in the country’s political future.
BySCEME
Lebanese women still face discrimination
Women in Lebanon have achieved developments toward gender equality in education but continue to face significant discrimination in many other sides of society.
A study shows Lebanese women enjoy the fourth greatest degree of freedom in the Middle East and North Africa region, after women in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
Women continue to face severe discriminations in matters of personal status, such as divorce, inheritance or custody, and while more now run businesses, few participate in national or local politics.
There are more women entrepreneurs, and more women in universities, than ever before; however, substantial barriers remain for women pursuing careers.
BySCEME
Lebanese Activists Say, ‘No Spring without Women’
Women’s rights activists marched and proclaimed there is “No spring without women.”
Nadine Abou Zaki, the executive chair of the NAWF, said that the key message the protesters wished to spread was that any successful revolution depends on the contribution of women.
Revolution cannot be fulfilled without the participation of all members of society. It will remain incomplete if all members of society do not participate.
A woman has to stand by men in everything that she does, and in politics she is side-lined. Women need to take back their rights, and not be treated as second-class citizens.
A Palestinian whose mother is Lebanese, said the main issue she takes offence with is the lack of equal citizenship rights for women in Lebanon, which means her mother cannot pass her nationality on to her.
Over the last 20 years, women have won some rights, but there is still a long way to go.
Perhaps the most urgent thing that needs to change is the attitude of society toward women. This must gradually change so that women have a chance to be themselves.
The demands presented to the Prime Minister Najib Mikati, included the criminalization of domestic violence, the right for women to pass on their nationality, the right to move freely and equal property rights.
BySCEME
SCEME team are looking forward to International Women’s Day 2012
The SCEME team are so excited about this year’s upcoming International Women’s Day, which will take place on 8th March 2012.
“International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women’s Day is a national holiday.”
We want to know about your plans for the day, so let us know how you are going to celebrate the achievements of women from all over the world! And don’t forget to follow our updates on Twitter: @SCEME_MENA
BySCEME
Yemeni children suffer the burden of political turmoil
Violent conflict has plagued Yemen for months now and as a result, women and children are being pushed into the most vulnerable of positions. As stability in the country wavers, many are being forced to take refuge outside of large cities and subsequently, children are going without basic education and nutrition.
“Malnutrition rates are rising. Children are, more than ever, vulnerable to life-threatening illnesses and diseases. They are being deployed as soldiers by all warring sides, and scores have been killed in the crossfire. Many schools have been shut down,” reported Sudarsan Raghavan of the Washington Post.
Whilst many countries throughout the Arab world have gone through a wave of political turmoil, it is Yemen’s lack of resources and growing poverty that has made this conflict so destructive and devastating.
“Fresh conflicts, including a raging battle between the government and Islamist militants, have disrupted basic services; water, fuel and electricity shortages affect nearly every aspect of life, from hospital operations to trash collection. Food prices are rising, and health services have collapsed,” urged Raghavan.
Sadly, Raghavan explained that it is young girls who are suffering the most during this conflict: “Girls, especially from rural areas, face conditions that are even more dire. With rising poverty and increased displacement from the violence, many now have to take on more responsibilities, in a nation that already has the lowest school enrollment rate for girls in the Middle East. Aid workers worry about an increase in families marrying off young daughters to ease financial pressures.”
Aid agencies cannot work with ease on the ground in Yemen and the civilian casualties that have ensued have had little media attention. It is vital that Yemeni people are not forgotten and that international attention be brought to the Yemeni children who are bearing the brunt of this difficult and violent conflict.
BySCEME
U.A.E takes Steps to Tackle Discriminatory Citizenship Laws
Citizenship laws have long proved a difficult factor for women across the Arab world. Countries such as Lebanon and Jordan continue to implement laws that restrict women from passing on their citizenship to their children; this greatly affects Arab women who are married to foreigners.
However, on November 30th of this year, AFP reported that “The United Arab Emirates announced that children of Emirati women married to foreigners could apply for citizenship once they turned 18, moving closer to giving women the same nationality rights as men.”
President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan said the “children of women citizens married to foreigners should be treated as citizens,” in a report to WAM state news agency.
Whilst the law does not totally remove complex citizenship laws, it is a definite movement towards change and SCEME welcomes the decision.
Countries such as Morocco, Algeria and Egypt all allow women to pass on citizenship to their children and we hope that the rest of the region follows suit in due course.
BySCEME
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Today is the 30th International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
When we set out to establish SCEME, we did so because we care deeply about the rights of women and girls in the Middle East and North Africa. Over the past year, we have been continuously shocked and saddened to read stories and gradually mounting statistics about the sexual exploitation of women, about domestic violence and honour crimes. Our investigations led us to produce Karamatuna: An Investigation into the Sex Trafficking of Iraqi Women and Girls, which has uncovered a mass of abuse of vulnerable Iraqis across the region.
But we are hopeful for the future.
In 2011, more women are employed, literate and enrol in areas of study previously deemed inappropriate for their gender; they have gained more freedom to travel independently, with laws requiring a guardian’s permission for a woman to obtain a passport have rescinded in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Women have also become more visible participants in public life. And women’s organisations across the region have become more vocal, stronger, and making monumental strides. Women’s Organisations and NGOs committed to the eradication of violence against women have seen successes in Jordan. After years of hard-fought lobbying, the Government of Jordan followed the landmark lead of Tunisia and finally enacted the Family Protection Law in 2008, and in 2009, established a specialised court in 2009 that handles cases involving honour crimes.
Yet, despite all these improvements and evidence that change is possible and in reach, violence against women persists and gender based violence remains one of the greatest obstacles women face in their daily lives.
- Domestic violence is both widespread and swept under the carpet. Across the region, only Tunisia and Jordan offer legal protections for women and girls against domestic violence.Marital rape is not outlawed in any state across the Middle East and North Africa.
- Honour killings are consistently being uncovered in Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Yemen. Yet, Judicial discretion allows murders to escape penalty.
- Where women and girls are victims of violence, they cannot seek redress without fear of damaging family reputation. If they do, they encounter reluctance from officials to help, or worse, are returned to the authority of their abusers.
And, over the last few years, the condition for women in Yemen, Iraq and Palestine has even worsened. In Iraq honour killings, kidnappings and rape have vastly increased.
This can’t continue. On the International Day to End Violence against Women, please help us to do something to stop these human rights abuses and protect the vulnerable.
Join the Karamatuna Campaign
Lobby your representative in Government
Donate to help end the sex-trafficking of women
Contact us to learn more at info@sce-me.org
BySCEME
SCEME launches ‘Karamatuna’ Report
We would like to thank everyone who attended last night’s event and thank Laura Smith-Spark who reported on the launch for CNN.com. We have included her full article below which can also be found on http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/09/world/meast/iraq-freedom-project/
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| Lord Dubs and SCEME’s Director and Founder Iman Abou Atta |
London (CNN) — For thousands of Iraqi women and girls, the conflict that began in 2003 was only the start of their ordeals.
In the chaos of war and the confusion, lawlessness and poverty that followed, an untold number have become victims of sexual traffickers, some within Iraq and others sold over the borders.
But the problem of trafficking has gone almost unreported, kept in the shadows by a combination of corruption, religious and cultural taboo and lack of interest by the region’s authorities in tackling it, researchers say.
A report released by the London-based non-governmental group Social Change for Education in the Middle East (SCEME) Wednesday hopes to change that.
Entitled Karamatuna, or Our Dignity, the study highlights the plight of girls as young as 10 or 12 who have been trafficked from post-war Iraq into countries including Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for sexual exploitation.
Other victims trafficked within Iraq end up in nightclubs or brothels, often in Baghdad, the report says. Some of those brothels “have been established purely to meet the demand created by United States service personnel,” it adds.
Launching the report, Iman Abou-Atta, a clinical researcher who put her career on hold a year ago in order to produce the study, told a hearing at the House of Lords in London that she had felt compelled to investigate after realizing the extent of the silence around the issue.
“What I came across was closed doors, shame, the unwillingness of authorities of Syria and Jordan and the quietness of civil society on the issue,” she writes in the foreword to the study.
Abou-Atta also encountered resistance when she raised the issue with the British and U.S. authorities whose forces’ presence in Iraq has been a contributing factor to the problem, she says.
While sexual exploitation existed in Iraq, as anywhere, long before the war began in 2003, “the invasion and instability that followed led to an environment where young women and girls became much more vulnerable to trafficking,” she told the hearing.
One Iraqi non-governmental organization, the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, estimates that about 4,000 women, one fifth of them aged under 18, disappeared in the first seven years after the war.
Although hard data is hard to come by, the group’s research suggests many were trafficked by criminal gangs nationally or internationally, or sold into forced marriage by their own families.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were displaced or made refugees by the war. Prevented from working legally, some men have forced female relatives into prostitution to earn money for the family.
Others have taken advantage of others’ hardship. One case cited by the study is that of 17-year-old Amira, whose impoverished father accepted a man’s offer to hire her for $200 a month to care for his handicapped wife. As well as housework, she was forced to have sex with the man’s son and friends.
Professional trafficking gangs also target young women after they flee home to escape forced marriage, abuse or violence, the report says.
In a finding that may surprise some people, many of the traffickers within Iraq are women, the study says. While some of those have themselves been victims of sexual exploitation, Abou-Atta says, others are in it for the easy money.
Other traffickers are taxi drivers who lure girls with false offers of help and then take them to brothels, or young men recruited by gangs who trick vulnerable young girls into eloping and then sell them into sexual servitude.
Some young victims are tricked into thinking a marriage proposal is genuine, Abou-Atta said — and then after being sexually exploited are swiftly divorced and dumped in the streets, all honor gone in the eyes of conservative Arab society. They are then easy targets for further abuse.
Once in the hands of the traffickers, the victims face a grim future.
One girl, identified as Shada, was left by her father at the Syrian border, the study says. She was trafficked to Damascus, where she was raped by five men and sold to a woman who forced her to work as a prostitute in nightclubs.
Many women forced into the sex trade then feel trapped, unable to leave because of threats to their family and a lack of any future in a conservative, predominantly Muslim society that tends to see them as to blame for their “shame.”
Abou-Atta, who spoke to some victims of sex trafficking in Lebanon, said the women painted a dismal picture.
“In the beginning it’s a nightmare,” she said. “Then they realize there’s no choice, they cannot run away.”
One woman recounted how when those who had trafficked her learned she planned to flee, they threatened to destroy the life of her daughter by making her shame public — so she opted to stay, Abou-Atta said.
“It comes to the price of their lives, the price of their families,” she said.
Another cruel practice, particularly in Syria, is the “mut’a” marriage, in which a girl is married off for a price to a man on a Friday, only for him to divorce her on the Sunday.
“Research suggests that the rates at which these mut’a marriages are carried out intensifies in the summer when male tourists visit Syria from the Gulf,” the study says.
“Although this particular kind of marriage is not explicitly called prostitution, it is in effect sexual exploitation, often forced, as a means of either securing livelihood, or generating profit.”
While anti-trafficking and prostitution laws exist in many countries in the region, the will to enforce them appears weak — and they fail to offer much protection for the victims.
In a move in the right direction, Syria strengthened its anti-trafficking laws last year, the study says, and toughened the penalties against men involved in trafficking. However, women who have been forced into prostitution continue to face sanctions too.
Syria also deports Iraqi refugees found illegally working in the country — including women forced into the sex trade.
Meanwhile, provision of shelters, health care or psychological support for the stigmatized victims of sexual exploitation, who have little other chance of employment, is almost non-existent across the region, Abou-Atta said.
She sees improved education and increased awareness as key factors in protecting future generations of women and girls.
She also hopes to carry out more field research, to bolster what little hard evidence is available on an issue shrouded in secrecy. The group’s efforts were hampered over the past year by the Arab Spring uprising, which made access to many places difficult or dangerous.
Houzan Mahmoud, of the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, which published its own report on prostitution in Iraq last year, told the hearing the Iraqi government had opposed her group’s work and tried to block its access to the media.
She urged Western governments to do more to put pressure on their Arab counterparts to tackle sexual exploitation, and to ensure they do not send vulnerable asylum seekers back to a situation where they may be trafficked again.
Religious leaders should play a role by using their influence to change attitudes within society rather than demonizing women who are sexually exploited, she added.
Change won’t be easy though. At the heart of the issue are the men who are happy to hand over money for sex — and the corrupt officials at borders and elsewhere who turn a blind eye to what’s happening to vulnerable women.
“The problem is there’s a demand for this, there’s a market for this,” said Mahmoud. “This is about money-making and profits.”
BySCEME
SCEME’s Karamatuna Report on Women’s e News!
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| To read the article in full please go: http://womensenews.org/story/prostitution-and-trafficking/111108/study-details-sex-traffic-in-post-saddam-iraq |
BySCEME
NISAA FM: Palestinian Women Radio Station reaches growing audience
NISAA FM, based in the West Bank is a thriving and popular radio station that allows Palestinian women the opportunity to promote social change and justice.
The station, whilst keen to promote women’s independence, believes that it is only through work with the opposite sex, that gender quality can be achieved. “Social change does not happen unless women and men work together,” said the station’s director, Maysoun Odeh in a report to Women’s e News. “We are a mature society. Both men and women deserve a chance to be free of the oppression we are facing today, so that we earn our deserved roles.”
Women’s e News reported that a phenomenal 40% of listeners to the station are men. However, the majority of programs focus on women’s issues. One of the most popular is ‘Women’s Break’ a show that aims to promote, through open and varied discussion, the rights of Palestinian women.
“In an occupied land where men exert overwhelming media control, the station offers a unique forum for such subjects as polygamy, domestic violence, family and work matters” explained a Palestinian journalist and film producer Saad Aruri in a report to Women’s e News.
“Having a women’s radio station in Palestine that touches on issues of concern to women across the Middle East is critical and very positive,” he said. “So I hope it will continue to develop.”
“He added that NISAA FM plays an important role by advising women in the Arab world about their rights and providing an example of the Palestinian community that supports gender equality”, reported journalist, Emtyaz al-Mograbi.