This platform is dedicated to youth to voice out their opinions, debate, reflect, and most importantly, let their ideas be heard. All publications in this section are written by young individuals, mostly university students, in their own un-edited voices.
You may choose to publish a paper you have worked on as part of your studies or simply choose an issue that catches your attention and reflect upon it in an article of your own.
You may choose to publish a paper you have worked on as part of your studies or simply choose an issue that catches your attention and reflect upon it in an article of your own.
The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of ASI-REM.
An Invisible War
Mohamad Hamdan / AI Intern
Over 100, 000 Ethiopians are estimated to still be living and working in Lebanon as a bloody civil war is ravaging their country, yet we hear little about it in our media, despite the fact that we have been through similar circumstances.
Derebe A., 26, is an indispensable part of my Lebanese family. Since 2018, she has been taking care of my 70-year-old grandmother and my 85-year-old grandfather. Derebe’s presence in the home entailed her taking part in our farewells, reunions, and holidays. She is part of our family, enjoying the good times and enduring the bad. And the past years have been bad. We’ve been through the loss of life savings, soaring prices, blackouts, and ultimately, a Hiroshima-esque bomb not a mile away.
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Derebe A., 26, is an indispensable part of my Lebanese family. Since 2018, she has been taking care of my 70-year-old grandmother and my 85-year-old grandfather. Derebe’s presence in the home entailed her taking part in our farewells, reunions, and holidays. She is part of our family, enjoying the good times and enduring the bad. And the past years have been bad. We’ve been through the loss of life savings, soaring prices, blackouts, and ultimately, a Hiroshima-esque bomb not a mile away.
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The Status of Women and Girls during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Jordan
Women and girls have always suffered from different forms of gender bias. Females have always been depicted as marginalized, subordinate, and inferior. Gender bias has been always present whether explicitly or implicitly expressed and/or exercised. Starting from school textbooks that contain countless instances that put men at a superior position as compared to women, whether in language, illustrations, characters, and titles (Parkin & Mackenzie, 2017). These textbooks tend to reinforce the traditional gender roles of women as mothers and caregivers and of men as paid workers and breadwinners (Jackson & Gee, 2005). In addition to that, children and youngsters tend to take this stereotypical information at a very young age and thus this exposes them to create gender biased beliefs and practices about men and women in the future.
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Comprehensive Study on the History of Gender Inequality
Karl Bou Jaoude
[email protected]
[email protected]
Gender inequality has been one of the world’s oldest exhibits of prioritizing a group of people over another. Ever since human societies started to develop, the gap between genders also begun to shape and grow. Despite the fact that nowadays this topic has been put forward more radically, it has always been subject of writings, marches and protests, it is not therefore a mere “modern” problem. Little has been done throughout history to fix this mismatch between human genders and sexes and to this day the world is still a patriarchal world, societies are still mostly run by men and rights are still unequal. Some may say that recently this has started to change, which is sort of true, especially that feminist movements and right’s activists have been actively pushing this topic for the past few years and have been somewhat successful in some societies even though we are still far from true equality.
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But Who Cares?
Montaha Nattah
[email protected]
[email protected]
The definition of care work is often misunderstood as the work carried out by women and girls, while in fact, it is any labour that involves caring for others, any work that requires your time, energy, resources, or skills – whether it is paid or unpaid, childcare or eldercare. Care work varies, including but not limited to, grocery shopping for the family, nursing, domestic work from dishwashing and providing psychosocial support to your parents to teaching your kids and chauffeuring your siblings. In short, we are shaped by the care work that we receive throughout life, may it be received from parents, friends, teachers, firefighters, or even volunteers in the neighborhood.
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Sexual Violence in Algeria: A Daily Struggle or an Imaginary Threat?
Said Rafik Lahmari
[email protected]
Said Rafik Lahmari
[email protected]
For centuries, women around the world have fought the patriarchy in the hopes of changing societal norms that consider them as secondary to their male counterparts with little or no agency over their lives. As a result of the unethical reign of men over women, a prominent issue has risen: the increase of sexual violence worldwide. Although applicable to all genders and to many other Arab states, the focus of this paper will be on sexual violence against Algerian women. I have chosen this focus because of the gravity of this phenomenon for women in comparison to their male equivalents in the Algerian society. This paper will tackle the research question: how does gender play a role in perceiving sexual violence in Algeria? I argue that Algerian cis-gendered men have little or no tendency to perceive acts of sexual violence against women, while women consider their experiences of sexual violence a constant struggle—one that they must face on a daily basis.
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What is gender? This question has been the topic of many works in philosophy, sociology, psychology, anatomy, politics, etc. Some say that it does not exist, and others say that it is as real as its effects. Some say that it is essential, and others say that it is fluid. The consensus among gender scholars today is to separate the concept of gender from that of biological sex, as not to simplistically conflate anatomical features with a perception and expected behavior of gender or delegitimize any gender “deviations”. However, that is still not enough to provide us with the reasons behind the perceived and expected differences between men and women, the history and purpose of the general discourse on gender, the arbitrariness and performativity of gendered behavior, and the history of gender itself. Therefore, I am going to be revisiting the work of four prominent figures in gender theory- Michel Foucault, Simone De Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and Joan Scott- and describing their specific accounts on gender.
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I will be presenting and discussing Nancy Fraser’s critique of third wave feminism in “Feminism, Capitalism, and the Cunning of History” which was published in the New Left Review in 2009. She describes how second-wave feminist demands were transformed and coopted as capitalism turned from state-organized to neoliberal. I will be presenting her analysis on how four defining characteristics of the political culture of state-organized capitalism (economism, androcentrism, étatism, and Westphalianism) provoked the multi-dimensional critique of second-wave feminists of the 1960’s and 1970’s and how those same demands were used to legitimate neoliberal capitalism. I will also present the suggestions that Fraser gives on how to restore the rightful demands of second-wave feminism- which is multi-dimensional in its incorporation of economic, cultural, and political aspects in its critique of injustice. Throughout this paper and as I present Fraser’s arguments, I will interpret her work by providing cases of global movements and researches as real-life examples because I believe that there was a lack of empirical evidence in her article.
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There was a time I believed hearts naturally pour and plunge into pools of love,
There was a time my eyes saw the world in a rose-colored light,
There was a time I sang paper moon songs and danced to their polka tunes,
There was a time my wide eyed zeal for life was gigantic to the point
That I almost got blinded by its incandescent paper lights.
There was a time I truly believed in the kindness of human hearts.
Then the snowball effect of existence showed me the greatest epiphany.
Life is a dark comedy, a revenge tragedy,
Life is the creepiest spoof of the most tragic play that’s ever been written.
Now the meaning of the real life is displaying before me like a stream of consciousness:
Humans worship the beast, breathe for the beast and live for the beast,
Humans are ravenous automatons preaching paper accolades and feasts,
Automatons wail and hustle and kill and rape and tug wars to please the beast.
Humans are savages; the beast burrows their gothic instincts
Under drawers of diamonds and credit cards, of gold and silver and silk and skin marbles,
Behind graceful identities and gestures, phony smiles and doll mansions.
Now I carry paper lanterns to shield my eyes from the paper bulbs of the good life.
I find solace in art, poetry and botanical gardens, for therein lies my light.
I behold the new light in the dwelling of God, for therein the beast appears like a bantam.
I have lampooned the beast, now the beast holds me to ransom.
I am slandered, accused of madness and sentenced to loneliness.
I’d rather live in the dim light where there’s no verdict, and thrive in the darkness
Than have to follow the beast’s streetcar of desire and wallow in his phoniness.
My core is hitherto white and hopeful but the innocence is lost. Nevertheless,
I believe love wanders in clean states far-off the dirt where greed and decay float;
My new eyes search for true light and beauty in dark places and shadowy corners;
I sing to the hideous reality while dancing to the melodies of magic and angels
I turn my searchlight on what’s bona fide, on what’s untouched by paper light crusaders
And because friends and brothers and sisters turn out to be our nemeses
I have no choice but to wish for the kindness of strangers.
There was a time my eyes saw the world in a rose-colored light,
There was a time I sang paper moon songs and danced to their polka tunes,
There was a time my wide eyed zeal for life was gigantic to the point
That I almost got blinded by its incandescent paper lights.
There was a time I truly believed in the kindness of human hearts.
Then the snowball effect of existence showed me the greatest epiphany.
Life is a dark comedy, a revenge tragedy,
Life is the creepiest spoof of the most tragic play that’s ever been written.
Now the meaning of the real life is displaying before me like a stream of consciousness:
Humans worship the beast, breathe for the beast and live for the beast,
Humans are ravenous automatons preaching paper accolades and feasts,
Automatons wail and hustle and kill and rape and tug wars to please the beast.
Humans are savages; the beast burrows their gothic instincts
Under drawers of diamonds and credit cards, of gold and silver and silk and skin marbles,
Behind graceful identities and gestures, phony smiles and doll mansions.
Now I carry paper lanterns to shield my eyes from the paper bulbs of the good life.
I find solace in art, poetry and botanical gardens, for therein lies my light.
I behold the new light in the dwelling of God, for therein the beast appears like a bantam.
I have lampooned the beast, now the beast holds me to ransom.
I am slandered, accused of madness and sentenced to loneliness.
I’d rather live in the dim light where there’s no verdict, and thrive in the darkness
Than have to follow the beast’s streetcar of desire and wallow in his phoniness.
My core is hitherto white and hopeful but the innocence is lost. Nevertheless,
I believe love wanders in clean states far-off the dirt where greed and decay float;
My new eyes search for true light and beauty in dark places and shadowy corners;
I sing to the hideous reality while dancing to the melodies of magic and angels
I turn my searchlight on what’s bona fide, on what’s untouched by paper light crusaders
And because friends and brothers and sisters turn out to be our nemeses
I have no choice but to wish for the kindness of strangers.
I know that I know nothing, that’s what he once said.
I was thinking, all my life, that I have the ability to keep my ideas together, to marshal them, to get meaning out of them forcefully. Yet, what was perplexing me is that there’s not enough time to get more ideas, to quench the thirst of my mind, to alleviate the excitement of my inner tide.
Oh God! I must be a fool to think that a lifetime is enough to live all the lives, meet all kinds of people, read all books, watch all movies, discover the secret of it all… the meaning of life. Well, I thought that I can catch all the evil eyes and disguise mine, I thought that I can capsize the boats of my uncertainties and doubts, that I can push the whole world out. Yet, what I got to know is that there’s no nexus of me and something surreal, that every person in this world is a paragon of the perfect story, that all humans are marching in the same parade, that our different colors and seasons are all fusing into this big bubble of weepies.
Now that I realized the fact that my dark story is not standing on the podium, no one’s is, I can finally see that we are all going mad in a way or another, even though we’re not aware of it, we’re all driven by the desire of knowing, discovering, and unearthing the causes of our great suffering. Yes, knowledge, it’s because knowledge is reassuring, it makes us feel that our indelible emptiness is starting to wane, that our inclinations finally have excuses, it makes our ego grow more and more till it explodes.
Now, as a human, who is so overwhelmed by the current situation, I came to know that I have no control over my thoughts, my beautiful thoughts that appeared to be completely marred. I discovered that I can no longer enjoy being an outcast, for I am part of a great yet enigmatic narrative. And while everyone is now pointing fingers at who might be the source of the pandemic, I came to know that we should be more than ever united by our love and our faith, for it seems that we are all caught in the same abyss.
The hard lesson that I learnt is that even though I can discern the multi-dimensional aspects of life, and of who I am, I know that I know nothing, as he once said.
"I know that I know nothing."
- Socrates.
I was thinking, all my life, that I have the ability to keep my ideas together, to marshal them, to get meaning out of them forcefully. Yet, what was perplexing me is that there’s not enough time to get more ideas, to quench the thirst of my mind, to alleviate the excitement of my inner tide.
Oh God! I must be a fool to think that a lifetime is enough to live all the lives, meet all kinds of people, read all books, watch all movies, discover the secret of it all… the meaning of life. Well, I thought that I can catch all the evil eyes and disguise mine, I thought that I can capsize the boats of my uncertainties and doubts, that I can push the whole world out. Yet, what I got to know is that there’s no nexus of me and something surreal, that every person in this world is a paragon of the perfect story, that all humans are marching in the same parade, that our different colors and seasons are all fusing into this big bubble of weepies.
Now that I realized the fact that my dark story is not standing on the podium, no one’s is, I can finally see that we are all going mad in a way or another, even though we’re not aware of it, we’re all driven by the desire of knowing, discovering, and unearthing the causes of our great suffering. Yes, knowledge, it’s because knowledge is reassuring, it makes us feel that our indelible emptiness is starting to wane, that our inclinations finally have excuses, it makes our ego grow more and more till it explodes.
Now, as a human, who is so overwhelmed by the current situation, I came to know that I have no control over my thoughts, my beautiful thoughts that appeared to be completely marred. I discovered that I can no longer enjoy being an outcast, for I am part of a great yet enigmatic narrative. And while everyone is now pointing fingers at who might be the source of the pandemic, I came to know that we should be more than ever united by our love and our faith, for it seems that we are all caught in the same abyss.
The hard lesson that I learnt is that even though I can discern the multi-dimensional aspects of life, and of who I am, I know that I know nothing, as he once said.
"I know that I know nothing."
- Socrates.
Rokaya Chaarani is working on her first collection of poems.
When you think of wars, you often think of the men as soldiers, commanders, fighters, and the women as wives of soldiers waiting on the home front. The archetype of the masculine in war has always been a warrior and of the feminine a mother: these are the normative gender categories in war. However, during the war on terror, the normative gender categories have been challenged by Jessica Lynch, Lynndie England, and Ayat Akhras by taking on new and non-traditional roles in the war like army soldiers and bombers. England was an American soldier in Abu Ghraib, Lynch in Iraq, and Akhras among others was a suicide female bomber.
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Sexual violence is a serious issue that many women face across the globe. Across times, women have been subjected to different sorts of sexual harassment and assault, especially in war torn and post-war regions. Even during times of peace, women still face dangers due to society. Throughout history, many regions have witnessed genocide and targeted massacres that women have suffered from drastically. Sexual violence has been predominant in all modern conflicts as a tactic to induce fear. Furthermore, militias often use sexual violence as a weapon. Examples of such incidents have been reported in former Yugoslavia, India (Kashmir), Rwanda, Sri Lanka, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Russian Federation (Chechnya), and northern Uganda.
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Women are no strangers to discrimination. However, it is rarely that we find the medical field behind such inequality. Sexism is incredibly prevalent in medicine and medical research, and it goes much beyond preconceived notions of women and misogynistic remarks. This kind of sexism directly threatens the health and even mortality of female patients. We cannot afford to turn a blind eye on this issue anymore.
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Elections are in no way perfect. Everyone knows that. But what is truly shocking is the amount of money spent campaigning. Last year, US Presidential candidates smashed records by spending a total of $14 billion dollars during the race (Schwartz, 2016). In the 2018 Lebanese elections, one minute of airtime on a private media outlet would have cost $6,000. An entire talk show episode could reach $240,000 ("Lebanon parliamentary candidates," 2018). Thus, it's no surprise that everyday people like carpenters, nurses, or teachers don't win elections. This is not limited to socioeconomic conditions, however, as not many women win either, neither do disabled people, nor people under 40. They claim that it is a representative democracy, but it's not really representative of the population at all.
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Throughout history and up until today, minorities are known to be the first victims of armed conflict. In particular, human trafficking is considered to be inevitable during wars where women are highly targeted for sexual purposes. In fact, abducted women are being dreaded physically and emotionally by continuous and daily vicious rape introducing the tragic phenomenon called sexual slavery. Hence, this paper will tackle forced prostitution during armed conflict: how it affected women, the reasons behind it, what was done so far and what can be done in the future to solve this issue.
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Gender Based violence in conflict environments through media and communication: a path towards healing?
Myriam Boulos
[email protected]
Myriam Boulos
[email protected]
Abstract:
This paper explores the ever-increasing influence that media and communication can have on issues of gender-based violence in times of war. It firstly dissects how the media, whether through state or non-state actors, can contribute in aggravating gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict environments. On the other hand, the article also posits the productive positive impact that the media like documentaries can have in facilitating healing processes for victims of gender-based violence in conflict zones by tackling how they can also contribute in persisting peace-building processes.
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This paper explores the ever-increasing influence that media and communication can have on issues of gender-based violence in times of war. It firstly dissects how the media, whether through state or non-state actors, can contribute in aggravating gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict environments. On the other hand, the article also posits the productive positive impact that the media like documentaries can have in facilitating healing processes for victims of gender-based violence in conflict zones by tackling how they can also contribute in persisting peace-building processes.
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Due to the rapid rise in the emission levels of greenhouse gases, the world has been witnessing an alteration in its climate also known as climate change. As a result of natural disruptions, several disasters are taking place such as the rising sea levels that cause floods, acidic rains, depletion of fresh water, etc. In fact, 68% of the disasters that are taking place are related to climate change [1]. These natural disasters affect countries, age categories, income groups, gender, etc. in different manner. In fact, developing countries, especially those that rely on natural resources, are more heavily impacted than developed ones. Particularly, climate change exacerbates already existing gender inequalities where the burden on women is much greater than that on men. Previous data have shown that women and children are 14 times more likely to be affected during a disaster as compared to men [1]. Hence, this paper tackles the effects of climate change on gender, in specific how and why women are affected, along with some suggestions to tackle the issue.
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What is gender inequality? Why is it still an issue till this day? Gender inequality is known as the social process by which men and women are not treated equally. Gender inequality has been around for many centuries, it is still the same issue where men think that women aren’t capable of doing what they can do and they are superior to them. It was common knowledge before to think that a woman has no place in an office because she lacked the education needed, but now almost every female has access to education and can provide for themselves. A woman is now more than capable of doing a man’s job, but they are still not given the chance to show everyone what they are capable of.
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Armed conflicts play a major role in causing humanitarian crises across the world. A case in point is the Syrian conflict since the Syrian refugee crisis became one of the biggest refugee crises around the world where Syrian citizens fled away to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan to escape the prevalent war. Countries like Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen, witnessing armed conflicts, are endangering the lives of women who became like racialized minorities and other ethnic groups (Majed, 2021).
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Abortions is explained as the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it has reached the stage of viability, which is usually about the twentieth week of pregnancy. There are a few ways abortions can happen, whether spontaneously or purposely. Often at times miscarriages can occur which makes the woman obligated to have an abortion in order to remove the remain, so no medical problems can occur to the woman. Females have several reasons behind why they would want or need to get an abortion, which could be personal or medical reasons.
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The Lebanese army was founded on August 1, 1945, with the well-known motto “Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty”. After looking into this motto, I can understand the meaning of sacrifice which to give up something valued for the sake of other considerations or people. Everyone has sacrificed something at some point in their lives even the very tiny sacrifices such as not eating the last cupcake and leaving it for your mom. Also, I can understand the meaning of loyalty which is to be faithful to your commitments or obligations and to give constant support and allegiance to a person or institution. As sacrifice, everyone is loyal to someone and something in their lives. And, if you told me to sacrifice and be loyal, it makes sense to me. However, the main question is: What is honor? How can you honor someone or something? Someone may say “it is high respect and great esteem”; then you ask for the person or institution who deserves this “high” respect, and the reasons to deserve this admiration from you.
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On May 7th, 2021, Israeli forces have gone mad in Sheikh Jarrah, beating everyone in sight, demolishing the solidarity tents, using excessive force against unarmed civilians, and twisting facts in order to silence Palestinian. Indeed, what we are witnessing today is the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. To make things even worse, despite the fact that the UN resolution 3246 affirms the legitimacy of people’s struggle for liberation from colonial and foreign domination, the international community remains silent when it comes to Palestinians' struggles. As a result, Israeli Forces keep on terrorizing Palestinians, particularly Palestinian women.
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I had a fairly decent childhood growing up with my parents and three sisters. I would say that we were a very fortunate middle-class family heading in the right direction; life was good, everything was working out well. My father, a businessman, traveled to Italy frequently to close on deals for his clothing shop, but little did I know that one of these flights would be a permanent one and I’d never get to see my dad again. My dad’s departure, for legal and business troubles, meant that my mother would have to take matters into her own hands and become the “man of the house.”
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Gender-based violence has always been apparent in the Arab world, and Lebanon is no exception. There have been serval attempts to unify women living in Lebanon to provoke change or start conversations. The yearly women's march is one example to unify the voices of diverse women, and provide an outlet for the LGBTQIA+ community, domestic workers, and Lebanese nationals. This march is a representation of a war against the patriarchy, misogyny, gender stereotypes, gender-based violence, homophobia, and transphobia. Several campaigns were held to abolish laws retaining the rights of marital rape, underage marriage, and the right of dropping rape charges if a perpetrator marries their victim. These acts of activism were made possible with the help of several NGOs in Lebanon, university students, and clubs. The October 17th, 2019, Lebanese revolution was no different.
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Devising a military strategy is a process that invites much creativity. In fact, oftentimes, I have found myself bewildered at the degree of brilliance and deception laced in these strategies, as was the case when I learned about Britain’s assembly of the Magic Gang in 1941 which, among other projects, was able to construct illusions in order to attack the Germans in Egypt (Monticup). However, not all strategies of such brilliance and deception have left me in the same kind of awe, as was the case when I read Tatjana Takševa’s 2015 article, Genocidal Rape, Enforced Impregnation and the Discourse of Serbian National Identity, which delved into the analysis of systematic rape and enforced impregnation as “ideologically-motivated processes combined to revive, inflame and militarize long-standing Serbian stereotypes about Muslims and the supposed threat they represent.”
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The Feminist Movement and Neoliberalism in Lebanon: A New Route to Explore
Reem Traboulsi
rht06@mail.aub.edu
Reem Traboulsi
rht06@mail.aub.edu
The evolution of capitalism has reached its latest stage in neoliberalism, whereby the purpose of the state has shifted “from one that has a responsibility to ensure employment and protection for its citizens against the exigencies of the market to one that has a responsibility to insure protection of the market itself” (Waller and Wrenn 2021). It has entrenched in its individuals the teachings of accountability and self-reliance whilst eroding the teachings of collectiveness and responsibility to others. The result has become an economy comprised of individuals pursuing rational choices based off the materials and information they’ve absorbed, and a society comprised of self-interested members seeking to forward their own agendas.
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Abstract:
This paper introduces the concept of gender in relation to gendered security problems in a continuing cycle of pre-conflict, conflict, and post-conflict settings. Feminist research has established that power dynamics often result in women’s security problems being distinct from those of men in conflict and post-conflict situations. This differential impact, coupled with the short-term/long-term impact of gender-determined conflict, puts women at risk, while at the same time providing them with little room to resolve safety issues.
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This paper introduces the concept of gender in relation to gendered security problems in a continuing cycle of pre-conflict, conflict, and post-conflict settings. Feminist research has established that power dynamics often result in women’s security problems being distinct from those of men in conflict and post-conflict situations. This differential impact, coupled with the short-term/long-term impact of gender-determined conflict, puts women at risk, while at the same time providing them with little room to resolve safety issues.
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“Any society that fails to harness the energy and creativity of its women is at a huge disadvantage in the modern world”, Tian Wei. Although women are also, if not more, oppressed as men during times of conflict, for years they have been neglected or reduced down to being just a “housewife” in regards to the oppressive situation they are facing. A perfect example that highlights a serious conflict in which women are not viewed or seen as symbols of revolution or even factors that face extreme oppression and harm is that of the Israeli occupation over Palestine. Many Palestinian and non-Palestinian scholars – especially feminist-based scholars – have studied and examined Palestinian women’s role concerning their resistance towards the Israeli occupation and apartheid. Regardless of the lack of abundant publications and controversy that surrounded women-based organizations that were present in Palestine that aimed towards helping women and the Palestinian cause in general, women became very apparent during the first intifada (Vanessa, 2011).
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Female participation in the labor force has been a compelling issue throughout the history. It is also a very dynamic topic in all countries independent of that development level. It’s because, the place of women in work life can be considered as brand-new subject compared to that of men in all societies. Female labor force participation is an important driver (and outcome) of growth and development. Women participate in the labor force in developing countries because of poverty and as a coping mechanism in response to shocks. The participation of women is the outcome of various economic and social factors. In our paper we seek to talk about female labor force participation in the Arab World by focusing on two main models which are the home production model (consists of time spent between work and home production) as well as the work-leisure model (consists of time spent between work and leisure) and more specifically in Jordan which according to the World Bank, has “the lowest female labor force participation of a country not at war.”
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Abstract:
In this paper, I will give an overview of Sudan’s 2020 floods, showing how previous crises aggravated the damage of the disaster, and increased food insecurity across the whole country. Moreover, I will show that the response plans and initiatives proposed by FAO and IFRC are not gender-sensitive, and don’t use a whole community approach. Finally, I will propose disaster mitigation and preparedness plans for Sudan’s recurrent floods, in a gender-sensitive approach.
Introduction
Over the past twenty years (2000-2019), the number of disasters recorded by EM-DAT, which is a worldwide international disasters database, noticed an intense and significant increase, as compared to the previous twenty years (1980-1999). This sharp increase in disaster during the past two decades caused the death of 1.23 million people, affected over 4 billion people, and led to economic losses of around $2.97 trillion worldwide.
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In this paper, I will give an overview of Sudan’s 2020 floods, showing how previous crises aggravated the damage of the disaster, and increased food insecurity across the whole country. Moreover, I will show that the response plans and initiatives proposed by FAO and IFRC are not gender-sensitive, and don’t use a whole community approach. Finally, I will propose disaster mitigation and preparedness plans for Sudan’s recurrent floods, in a gender-sensitive approach.
Introduction
Over the past twenty years (2000-2019), the number of disasters recorded by EM-DAT, which is a worldwide international disasters database, noticed an intense and significant increase, as compared to the previous twenty years (1980-1999). This sharp increase in disaster during the past two decades caused the death of 1.23 million people, affected over 4 billion people, and led to economic losses of around $2.97 trillion worldwide.
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A disaster is simply a sudden unfortunate event that occurs and causes destruction and destroys the functioning of a society by causing different kinds of harms in material, environment, and even human harms that are bigger than the society’s ability to handle. Disasters come in different forms, disasters could be natural like earthquakes, volcanoes… Disasters could also be man-made, which means that disasters could also be caused by human beings like explosions, biological weapons, and cyber-attacks; Disasters are expected to rise more due to the change in the climate and other aspects “Disasters have been on the rise and are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity due to climate change, rapid urbanization and environmental degradation.” (Chakrabarti, 2009). It has been reported that between 19994 and 2013, 6,873 natural disasters happened over the globe causing the death of 1.35 million people and damaged the properties of more that 218 million people;
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First of all, utilitarianism as Jeremy Bentham stated “the highest principle of morality is the maximize happiness, the overall balance of pleasure over pain”. It is a doctrine to guide our behavior in order to increase happiness and/or decrease pain and suffering for a community, which is the sum of its individual.
By attending a few talks and workshops related to feminism, I recognized the presence of a utilitarian approach to convince the audience about the importance of equality between men and women. For example, an increase in the percentage of women in the workplace will increase the national GDP. I am for sure an advocate for man/women equality; however, I think this utilitarian approach toward feminism can backfire. So, it important to shed light on some objections toward feminism in order to come up with a more efficient strategy.
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By attending a few talks and workshops related to feminism, I recognized the presence of a utilitarian approach to convince the audience about the importance of equality between men and women. For example, an increase in the percentage of women in the workplace will increase the national GDP. I am for sure an advocate for man/women equality; however, I think this utilitarian approach toward feminism can backfire. So, it important to shed light on some objections toward feminism in order to come up with a more efficient strategy.
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In “Revolt against the sun”, Nazik al-Mala’ika expressed her thoughts about women of the Middle East and South Africa region through her exceptional poetic capability to create such a piece of art. A naïve examination reflects this poem as if a burst of emotions without any intention more meaningful, deeper intention. However, a thorough analysis reflects a tremendous liberating derive depicted in Nazik's self-description.
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Tunisia has long been at the forefront of efforts to promote women’s rights in the Arab world, starting with Prime Minister Habib Bourguiba’s passage of the region’s most secular and progressive Code of Personal Status in 1956. The political participation and representation of women played an unprecedented role during and after the 2011 revolution as well. Despite the status of Tunisia being one of the most gender-progressive civilizations in the MENA region, there remains a high degree of gender gaps and challenges when it comes to the access of services in Tunisia.
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A disaster is an event that disrupts and threatens people’s daily life over a short or long period of time. It includes, but is not restricted to, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods. Those events differ in origin as well as in impact. A disaster can have human or natural origins and can lead to human, economic, and/or environmental losses.[1] The UN Palermo Protocol describes human trafficking as the activity of recruiting, transporting, and harboring people by the use of threat, force, coercion, abuse of power, or taking advantage of the vulnerability of people. Usually trafficking is done through five stages: recruitment, removal, transportation, control, and maintenance of debts over the victims. Traffickers target all kind of people but especially women and children as they are considered weaker.
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Effects of economic crisis on gender-based inequalities- Case of Lebanon
Rony Youssef
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Rony Youssef
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Lebanon has been assailed by a series of crises starting with the economic crisis amidst the spread of a pandemic, followed by the 4th of August Port explosion. Among all these crises, the financial one has led to drastic changes in citizens’ everyday lives and has increased inequalities among men and women. According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA), more than 55% of the population now belongs to the poor class (UNWomen, 2020). Poverty has experienced a threefold increase from 8% in 2019 to 23% in 2020 (UNWomen, 2020). These current crises have negatively affected women, irrespective of their ages and occupation. In this paper, I will dwell deeper into how the economic crisis aggravated by the spread of COVID has affected women’s participation in the economy.
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One might think that the main reasons women experience domestic violence are that their partners might have been exposed to child abuse, low education, and violence against their mothers. However, have you ever thought that a correlation can exist between the economic state in a house and the increase in gender-based violence? What if this economic crisis is taking all over a country and hitting it very hard? Hence, one can imagine the rapid increase of domestic violence. The economic crisis Lebanon is facing has turned people’s lives upside down. In 2019, the economy plunged into a financial crisis that became today the major cause of increase in poverty and unemployment. Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic uncontrollably spread in Lebanon in the context of a collapsed economy as well as the explosion that happened in Beirut worsened the situation and exhausted the mental health of citizens (Ngcuka, 2020).
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I used to think that death by suicide is uncommon; that it could only happen to others, but not to me or my entourage; that I would never be put in a position of experiencing the loss of someone I love, or to feel incapable of helping a suicidal friend.
The truth about suicide hit me hard when I joined the Lebanese Red Cross.
I remember first being dispatched to a patient who had overdosed on Advil pills. Then, to a man who had shot himself, ending his life in a lonely hotel room. Followed by a person who threw himself from his balcony, and a young man who hung himself while his parents were in the adjacent room.
All were men.
Each scene more horrific than the other.
Each emergency leaving me tired, drained, helpless.
But still, I used to think to myself “this won’t happen to me, my family or my friends”
… until it did.
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The truth about suicide hit me hard when I joined the Lebanese Red Cross.
I remember first being dispatched to a patient who had overdosed on Advil pills. Then, to a man who had shot himself, ending his life in a lonely hotel room. Followed by a person who threw himself from his balcony, and a young man who hung himself while his parents were in the adjacent room.
All were men.
Each scene more horrific than the other.
Each emergency leaving me tired, drained, helpless.
But still, I used to think to myself “this won’t happen to me, my family or my friends”
… until it did.
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في مقدمّة هذا البحث وقبل التطرّق إلى الحالة المزرية التي وصلت إليها معظم اللاجئات السوريات في لبنان بفعل النزاعات المسلّحة الحاصلة فوق الأراضي السورية، كما تجسّد في مقطع من الفيلم "نحن مو هيك" من إخراج كارول منصور، يجدر الإشارة بنا إلى أن استضعاف المرأة وتسلط الرجّل كانا حاضرين بالخفاء - إلى حدّ ما - داخل البيوت السورية تحديداً، لكن صواريخ الحرب جاءت لتخلق شقّا في جدران هذه البيوت، فتظهر تلك الغطرسة الأبوية الذكورية للعلن، لنطرح السؤال التالي على أنفسنا: هل يمكن أن تكون الظاهرة السورية حاضرة في كل منزل عربيّ تشرّب في الماضي ومازال، ذات الأفكار التّي تهمّش المرأة انطلاقا من تشريعات دينية ووصولنا إلى اعتقادات تربط ما بين المرأة والشرف؟ وهل ثوب الديموقراطية الفضفاض وشعارات كال "المرأة نصف المجتمع" وكل قوانيننا التّي تم النضال عبر السّنين كي تنالها المرأة، تسقط في حالات الطوارئ كالنزاع المسلّح؟
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Understanding the Implications of Climate Change Through a Gendered Lens
Marya Soubra
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Marya Soubra
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Currently, climate change is a dominant topic of discussion as it causes universal threats to humanity, such as global warming, scarcity of natural resources, and amplified natural disasters (Tickner, 2019). These issues are being observed by scholars and scientists, and their implications are being considered in terms of multiple aspects such as political, economic, and in policymaking (MacGregor, 2010). However, the gendered implications that climate change are largely ignored as climate issues are considered to affect humanity all the same without gendered differences (MacGregor, 2010). Moreover, gendered implications are being viewed in a negative light or as an extra burden (MacGregor, 2010).
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Humans have engaged in war since antiquity, and naturally, gender roles during conflict have not been static. In some cases, women were perceived not only as weak and useless, but according to Aristotle, as a disadvantage where they cause more harm and confusion (Georgoudi, 2015). In other cases, such as in Claudian’s accounts, women were somewhat able to participate in war, and according to Thucydides, women and men worked as a collective in battles, in some cases by throwing stones and tiles (Georgoudi, 2015). Moreover, women played the role of guardians, where they would guard the house while the men were away for war such as David’s ten concubines (Slovang, 2015).
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The Council of Europe Agreement on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the so-called “Istanbul” Convention), ratified by France on July 4, 2014, defines violence against women as "all acts of gender-based violence which cause, or are likely to cause for women, harm or suffering of a physical, sexual, psychological or economic nature". From this definition we arise two points that need to be clarified to better understand the phenomenon of violence against women.
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Women In WWII: A First Step Towards Gender Equality or The Other Way Around?
Dani Dhaini
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Dani Dhaini
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Over the course of time, women thrived to fight against all challenges and norms that marginalized them. There were times when they had to yield to such atrocities because they didn’t have a choice or a higher power to protect their stances, but many things changed after the emergence of the second world war. Working in industrial facilities, aiding injured soldiers, and fixing various forms of automobiles, those were the types of jobs that women received during WWII. Despite the fact that, some working jobs were serving generally male occupations, females were luckily also conceded. Their entry into the world of work and various occupations that were always viewed as “male jobs” allowed for the breakage of the stigma and created an equivalent compensation for the losses. In fact, Women at that time, were distributed several roles that allowed them to finally step into society and take their stances in labor contribution no matter its circumstances.
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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed on the website page are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Asfari Institute and or AUB.
The views and opinions expressed on the website page are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Asfari Institute and or AUB.
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