Realising the Potential of Arab Women in the Private and Public Sectors

Representatives from both the public and private sector discussed the means to optimize the contribution of Arab women in the development of the region during the first U.S.-based conference of the Arab International Women’s Forum (AIWF), hosted by the World Bank Middle East North Africa in Washington, D.C. recently

The conference, titled ‘Partners for Change: Realizing the Potential of Arab Women in the Private and Public Sector,’ drew participants from over 20 countries including the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. It gathered Arab and international policymakers in an attempt to stimulate dialogue aimed at removing roadblocks to women’s gainful participation in Arab politics, economies and society.

Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank, argued that Arab women, given the right environment, could be successful entrepreneurs, influential political leaders, and formidable global business managers. Pointing to the findings of a recent Bank report, he said, “While only 13% of firms or companies in the Middle East are owned by women, there is no significant difference in terms of size, age, sector, exports, and foreign direct investment to those firms owned by men”. Successful women entrepreneurs from all over the Middle East also gathered during the two day conference to hear ministers including HE Dr. Sharifa Khalfan Al Yahyai, Minister of Social Development in Oman, HE Hala Bseisu Lattouf, Minister of Social Development in Jordan, and HE Dr Huda Ali Al-Ban, Minister of Human Rights in Yemen, talk about the gains women have made in the region.

Speakers also argued, however, that much progress was still needed in the region. Despite the rising number of young Arab women enrolled in higher education, which has resulted in a pool of qualified potential employees, research showed that the number of graduates who actually moved into the work force in countries within the MENA region remains low.

Nadereh Chamlou, Senior Advisor and gender specialist for the MENA region, expressed confidence that the conference had “showcased these accomplished, dedicated and successful Arab women as role models for future generations in the Middle East, a side to Arab women that is not adequately covered in the media.”

Haifa Fahoum Al-Kaylani, Founder and Chair of AIWF, said, “AIWF was established in 2001 as a non-profit organization aimed at bringing together women from the Arab world with those from across the international community. Our goal is to serve as the voice of Arab women in business and government, through a series of global initiatives, conferences, and programmes. It is truly representative of the direction that the region is taking, and of our continuing commitment to the promotion of cross-cultural diversity, connectivity and understanding between the Arab world and the international community through women.”

The conference was supported by a number of AIWF’s global corporate partners, including PepsiCo International, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Shell and DLA Piper.

HE Hala Bseisu Lattouf, Minister of Social Development in Jordan, Mrs. Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani, Chairman Arab International Women's Forum, Mr Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank HE, Dr. Sharifa Khalfan Al Yahyai, Minister of Social Development in Oman, HE Dr Huda Ali Al-Ban, Minister of Human Rights in Yemen.

Arab International Women’s Forum

Founded in 2001 as an independent, non-profit organisation, the Arab International Women’s Forum has served as a voice for Arab women in business and in government, showcasing their contribution to economic growth and development in the Arab region and globally. Headquartered in London and led by a voluntary Board of Trustees, AIWF brings growing numbers of influential, progressive women in corporate, academic and public life from 22 Arab countries together with their counterparts in Europe, the Americas, Africa and beyond, to foster closer cooperation and realize the full potential of Arab women in achieving progress, prosperity and development in the region.

© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

ran stages Persian Gulf missile tests amid warnings to its 'enemies'

CAIRO -- With U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the rhetoric between Iran and Israel growing heated, Tehran announced today that it had test-fired nine missiles, including at least one capable of striking Israel and other American interests in the Middle East.

The missiles were fired during military exercises staged by Iran's Revolutionary Guards near the strategic oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. State television quoted one of Iran's top military leaders, Gen. Hossein Salami, as saying the war games in the Persian Gulf would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language."The launches were the latest drama in the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says will produce power for civilian use. The West and Israel, however, allege that Iran is intent on building a bomb.

The missiles streaked into the desert sky as U.S. and British ships were on military maneuvers in the gulf, and just days after disclosures that Israel had conducted long-range military exercises last month as a rehearsal for a possible strike on Iran.

Iranian TV showed three simultaneous launches, including a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which Tehran claims carries a 1-ton conventional warhead and can travel 1,250 miles, well within the range of U.S. troops in Iraq, the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain and American allies such as Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran said earlier this week that it would retaliate against U.S. and Israeli interests in the region if its nuclear facilities were attacked.

"Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch," the official IRNA news agency quoted Salami as saying today.

The launches came a day after seemingly contradictory statements from top Iranian officials. A spokesman for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, said Tel Aviv and the U.S. fleet in the gulf would "burst into flames" if Tehran were attacked. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, usually the official leading the bellicose rhetoric, appeared to soften the atmosphere by saying that the prospect of Israel and the U.S. striking Iran was a "funny joke" and that there "won't be any war" in the future.

"The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity," said Gordon Johndroe, deputy White House press secretary, speaking from Japan where President Bush is attending the Group of Eight summit. "They should also refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was traveling in Bulgaria, said the test launches were "evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one."

Israel's reaction to the test was low-key. Government spokesman Mark Regev said the Jewish state "does not desire hostility and conflict with Iran. But it is clear that the Iranian nuclear program and the Iranian ballistic missile program is a matter of grave concern."

Tehran and the West are expected to resume talks on Iran's nuclear program later this month. But there appears to little progress. On Saturday, Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, an Ahmadinejad loyalist, reiterated Iran's long-standing position that it won't stop producing nuclear material, a highly technical process that involves running uranium gas through spinning centrifuges. The uranium enriched to a lower quality can be used as fuel for civilian power plants; highly enriched material can be made into nuclear weapons.

jeff.fleishman@latimes.com

Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem and special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.

Students Study the Middle East, But on Their Own

By Margaret Ernst

Talking to Dina Rubey ‘09 is like talking to a textbook on recent Middle Eastern history, but that wasn’t always the case. “I grew up in New York City, and I probably couldn’t have told you where the Middle East was on the map,” she said. “But then 9/11 happened. It’s so easy to be totally oblivious about what’s going on around you, let alone across the ocean.” As a freshman, Rubey took Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies, which included an online-facilitated discussion between Arab students and American students called “Soliya”; since then she says she hasn’t looked back.

Rubey has focused on the Middle East as a political science major, complemented by her own version of an independent major in Mideast Studies—a concentration in comparative politics, minors in Peace and Conflict Studies and developmental economics, and a semester abroad at the American University in Cairo. “I thought I would study abroad in Paris, major in English,” she said. “I never would have expected I would go to Cairo.”

There is currently no Middle East Studies major at Bryn Mawr, nor is there a minor, concentration, nor a department, but there is an initiative. The Middle East Studies Initiative was so named five years ago, according to Professor Deborah Harrold, who teaches many of the Initiative’s classes, and its goal is to bring more classes on the Middle East into the Bryn Mawr curriculum. But as more students enter the College with an interest in the region, their lives shaped by 9/11 and the events that followed it, the current Middle East Studies Initiative may be forced to assume greater clout than its name implies.

“Bryn Mawr has been hiring more professors who teach about the region, offering more classes, and especially considering our new president is a Qur’an scholar, it seems like a good time to do it,” said Jesse Solomon ’11, referring to her plans to design an independent major in Mideast Studies. Unlike many students who study the Middle East in the context of a specific discipline, Solomon feels that she will learn the most about the region by getting as much background as possible—background that is inherently interdisciplinary.

“I’m not sure exactly what the major will look like, except that I like being able to get so many perspectives,” she said. When she entered in the fall Solomon assumed she would major in political science, but as she explored the curriculum within the Tri-Co and Penn, she started to consider how her interest in the Middle East could turn into a major. “Between the Tri-Co and Penn, there will be enough classes for me to take,” said Solomon. “But the only problem is that they tend to be very similar.”

For Rubey, the requirements of a political science major have allowed her to view her specialty in the context of a larger and highly connected world. “Right now I’m taking a modern Latin American history class, and it’s infuriating how similar it is,” she said. This summer she will travel to Nicaragua for an internship, where she sees blatant parallels to current events in the Middle East. “Twenty years ago, the whole world was falling down in Nicaragua, with America playing the same role—with some of the same last names as the people who are making the same mistakes now.”

To avoid mistakes when it comes to the Middle East, be they in diplomacy or literature, one of the first steps to understanding the region is understanding Arabic; currently at Bryn Mawr, however, many feel there is a disconnect between the two. Though as of last year Bryn Mawr and Haverford students have finally been able to take Arabic classes on their own campuses, the Arabic program is still based out of the modern languages department at Swarthmore and students have experienced the problems inherent in participating in a program from forty minutes away.

Solomon says that although her Arabic professors and drill instructors are brilliant, the program at Swarthmore restricts how they are able to teach. “We learn from a very old book that relies on wrote memorization,” she said. “Swat’s program drills in this idea, and it’s hard for professors who want to bring culture into it.” Solomon thinks Bryn Mawr could do much better by overseeing its own professors and in general, running its own program.

“This is the first year of the tri-co program, and it’s still going through growing pains,” said Professor Kim, who teaches Arabic at Bryn Mawr and Haverford. He sees that many of his students want to supplement their language study with other courses about the region, and he hopes that the Arabic program can be more integrated with the Middle East Studies Initiative in the future. “If there is a concentration in Middle East Studies there would be better integration between language and the content classes,” he said. “Right now, in many ways, the Arabic program is a separate entity.”

He says that problems associated with teaching Arabic are not just unique unto the Tri-Co, however. “Recently there has been a lot of student interest in the country, but there are just not enough qualified teachers out there,” he said, explaining why Bryn Mawr and Haverford have had to piggyback onto Swarthmore’s program.

There is also a challenge that has to do with the language itself; in the Tri-Co and wherever Arabic is taught, one learns Modern Standard Arabic, the strict, formal dialect that is rarely actually spoken in the Middle East. Though newscasters broadcast in Modern Standard, only colloquial dialects are heard in the streets; in other words, though Professor Kim thinks language training is essential to non-western studies, studying Arabic at Bryn Mawr and then in the Middle East is very different from studying French in Paris.

Rubey admits that taking Arabic in the U.S. would not have necessarily helped her get by on a day to day basis in Egypt. “It’s very rare that people use Modern Standard in their daily life. It’s like if someone addressed you using Shakespearean English.” Regardless, she wishes that she had had some background before she left. “I wish I had taken Arabic before, and I wish that Bryn Mawr and Haverford made it easier for people to take Arabic.”

Mawrtyrs interested in Middle East Studies currently have to be creative with their curriculum, but from a westward angle, creativity is often essential when talking about the Middle East. “If you want to know what’s going on, it doesn’t mean just reading the New York Times,” said Rubey. “It means reading Al-Jazeera, and it means actually talking to people from there.”

Whether motivated by current events or simple curiosity, student interest is forcing the Arabic program at Bryn Mawr to find its roots in the bi-college community. “So many people ask me how Arabic is and say they want to take it next year,” said Solomon. At the same time, the Middle East Studies Initiative will have to turn the mirror on itself to see how it can be a home for those who want to know exactly “what’s going on over there.”

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