Another Saudi Fail.

Saudi Arabia has refused to include female athletes in her Olympic team for the upcoming 17^th Asian Games that will take place from September 19 to October 4, 2014 in Incheon, South Korea. According to the source, women were seen as “not sufficiently competitive”.

Criticized by Human Rights Watch, the conservative kingdom, through its spokesman, Mohammad El-Mishal, the secretary general of KSA’s Olympic Committee, promised to send female athletes to the next Olympics. Not this year:

“Technically, we weren't ready to introduce any ladies and the new president of our Olympic committee (Prince Abdullah bin Musaed bin Abdulaziz) rejected sending women to only participate, he wanted them to compete”, as reported by Reuters. “We are obliged for Saudi ladies to participate and we will do our duty in a manner that doesn't contradict with the major rules of the kingdom”:

-          Women will only compete in equestrian, fencing, shooting and archery - sports that are “accepted culturally and religiously” in Saudi Arabia;

-          They shall respect the clothes regulations and wear “suitable” uniforms that won’t reveal their bodies and heads;

-          Athletes will be “accompanied by their husbands or parents or brothers and this is the way we do it when women travel”;

-          If chosen to compete, women must win: It seems that the General President of Youth Welfare doesn’t like “seeing female Saudi athletes being always the last (place)”.

Note that KSA refused to send a female athlete to China, this year, despite the fact that, 4 years ago, the ultra-conservative country sent the first Saudi woman, Dalma Rusdhi Mallas, to compete and win the equestrian bronze medal.

Picture: Sarah Attar receiving the crowd’s cheer at the London Olympics in 2012 (AFP/Getty)

The schizophrenic situation of female athletes demonstrates how the tentative to reform the rules are always colliding with ultra-conservative wills to keep women in their current status quo. If some reforms were slowly done in the past few years (lifting the ban on sports at girls’ schools, allowing few women to participate at the London Olympics), it looks like great patience and action are need to obtain absolute freedom. There is even a tougher journey towards freeing Saudi’s way of thinking: for a large part of the population, it is still unacceptable for women to take part in sports competitions. Wojdan Shaherkani (Judo) and Sarah Attar (athletics), who participated in the 2012 London Olympics, were highly-criticized. A hash tag describing them as “prostitutes of the Olympics” (#عاهرات_الاولمبياد) circulated online. Saudi-American Sarah Attar faced more criticism as photos of her practicing in shorts without headscarf were displayed online. Nevertheless, the warm cheer of the crowd at the Olympics stadium was seen by Attar and her peers as a true encouragement for every Saudi women fighting for freedom. 

Pascale Asmar

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!النكاح المضاد: عهرٌ ولكن

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“في إطار إيمانها بجهاد النكاح المضاد، تعلن الشاعرة الأمازيغية العلمانية مليكة مزان، أنها تضع خدماتها الجنسية رهن إشارة كل من يرغب فيها من أفراد الجيش الكردي في حربهم ضد همجية الإرهاب." بهذه الكلمات توجهت الشاعرة المغربية إلى الجيش الكردي على حسابها الشخصي على فيسبوك.

 "النكاح المضاد" وكما أسمته الشاعرة يأتي رداً على "جهاد النكاح" الذي يمارس من قبل الدولة الإسلامية والتنظيم الداعيشي.  بالطبع أثار موقف مليكة مازن الكثير من ردود الفعل السلبية وعلى الرغم من ادراجها كلمات "إيمانها" و“تضع خدماتها الجنسية " ضمن مزدوجين إلى أن الرسالة التي ارادت ايصالها غابت عن مجتمع لا يزال يرزح بقسوة تحت أثقال الكبت الجنسي والحلال والحرام.

مليكة مازن لم تكتفي بكونها شاعرةً مثيرةً للجدل لكنها ذهبت أبعد من ذلك فوضعت نفسها ضمن إطار الاتهامات لتوصل رفضها لمن يحلل اغتصاب الفتيات واستغلالهم جنسياً بحجة الدفاع عن القضية الإلهية. مليكة التي أكدت أن نفس المنطق الذي يحلل لداعش وغيرهم الاستمتاع بالجنس أثناء المعركة يحلل للجيش الكردي حقه بالاستمتاع هو المدافع عن قضيةٍ أنبلٍ وأحق.

وبالرغم من قسوة ما تتعرض له اليوم ومن محاولات تجريحها وتحويلها إلى عاهرةٍ إلا أن الكثير من جمهورها قدم لها الدعم واستطاع أن يستشفي رسالة السخرية التي ارادت ايصالها.

مليكة مازن التي اعربت عن اسفها لتأويل موقفها إلى إهانةٍ للجيش الكردي قدمت البارحة اعتذارها منه على صفحتها على فيسبوك وحاولت أن تعيد صياغة الرسالة التي قصدت ايصالها منذ إعلانها ل "النكاح المضاد".

موقف مليكة مازن الجريء حد الجنون قد لا يتوافق مع أفكاري وإيماني بأن العنف وحتى الفكري منه ليس الحل الأنسب لتطوير مجتمعاتنا وأن الاصطدام مع الأخرين سيمنعهم من الاستماع لنا ليهربوا أكثر نحو التعصب والتطرف، لكني لا أستطيع سوى أن أبدي احترامي واعجابي بامرأة عربية كمليكة مازن. هي المدافعة الشرسة دائماً عن حقوق الإنسان تستحق أكبر تقديرٍ واحترام.

 Rihab

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Maryam Mirzakhani: An Iranian Inspiration!

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37-year-old Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman to win what is considered the Nobel Prize of Mathematics – the Fields Medal.

The medalist is a Harvard PhD graduate. She is currently a professor at Stanford University.

Mirzakhani’s passion for Mathematics started during the Iran-Iraq war. Although she “did poorly in math” during her early middle-school years, as reported in her interview with The Guardian, she later on became very passionate about it thanks to her brother.

As Mirzakhani was publically declared the winner of this year’s medal, most newspapers were more interested in her Iranian nationality and her background. For many, the fact that Mirzakhani is Iranian is as fascinating as being the first woman to be awarded with such a prestigious medal.

According to Mirzakhani, she owes a lot to her years in Iran where her school principle she describes as a “strong-willed woman” “was willing to go a long way to provide us with the same opportunities as the boys' school”. Nonetheless, she thinks that if she was born 10 years earlier, she might not have had the same opportunities that she was given. Mirzakhani praised the educational system in Iran: “I should say that the education system in Iran is not the way people might imagine here. As a graduate student at Harvard, I had to explain quite a few times that I was allowed to attend a university as a woman in Iran. While it is true that boys and girls go to separate schools up to high school, this does not prevent them from participating say in the Olympiads or the summer camps”. Above all, her success comes from the fact that the she was always encouraged by her parents and by her passion and dedication.

The little kid who dreamed of becoming a writer is now one of the most influential people in the scientific world. She is also an inspiration for many women coming from modest or repressed societies. Her achievement is a light of hope for many women in Iran and in the Arab countries fighting for their right to education and freedom.

Pascale Asmar

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Religion banning women education

Once again, a religious leader uses his position to violate human rights and to profit from the unquestionable faith of his followers to enforce his position.

"Women should not even consider academic study in any framework, because this is not the way of the Torah." Declared Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the new leader of the ultra-orthodox Jewish movement.

Rabbi Cohen forbids women’s education because in his opinion “Facts learned at college are based on scientific methods that contradict with the Torah!”

Although, his claim did only include women he is known to have the same opinion toward men’s education.

How did humans dismiss this truth? After all, why would someone ask for education when a book, written some thousands of years ago, hold all the answers? Why would we even bother?

If for a minute, you thought that the technological development, we are witnessing now, is the consequences of science you are a fool. Humans should not ask for education, they only have to read the Torah repeatedly and everything would be fine!

Forbidding women or men from studying is a very smart decision any extremist religious leader should take. It is their only hope to linger in their positions, to hold power over others and to rule.

The contradiction between science and what the Torah said is the door to hundreds of questions. Questions that may not only put doubt in the heart of people but it may encourage them to revolve over their religious leaders.

Education is the only way to improve humans, to make them think behind the box and to build a healthy society where every human being is free and respected.

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