Friday, 4 November 2011
Miss lebanon australia 2011 Andriana Chidiac
Saudi Women can vote in 2015 local elections
It is a "Saudi Spring" of sorts.
For the nation's women, it is a giant leap forward, though they remain unable to serve as Cabinet ministers, drive or travel abroad without permission from a male guardian.
STORY: Female driver will face a trial
Saudi women bear the brunt of their nation's deeply conservative values, often finding themselves the target of the unwanted attention of the kingdom's intrusive religious police, who enforce a rigid interpretation of Islamic Shariah law on the streets and public places like shopping malls and university campuses.
In itself, Sunday's decision to give the women the right to vote and run in municipal elections may not be enough to satisfy the growing ambition of the kingdom's women who, after years of lavish state spending on education and vocational training, significantly improved their standing but could not secure the same place in society as that of their male compatriots.
That women must wait four more years to exercise their newly acquired right to vote adds insult to injury since Sunday's announcement was already a long time coming — and the next local elections are in fact scheduled for this Thursday.
"Why not tomorrow?" asked prominent Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar. "I think the king doesn't want to shake the country, but we look around us and we think it is a shame … when we are still pondering how to meet simple women's rights."
The announcement by King Abdullah came in an annual speech before his advisory assembly, or Shura Council. It was made after he consulted with the nation's top religious clerics, whose advice carries great weight in the kingdom.
It is an attempt at "Saudi style" reform, moves that avoid antagonizing the powerful clergy and a conservative segment of the population. Additionally, it seems to be part of the king's drive to insulate his vast, oil-rich country from the upheavals sweeping other Arab nations, with popular uprisings toppling regimes that once looked as secure as his own.
Fearing unrest at home, the king in March announced a staggering $93 billion package of incentives, jobs and services to ease the hardships experienced by some Saudis. In the meantime, he sent troops to neighbor and close ally Bahrain to help the tiny nation's Sunni ruling family crush an uprising by majority Shiites pressing for equal rights and far-reaching reforms.
In contrast, King Abdullah in August withdrew the Saudi ambassador from Syria to protest President Bashar Assad's brutal crackdown on a seven-month uprising that calls for his ouster and the establishment of a democratic government.
"We didn't ask for politics, we asked for our basic rights. We demanded that we be treated as equal citizens and lift the male guardianship over us," said Saudi activist Maha al-Qahtani, an Education Ministry employee who defied the ban on women driving earlier this year. "We have many problems that need to be addressed immediately."
The United States, Saudi Arabia's closest Western ally, praised the king's move.
In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said it recognized the "significant contributions" women have been making in Saudi Arabia. The move, he continued, would give Saudi women more ways to participate "in the decisions that affect their lives and communities."
The king, in his own remarks, seemed to acknowledge that the Arab world's season of change and the yearning for greater social freedoms by a large segment of Saudi society demanded decisive action.
"Balanced modernization, which falls within our Islamic values, is an important demand in an era where there is no place for defeatist or hesitant people," he said.
"Muslim women in our Islamic history have demonstrated positions that expressed correct opinions and advice," said the king.
Abdullah became the country's de facto ruler in 1995 because of the illness of King Fahd and formally ascended to the throne upon Fahd's death in August 2005.
The king on Sunday also announced that women would be appointed to the Shura Council, a currently all-male body established in 1993 to offer counsel on general policies in the kingdom and to debate economic and social development plans and agreements signed between the kingdom with other nations.
The question of women's rights in Saudi Arabia is a touchy one. In a country where no social or political force is strong enough to affect change in women's rights, it is up to the king to do it. Even then, the king must find consensus before he takes a step in that direction.
Prominent columnist Jamal Khashoggi said that giving women the right to vote in local elections and their inclusion in the Shura council means they will be part of the legislative and executive branches of the state. Winning the right to drive and travel without permission from male guardians can only be the next move.
"It will be odd that women who enjoy parliamentary immunity as members of the council are unable to drive their cars or travel without permission," he said. "The climate is more suited for these changes now — the force of history, moral pressure and the changes taking place around us."
Prominent Islamic cleric urges Saudi king to let women drive
Qaradawi's official website said he has sent a letter to the king hailing his statements on the rights of Muslim women and his recent decision to allow women to put themselves forward for positions in the country's municipalities and Consultative Assembly.
In his letter Qaradawi said, "As I send you my regards and express my happiness and appreciation for your statements and decisions, I hope that your dear country will allow Muslim women to drive cars in conformance with Islamic regulations, like other Muslim countries."
Qaradawi added that both the Quran and tradition clearly outline prohibited practices, and that neither forbid women from driving.
The website said Qaradawi received a thank you letter from the king in response to his message.
Saudi Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak has called for sentencing women who drive to death, after several Saudi women began a movement on 17 June to call for allowing women to drive.
He described their cause as evil and said such women are "Westernized women seeking to westernize the country."
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Sidon wedding bells to replace Eid al-Fitr festivities
Children were the special focus of the last days of the festivities, which represented one of the biggest celebrations the coastal city had ever seen.
The children could attend story-telling and watch a puppet show, fireworks and mime performances presented by local and foreign performers.
The festival, dubbed City Wedding, was sponsored by Education Minister Bahia Hariri and was organized in collaboration with the Sidon Festival Committee.
However, the festive spirit will return to Sidon once again, as real wedding bells will be heard for a mass wedding scheduled to take place during the month of October.
The wedding is sponsored by Hariri and the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, with the collaboration of the Sidon Commerce Organization.
It is the second of its kind to be organized but the first to draw participants from the east of Sidon.
The celebration, besides being a big tourist attraction, aims at helping couples from Lebanese and Palestinian nationalities with financial difficulties.
Over 22 Lebanese and 38 Palestinians will tie the knot, pledging their love but also showing support for coexistence between the two communities.
Frequent meetings are being held for the participating couples in order to finalize all wedding arrangements, such as dresses and cakes. The meetings are being run by the committee, which wants to use the event to convey the message it stands for: social unity between Lebanese and Palestinians.
The mass wedding ceremony will include live performances by entertainers from both nationalities, and the happy couples will receive gifts such as furniture and home appliances.
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tawakkul Karman Profile: 'The Mother Of Yemen's Revolution'
The 32-year-old Karman has been an activist for human rights in Yemen for years, but when she was arrested in January, it helped detonate protests by hundreds of thousands demanding the ouster of Saleh and the creation of a democratic government.
When the Nobel announcement was made Friday, Karman was where she has been nearly every day for the past eight months: in a protest tent in Change Square, the roundabout in central Sanaa that has been the symbolic epicenter of the revolt.
"This prize is not for Tawakkul, it is for the whole Yemeni people, for the martyrs, for the cause of standing up to (Saleh) and his gangs. Every tyrant and dictator is upset by this prize because it confronts injustice," she told The Associated Press from her tent as she received congratulations from other activists.
Karman – who shares the prize with Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson and Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee – is the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. With the award, the Nobel committee gave a nod to the Arab Spring, the wave of uprisings that have swept the Middle East, forcing out the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
In Yemen, millions have been turning out for protests in the capital, Sanaa, and cities around the country since late January. Still, Saleh has determinedly refused to step down.
Karman and the other young activists who have led Yemen's uprising have created a movement that is unique in this impoverished nation on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, where tribal allegiances run deep, much of the public is religiously conservative and weapons are rife, with guns in nearly every home.
Like the majority of Yemeni women, Karman once wore the niqab, the conservative Muslim garb that covers the face with a veil and hides the body in heavy robes, leaving only the eyes visible. But last year, she changed to a more moderate headscarf, covering just her hair – she told AP she wanted to be "face to face with my activist colleagues."
She is also a member of Yemen's opposition Islamic fundamentalist Islah Party, but her participation in the protests brought sharp criticism from conservatives in the party, some of whom denounced her in mosque sermons. Saleh's regime itself tried to discredit her by spreading a photo of her sitting in a protest tent with a male colleague – with others around them cut out from the picture – seeking to taint her as sinful for being alone with a man.
Women have participated heavily in the protests. The organizers have intentionally sought to cut across tribal lines. And they have resolutely remained peaceful, even as Yemen seems to explode around them. Saleh's security forces have repeatedly opened fire on protesters. Sanaa and other cities have turned into war zones as regime forces battle with dissident military units and tribal fighters opposed to Saleh.
Regime snipers shot at protesters in Change Square on Friday, killing one and wounding four others, according to a security official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. Government forces also bombarded Sanaa's Hassaba district, a center for anti-government tribesmen, and fired on the home of the tribesmen's leader, Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, one of Saleh's top rivals.
President Saleh drew the ire of female protesters in April when he scolded them for participating in the rallies and told them that mingling with men was forbidden under Sharia, or Islamic law.
Nevertheless, his party, the General People's Congress, welcomed Karman's Nobel win – and even sought to claim some credit for it by saying that under Saleh's rule, women in Yemen have been able to "confront backwardness and colonialism."
Saleh's crackdown on protesters has killed at least 225 people, according to Human Rights Watch. Still, the demonstrators have largely shunned the use of violence in response.
"Neither Ali nor his gangs will drag Yemen toward war and infighting," Karman told the AP. "We chose peace, we could have resorted to violence in this revolution and we could have settled it in days and not months by resorting to our weapons. ... But we chose peace and only peace."
"Don't worry about Yemen. Yemen started in peace and it will end its revolution in peace, and it will start its new civil state with peace," she said.
Her husband, Mohammed al-Nahmi, sitting with her in the tent as he received congratulations, told AP, "This is a prize she deserves. Before she is my wife, she is a colleague, and a companion in the struggle."
Karman, a mother of three, originally hails from the southern city of Taiz, a city known for its prominent middle class and university intellectuals that has long been a hotbed of opposition to Saleh. Her father, Abdul-Salam Karman, was once the legal affairs minister under Saleh, but resigned to protest government corruption.
Karman had organized protests and sit-ins as early as 2007, referring to her regular gatherings outside government offices in Sanaa as the "Freedom square." She campaigned for greater rights for women and an end to harassment of journalists, heading Women Journalists without Chains, an organization advocating for press freedoms.
In December 2010, the uprising erupted in Tunisia after a local fruit vendor in the North African nation, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire.
In Yemen, Karman led protests in support of the Tunisians, sending out mobile phone texts to urge people to join. The small protests, comprising no more than 200 people, were broken up with water cannons and batons.
On Jan. 23, authorities arrested Karman.
The move was meant as a warning to her, but it backfired, sending a wave of women protesters into the streets of Sanaa and other cities, a rare sight in Yemen. Karman was released early the next day and by the afternoon she was leading another protest.
She and other organizers were further inspired by Egypt, where protesters seized control of Cairo's central Tahrir Square demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Days after Mubarak stepped down in February, Yemeni protesters, with Karman and other male protest organizers at the helm, seized a major intersection in the heart of Sanaa, which then came to be known as Change Square. Karman has been part of a council grouping the disparate protest groups and an organization representing the youth of revolution.
Lebanon welcomes Yummi Bouquet
Yummi Bouquet s.a.r.l. has launched its first store Yummi Bouquet, a first of its kind edible decoration and gifting concept in Lebanon that offers high-end and exclusive fruit arrangements made out of the freshest daily prime fruits and gourmet Belgian chocolate.
A special collection for Eid Al Fitr has been designed to sweeten up Eid celebrations and gatherings, as well as impress and delight everyone, especially premium fruits and gourmet chocolate lovers.
Yummi Bouquet offers a wide selection of customized table centers, plates, and bouquets that all are made out of fresh fruits. Available in any size or volume, Yummi Bouquets can be specially prepared to match any special moment and occasion, such as Weddings, Events, Personal and Corporate Gatherings, or Special and Religious occasions.
Maya Elhachem, Managing Director of Yummi Bouquet said, "Yummi Bouquet promises to make all special occasions even more special, more delicious and more memorable than ever. With our wide range of freshly cut premium fruit bouquets and gourmet Belgian chocolate, we have introduced a new edible decoration offering that will add an outstanding and delicious flavor to all events and occasions, and we are committed to maintain high standards of hygiene, quality and innovation in design."
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| Maya el-Hachem, Managing Director of Yummi Bouquet shop creates an arrangement made out of fresh fruits in Beirut, Lebanon. |
A special collection for Eid Al Fitr has been designed to sweeten up Eid celebrations and gatherings, as well as impress and delight everyone, especially premium fruits and gourmet chocolate lovers.
Yummi Bouquet offers a wide selection of customized table centers, plates, and bouquets that all are made out of fresh fruits. Available in any size or volume, Yummi Bouquets can be specially prepared to match any special moment and occasion, such as Weddings, Events, Personal and Corporate Gatherings, or Special and Religious occasions.
Maya Elhachem, Managing Director of Yummi Bouquet said, "Yummi Bouquet promises to make all special occasions even more special, more delicious and more memorable than ever. With our wide range of freshly cut premium fruit bouquets and gourmet Belgian chocolate, we have introduced a new edible decoration offering that will add an outstanding and delicious flavor to all events and occasions, and we are committed to maintain high standards of hygiene, quality and innovation in design."
Terror Stalking Bahrain - Jalila Al Salman
Some were wearing balaclavas and carrying machine guns. Others had batons.
There were at least 15 of them, ransacking the house, shouting at three terrified children whom they found in the bedrooms upstairs.
They barged into another bedroom where a woman was sleeping. “Don’t be afraid, we are the police!” – one of the men shouted as he held her by the neck, pressing a gun to her head.
You would be forgiven for thinking this was a raid on the house of an international terrorist when, in fact, they were after a female teacher.
“I was just in my nightdress. I had nothing to cover myself. I was on my bed and I thought I was dreaming. I could not believe what was going on.
“There were so many men inside that you could not catch a glimpse of the carpet on the floor. I heard a helicopter above my house.”
Al-Salman is still struggling to comprehend what has happened to her in the last six months – until then she was just the vice-president of the Teachers’ Association and a mother of three children under 12.
“They took me outside where there were over 15 cars parked. They wouldn’t let me say goodbye to my children. I was put on a minibus.
“As we were driving away, they told me to look outside the window as I would never see the outside world again. They hit me and called me horrible names. Names I can’t bring myself to repeat.”
Al-Salman is one of the symbols of repression of the Bahraini regime. Her crime – taking part in the recent non-violent protests at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama.
The protesters had had enough of a country run like a private company. Bahrain has had the same prime minister for 42 years and a large majority of the government and the judiciary belong to the ruling Sunni Al Khalifa family.
They are calling for an end to discrimination against Shias and a fairly elected government with genuine power.
Although parliamentary elections were held on September 24, only 13 nominally independent candidates participated. The opposition boycotted it.
On the night of her arrest the army men and the police were doing the rounds, collecting her colleagues from their beds, dragging them apart from their screaming families.
Al-Salman says that the teachers only went to the Roundabout on the sixth day, Sunday 20 March, after some of the protestors had already been injured and killed. As Bahraini citizens, they refused to accept that kind of treatment.
She is keen to stress that it was only after the King himself had appeared on TV saying that everyone had the right to express themselves peacefully that they decided to go.
“We told our union members to stand outside schools as a sign of support to our brothers. That was our message. The Ministry of Education refused to talk to us and we only communicated through statements.”
Initially she was taken to the CID (Criminal Investigation Directorate) and kept there for 10 days. She was questioned twice during that time and made to sign statements which not only did she not write, she was not even allowed to read.
“I was in solitary confinement, it was very, very dirty. The walls were covered in dried blood. There was a hook hanging off the ceiling. There were no windows. I was forced to stand for almost all of the time.
“Every five minutes someone would come inside my cell. I was not allowed to lie down or even to go to the toilet or to have water. Because of that I had to be treated for kidney problems.
“The food they gave me was full of hairs, sand and dirt. I am on medication for high blood pressure and they only allowed me to take it on the fifth day.
“By that time I was in a really bad state and I was fainting during questioning. Still, I was never allowed to sit down.”
She was also beaten, threatened with rape and denied access to a lawyer.
“During a questioning, one of the men who was wearing a mask, held a gun against my head and tried to take off his trousers.
“He threatened to rape me and said that they were given a permission to do whatever was necessary to get the statement they wanted.”
“I told them I didn’t do anything and could not confess to anything. But they said I would ‘see something I hadn’t seen before’ they threatened to rape me.
“I just couldn’t let anyone touch me, so I had to say what they wanted. They were stopping and starting the recording all the time, telling me exactly what to say next. I only saw my lawyer for five minutes during my first hearing.”
In an attempt to appear cooperative with international demands for much greater respect for human rights, King Hamad established the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) earlier this year. Its role is to investigate the events in Bahrain and present its findings in October.
Following a visit by the Commission to the women’s prison, Al-Salman and a fellow prisoner were released on bail.
Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, is very sceptical about the trustworthiness of the Commission. He sees it mostly as an attempt of the ruling elite to wash their hands of their dirty work.
“Maybe the government is trying to find the way out by appointing this commission. King is doing it to isolate himself from responsibility. Because many Bahrainis see him as responsible for crimes against humanity here.
“The commission might come with recommendation to release the prisoners because, as we know, they were all tried unfairly and illegally.
“This commission is not going to solve the political crisis, we need a proper solution, a dialogue which will bring people together from all sides. At the moment there is a lack of trust.”
Bahrainis have also lost their belief in the supp
ort of Western democracies for their revolution.
With the US announcing a plan to sell $53 million worth of arms to Bahrain and the UK inviting their representatives to the London arms fair, it is not surprising that these governments are perceived as having double-standards when it comes to foreign policy.
“When people started the revolution on February 14, myself included,” says Rajab, “they thought that the UK government, as a long lasting ally of Bahrain, would take the same position they had with Libya or Iran when it comes to human rights.
“But we are shocked to see them ignore our revolution. Even worse, supporting our government by selling them arms.
“They obviously have their strategic interests which rest with the oppressive ruling families in the region, rather than with any democratic movement.”
While government-sponsored violence is still raging, ordinary people like Al-Salman are paying a huge price for their bravery.
On September 25 she was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court. At the moment she is still at home. Having spent five months behind bars earlier this year, she is terrified that her horrific ordeal will soon start again.
I ask her whether she would leave Bahrain with her family, if she could. She is adamant that her place is in her country.
All she wants, she says is for “everyone to be equal. In my heart I believe that we are all one family.”
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