"Three Lebanese Women Featured In BBC's 100 Women List"
Catchy headline don’t you agree? After all, Lebanese women have had their fair share of media spotlight as of late especially with Amal Alamuddine’s over-the-top wedding to Hollywood celebrity George Clooney.
However with many media outlets highlighting his career, which I must say pales in comparison to hers in terms of professional credibility, she was still placed fourth on the
London Evening Standard’s
list of most powerful people, also the first woman on the list.
Would she still have been chosen had it not been for her marriage to the famous actor, is the question we should all be asking. More notably, would we have even known of her existence had she not made it to the media spotlight whilst still courting Clooney?
Sad queries to an even sadder reality; one that highlights our superficiality in terms of news production and consumption.
But back to the three outstanding ladies. First a recap.
In 2013, BBC started the "
100 women" season to focus on the power of women around the globe, highlighting women who have changed the world around them and inspired others to follow in their footsteps.
The BBC's annual event also includes series of interviews, debates and conversations with these women concerning current hot topics, about education, bringing up girls, women in science, entrepreneurship and women in war, as well as underage marriages, everyday sexism and health issues.
Three Lebanese women were featured in this year's list, comprised of women working in diverse fields that include human rights, science, arts, medicine, law, journalism and others.
These women are Beirut-based engineer and entrepreneur, founder of "Instabeat" Hind Hobeika, British-Lebanese composer for the London Symphony Orchestra Bushra El-Turk and Lebanese-Egyptian artist, designer and art historian, Bahia Shehab.
26-year-old entrepreneur Hobeika, who studied mechanical engineering at the American University of Beirut, introduced the idea for "Instabeat" while training with the university swimming team. A heart rate monitoring device attached to a pair of goggles, "Instabeat" allows swimmers to accurately keep track of their pulse rate.
As for Bahia Shehab, the 37-year-old was among the first to kick start a graffiti campaign as revolution swept through Egypt in 2011, by spray painting messages on the streets denouncing dictatorships, military rule, violence, sexism, inequality and extremism.
31-year-old composer el-Turk was also included in last year’s selection of women. El-Turk co-founded the Chelsea Music Academy, a center for music education, intercultural events and research. She is also the artistic director and leader of Ensemble Zar, a cross-genre project made up of musicians trained in Western and oriental music.
In an
interview with LBCI, el-Turk urges women “to do more than what is expected of them and not let themselves be pigeonholed or stereotyped.”
While that seems like great advice, I am compelled to bring us all back to reality.
In a recent report published by the
World Economic Forum, Lebanon was positioned as the 8th worst country in terms of gender equality.
Ranked 135 out of 142 surveyed countries, with only the Ivory Coast, Iran, Mali, Syria, Chad, Pakistan and Yemen scoring lower on the 2014 Gender Gap Index,
Lebanon is down 19 positions since 2010.
According to the World Economic Forum's ninth Global Gender Gap Report, the world will not eliminate the gender gap until 2095, assuming it would continue on its current pace. Now what that means to Lebanon, I’m not sure, given that we are only moving backwards.
Earlier this month, a female public sector employee was assaulted by a member of parliament in the country’s Justice Palace. Manal Daou, who first stated that she had been
punched in the neck by
MP Nicolas Fattouch, later
backtracked saying that he had “only” attempted to hit her, contrary to the testimony of eyewitnesses.
Was she bullied? One would surely assume so. Is he guilty? Of course, since one would think a lawmaker would be aware that there are two forms of violence; physical and verbal, the latter being the assault he later admitted to.
In a press conference held a few days after the incident, Fattouch
publicly confessed to having verbally assaulted Daou, saying that when she asked him to stand in line, he responded by saying that she was “obligated to file his complaint immediately”.
This is not the worst part, he also said that she had apologized (read: was forced to apologize), following the incident for not having recognized him, demonstrating just how patriarchy disguised as democracy is nothing short of an informal exclusionary dictatorship celebrating tribal, misogynistic and chauvinistic ideals.
This is the bare reality of it all. Women like Daou continue to be marginalized and pigeonholed, sometimes out of choice but mostly due to socio-economic, cultural and political norms that continue to prevail even as women advance in a country falsely hailed as the Middle East’s beacon of freedom.
But what freedom do women really celebrate here? The freedom to
dress provocatively, drive and vote? Have we not moved past the early 20th century or are we really just driving fast in the wrong lane?
These names will lead the way to an answer, for until all those involved in the murder of the women listed below, there can be no real hope in ever moving forward. Until then we cast our hopes on the likes of Hobeika, el-Turk and Shehab and all those who continue to defy the system that has failed us all.
Nadine Mazloum is currently a freelance editor and news producer. She received her Honors in Communication Arts (Media Production) from The University of Western Sydney in 2008