Tag: society

Jordan: World’s Highest Smoking Rate, Big Tobacco Interference

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A 2019 survey by the Jordanian government and the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that over eight out of 10 men in Jordan regularly use nicotine products, the highest smoking rate in the world. This translates to male smokers consuming an average of 23 cigarettes per day. 

Nicotine products include e-cigarettes and vaping devices but the market for these products remains relatively small in Jordan. Alternative smoking devices are used by only 14% of men, and 66% of all men in Jordan continue to smoke cigarettes. The survey also found that 17% of Jordanian women smoke. 

The survey that revealed Jordan has the highest rates of smoking in the world found that unlike many other countries, Jordan’s smoking rates continue to grow. The 2019 survey found approximately 45% of young people had used some form of tobacco. 

This continued growth of smoking has been attributed to an uptake among young women and the popularity of shisha. As earlier reported by Arabia Policy, studies have suggested smoking shisha for one hour can be as harmful as smoking 100 cigarettes. Experts do not expect to know the health impact of young people smoking until approximately 2030 when the population will reach 40 years old, the age when smoking related diseases begin to emerge. 

Already known is the current cost of smoking to the economy, estimated to be approximately $2.27 billion per year due to adverse consequences. This outstrips the $1.27 billion that the Jordanian government economy receives in taxes and wages paid by tobacco companies. 

The influence of big tobacco 

Anti-smoking campaigners are concerned that tobacco companies wield unchecked influence over policy makers in Jordan and there are multiple reports of tobacco company representatives or lobbyists attending meetings where the details of legislation to curb smoking were debated. 

Princess Dina Mired, the president of the Union for International Cancer Control in Jordan, reported industry representatives present at a meeting on tobacco standards argued against measures to reverse the alarming trend. Proposed measures concerned the size and composition of health warnings and the limitation of the graphics and colors permitted on the packages. 

Tobacco companies, including British American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris International (PMI), and Japan Tobacco International (JTI), argue that attendance at meetings is standard practice and allows them to provide an industry perspective on the proposed laws. 

In addition to their presence at debates on legislation, tobacco companies enjoy close relationships with parliamentarians and are celebrated for their work in the community. PMI recently paid to refurbish a school in an underprivileged area close to its factory’s location. The company also provided school supplies to children at 25 schools. 

Philip Morris hit back at criticisms of its work in Jordan, saying, “It is saddening that even actions to improve the living conditions of people around our factory might be seen as a reason to attack us.” JTI claims that all of their corporate social responsibility work complies with local and international laws. 

Despite concern over the rising rates of smoking in Jordan, the government sees the industry as a job creator, a particularly powerful image in a country with an unemployment rate of over 19%. This indicates it is unlikely the Jordanian government will adopt further regulation aimed at limiting the tobacco industry anytime soon.

MENA Green Building Congress Collaborates on Sustainable Urban Planning

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Home to over 381 million people, the MENA region’s urban population is expected to double between 2010 to 2050 as rural populations migrate to cities in search of education and employment opportunities. As governments prepare to accommodate increased urban populations, attention is growing on how to build “greener” cities. 

From June 22 to 26, leaders from regional governments, international organizations, and business and NGOs, including Google, Multiplex, Siemens, UN Habitat, and WHO, met online for the second MENA Green Building Congress. The stakeholders came together to discuss how the region can use green buildings to create healthier communities and contribute to climate change mitigation. 

Addressing the conference, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, explained how “the building and construction sector is the largest contributor to energy-related greenhouse gas emissions worldwide at 39%, while accounting for 36 percent of global energy use.”

The congress, organized by the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), was an opportunity to share best practice techniques from around the world and promote the use of new building technologies in the MENA region. The WorldGBC is a global network of 70 in-country GBCs dedicated to eliminating the building and construction sector’s emissions by 2050. The council advocates for the adoption of green buildings and construction practices to make the built environment healthier and more sustainable.

As the world continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic, Ibrahim Al-Zu’bi, chief sustainability officer at Majid Al Futtaim Holding, believes green construction has an important role in ensuring the health of communities: “We need to focus on harmonizing the health and well-being of our communities, and achieving energy efficiency and resilience.”

Urban density and COVID-19

COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted poorer urban communities living in highly populated areas. Across the world these communities have recorded higher rates of infection and death. People in poor urban areas often live in cramped spaces lacking proper ventilation or in buildings with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. 

In addition, pre-existing health conditions, some of which are derived from the poor sanitary environment, have compounded the impact of COVID-19. 

While the pandemic has encouraged some, including New York Mayor Andrew Cuomo, to argue for reducing population density, policy experts disagree. They suggest that the pandemic should not indicate the end of high-density urban living but rather serve as an opportunity to rethink how space is used. 

Suggestions have included providing more urban green spaces, ensuring the use of sustainable high quality materials in all buildings, and working to stop overcrowding in apartments. 

Ken Greenberg of Toronto’s urban design firm Greenberg Consultants argues that “buildings and neighbourhoods need designs that are easily adaptable during times of crisis such as the pandemic, or climate-based disasters, for alternative uses.” Achieving this will require greater collaboration between public health officials and planners. 

Future-proofing against another pandemic and reducing the climate impact of urbanization includes rethinking city planning to address the dangers of high-density, low quality buildings. Facilitating conversations between experts, as the MENA Green Building Congress did last week, is an important first step in encouraging change. 

Beirut NGOs Launch Emergency Fund for Lebanon’s Struggling Art Scene

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In May two Beirut-based organizations, the Arab Fund For Arts and Culture (Afac) and Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafy), launched a $1 million dollar fund to support cultural institutions struggling to survive in Lebanon. 

The country is currently experiencing the worst financial crisis in its history with its currency losing 70% of its value against the Dollar since October 2019. Anti-corruption protests, which began late last year, led to the toppling of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his government in December. The coronavirus crisis has worsened the country’s economic woes with almost half of the country’s population thought to be living below the poverty line. 

The economic crisis limits the income citizens have to spend on leisure activities, including cultural endeavors. Earlier this year, Beirut’s Metropolis Empire Sofil cinema was closed down due to a lack of funds. The art-house cinema was the home of screenings, festivals, and events in the capital for more than a decade.  

With economic stress continuing and the country’s banks limiting access to US dollars, many artists and organizations are unable to access much needed funds. In addition, artistic institutions, many of which rely on revenues from ticket sales, have been forced to close due to COVID-19. 

Much needed support 

Grants offered by Afac and Culture Resource will vary in value between $20,000 – $80,000 and can be spent on whatever the winning organizations deem necessary. Afac Executive Director Rima Mismar says, “We do not expect these organisations, at this point in time, to actually have a full strategy or vision on how they will adapt to the situation.” 

This flexibility will allow organizations to cover essential costs, such as staff salaries and rent, whilst planning how to engage with communities in the post-COVID-19 world. In addition to the support given to organizations, both Afac and Cultural Resource are operating region-wide funds to support individual artists. 

Cultural Resource aims to support 40 individual artists unable to earn a living at the moment through their Be With Art grant. In June, Afac launched its own regional scheme to sponsor up to 150 artists with $3,000 each. 

Hope remains for the art scene

Despite the struggles artists and cultural institutions are facing, Culture Resource Managing Director Helena Nassif remains hopeful for the future of the arts in Lebanon. She suggests the crisis in Lebanon has provided opportunity for reflection on “the value system we carry and the role of the arts in contributing to creating and imagining a better or different kind of society.”

Mismar seconds this, adding, “There are definitely challenges and negative impacts. At the same time, it does somehow open a moment to think of things differently. This is where aligning immediate needs with longer-term strategies needs to be balanced well.”

In spite of current difficulties, creative projects are continuing in Lebanon. Earlier this year, Beirut-based artist Abed Al-Kadiri launched “Cities Under Quarantine: The Mailbox Project.” The project saw 50 hand-stitched books sent to 50 Middle Eastern artists around the world, with participants asked to use the books to create art and document the crisis. 

Al-Kadiri hopes to publish a collection of the artists’ work in the future. 

Turkey’s Long Awaited Ataturk Cultural Center to Open in 2020

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Turkey’s Minister for Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, announced on Thursday that the long awaited Ataturk Cultural Center in Istanbul will open by the end of 2020. The center will include a theater with seating for up to 800 people, cinemas, exhibition spaces, and a world-class opera hall that will seat over 2,000. 

The center, which sits at the site of the previous Ataturk Cultural Center, closed since 2008, is considered an important step in advancing the art and culture scenes in Turkey. The project will also revitalize the streets around the center, which the government plans will be home to cafes, restaurants, and art galleries. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan first announced the venture in November 2017. 

A controversial project 

The new culture center is not without controversy, with Germany’s DW reporting in 2018 that the project exposed “deep political divides” in Turkey. 

Prior to the announcement of the new center in 2017, members of Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) argued that the cultural center should be demolished and in 2013, during the Gezi Park protests, the abandoned center became a “symbol of resistance to AKP rule.” Protestors occupied the center’s roof and hung banners critical of the government from its facade.

The previous Ataturk Cultural Center opened in 1969 and was, at the time, the fourth largest cultural center in the world. Hosting musicians and theatre troupes from around the world, the center expressed “the lofty western cultural aspirations of the ‘Kemalist’ elites who forwarded the ideology of the secular founders of the Republic of Turkey.” 

Activists and opposition parties accuse President Erdogan and the AKP of undermining the secularism embedded in the Turkish constitution by the Republic of Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The recent announcement by Erdogan of plans to reconvert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque has furthered fears that secularism no longer has a place in modern Turkey. 

The Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum in 1935 by Ataturk and is a major tourist attraction in Istanbul, attracting approximately three million visitors per year. 

This suspicion of creeping Islamism, mixed with Erdogan’s nationalism and nostalgia for the Ottoman era, saw concerns raised over the design of the new center in 2017 which features a red-glass sphere over the entrance. Critics interpreted the sphere as being representative of the cupola of a mosque.  

A restrictive political and cultural context

The political and cultural landscape has changed considerably since the grand opening of the first Ataturk Cultural Center in 1969 with the AKP accused of restricting artistic freedom and freedom of expression since first coming to power in 2003. 

These restrictions are reported to have continued in recent months with the president using the coronavirus crisis to crack down on the few remaining opposition media outlets in the country. 

Within the context of suppressing independent voices, many remain skeptical of the center’s ability to support culture and art in the country. Earlier this month, a Turkish court sentenced Kurdish singer Azad Bedran to three years and nine months in prison. The court deemed the singer’s songs and concerts “propaganda for a terrorist organisation.” 

Bedran’s sentencing follows the arrest of fellow Kurdish singer and dual German citizen Hozan Cane last year for similar charges. Cane’s case is yet to be heard by a court and she remains remanded in custody. 

IRC: Women in Conflict Zones Under-tested for COVID-19

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Data collected by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reveals mostly men are testing positive for COVID-19 in conflict-affected countries like Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen. The figures released on Wednesday are fuelling concerns that COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, is spreading silently among women struggling to access already limited testing and treatment facilities in parts of the Middle East and Africa.

The IRC reports that in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Chad, and Central African Republic the disparities are particularly worrying, with over 70% of COVID-19 cases having been detected in men, and 30% or less in women. Those figures are in stark contrast to the ratio in Europe, for example, where it is roughly a 50/50 split between men and women. 

“This data suggests women are being under tested for COVID-19 in many places where the IRC works,” said IRC Senior Technical Advisor of Emergency Health Stacey Mearns. “Both men and women in conflict-affected countries experience great difficulty in accessing healthcare, but data shows women have a slimmer chance of seeing a doctor than men in countries such as Pakistan.”

Mearns says that in countries where the disparity is at play, women may not have the same freedom of movement as men but often perform caring roles and are front-line workers, placing them at equal or higher risk of contracting the highly contagious virus.

“The numbers do not add up. What we are seeing is a situation in which women are potentially being left out of testing and their health deprioritized,” Mearns argued in a June 24 press release. 

“There is a need for a major increase in testing for everyone in the countries where we work, but we must pay particular attention to ensure women are getting equal access to testing and health care.”

The United Nations has also warned that as with conflict situations, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to deepen pre-existing inequalities between men and women and could undo limited gender equality gains made in recent years. 

“Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex,” the UN said on April 9 when it released a policy brief detailing the impacts of COVID-19 on women.

In addition to unequal access to health care, women around the world have been subject to an alarming increase in domestic and family violence exacerbated by virus lockdowns, and data shows women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 job cuts.  

The IRC says it needs an additional $30 million to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and support for its efforts to improve female education and access to COVID-19 testing and treatment. 

Read also: Fighting Continues in South Yemen Despite Ceasefire

Turkey Hosts First International Migration Film Festival

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Hosted by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the inaugural International Migration Film Festival was an opportunity to shine a light on the plight of refugees and the role of film in telling migrant stories. 

Turkey has an acute interest in the world’s response to the refugee crisis, being home to the largest number of refugees in the world. Estimated at approximately four million, Turkey’s refugee population includes 3.6 million people from neighboring Syria. 

The week-long festival was originally scheduled to take place in April in the city of Gaziantep, home to approximately 500,000 refugees. However, organizers moved it online due to the coronavirus crisis. From June 14-21, 45 films from 30 countries were available to stream online. 

The festival also comprised online masterclasses, which were open primarily to refugees and migrants, on the art of filmmaking and storytelling. Participants had the opportunity to learn from Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, Mexican producer and writer Michel Franco, and three time Oscar-winning British costume designer Sandy Powell. 

The festival’s Instagram featured talks by American actor and director Danny Glover, Iranian-American actor Shabab Hosseini, and American actor and director Matt Dillon. Regarding the festival’s vast offerings, director of programming Hulya Sungu said, “We hope to reach refugees around the world.”

Among the films featured at the festival were “For Sama,” the award-winning story of Waad al-Kateab’s life during the uprising in Aleppo and her family’s debates over whether to leave the city, and “Omar and Us,” the story of a retired Turkish Coast Guard captain who overcomes his prejudices to help his Syrian neighbors. 

Inaugural International Migration Film Festival winners 

“For Sama” won the award for Best Film with filmmaker al-Kateab, herself once a refugee in Turkey, advising audiences to watch the film to understand why refugees flee their homeland and the difficulties they face. 

Among the other films recognized at the festival were “Just Like My Son,” a story by Italian director Costanza Quatriglio that focuses on two brothers who escaped from Afghanistan for Europe, which won the Most Inspiring Script award, and “Children of the Shore” by Amelia Nanni, which won the UNICEF International Short Film award.

Nanni said the award encourages her to shoot her next film and she dedicated a share of her prize money to assisting creatives without access to support. She said, “I will share half of the price with other people, friends who do their arts in this crisis in a system where art is discredited and with friends in Belgium who don’t have the ‘right’ paper and passport to study there.” 

The full lineup and winners can be found on the festival website.  

French-Algerian Author Faiza Guene’s Identity, Hope, and Despair

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Born to Algerian parents, Faiza Guene grew up in the suburbs on the outskirts of Paris. She began writing as an adolescent and by the age of 19 had penned a best-selling novel. 

“Kiffe Kiffe Demain” (Just Like Tomorrow) explores the life of 15-year-old Doria, the daughter of Moroccan immigrants, as she, like Guene, comes of age in a suburb on the outskirts of Paris. Narrated by Doria, the story describes her life and her mother’s emotional recovery after her husband abandoned the family for a younger woman. 

The book, which has sold over 400,000 copies in France, is available in 26 languages and is recognized as one of the first books to employ the Arabic-infused verlan that is popular among youths in the suburbs of France. Increasingly present in popular culture, some previously looked down upon verlan as a corruption of the French language and as a signifier of a lower class immigrant background. 

At the time of “Kiffe Kiffe Demain’s” release, French media were fascinated by the “girl from the suburbs.” Guene notes, “I was the first of my kind and was treated like a court jester, a freak” by the very white, inner-Parisian media and literary crowd. 

Stereotyping continues 

Guene says, “Today, I’m an Algerian who was born and lives in France…I don’t define myself at all the way I did when I was 20.” This classification is driven in-part by the inescapable stereotyping she continues to face. 

Despite having published five novels since “Kiffe, Kiffe Demain,” her North African origins remain central to much of the literary world’s perceptions of her. Guene explains, “Every single time I’m brought back onto this terrain. People perceive me through tiny little prisms and I’m expected to talk about the banlieues.”

The constant positioning of her as an outsider has left Guene angry. It is an anger directed at the lie of being told she was a French citizen, but unlike her white French compatriots, forever having to justify and prove it only to remain “othered.” 

As she attempts to work through this anger in her writings, Guene hopes that her daughter’s generation will be able to overcome the prejudice the first generation of French-born children of immigrant parents have faced. 

Growing diversity in French literature 

French publishers and the broader literary community are increasingly embracing diverse voices and stories. In 2018, the verlan-heavy “Grand Frere” (Older Brother) by French-Turkish author Mahir Guven won the Goncourt First Novel Prize. As with Guene’s “Kiffe Kiffe Demain,” the novel centers on the lives of the children of immigrants in France. 

One year prior, French-Moroccan author Leila Slimani won the 2016 Goncourt Prize for her novel “Chanson Douce” (published in English as “The Perfect Nanny: A Novel”). 

Now working for French publishing house Lattes, Guven is responsible for expanding the diversity of voices published, a sign the French literary establishment has belatedly realized that literature must reflect society. 

Guven says that “storytelling comes from your cultural milieu,” and in France that includes the 11% of the population with immigrant backgrounds. 

Google Honors Egyptian Feminist Pioneer Huda Sharawi

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Born in Minya in 1879 to an upper class family, Huda Sharawi was a lifelong advocate for women’s rights. From an early age she opposed the restrictions imposed on women and began to agitate for change. 

Huda began her formal activism with a series of lectures, organized for women, on a variety of topics. These lectures brought many women outside of the home for the first time. In 1908, with the support of women from Egypt’s high society, Huda opened a dispensary and organized hygiene classes for women living in poverty. In 1919, Huda and her supporters expanded their operations to include reading and writing classes for illiterate poor women. 

In 1923, Huda created the Egyptian Feminist Union, which she served as president of until her death in 1947. The union was dedicated to advancing women’s rights, including aims of allowing them access to university and the right to work and hold public office. The union’s work led to the introduction of 16 years as the legal minimum age of marriage for girls and the codification of the rights of girls to a secondary education. 

Removing the face veil 

In 1923, following a trip to Italy to attend a meeting of the International Women Suffrage Alliance, Huda publicly removed her veil at the Cairo train station and encouraged other women to do the same. A number of her colleagues followed suit. 

Her friend and colleague Cesa Nabaraoui later explained the women’s motivations for doing so: “We can’t say that we are free in Rome and then wear the veil again upon our return [to Egypt].” 

At the time, the face veil was worn exclusively by upper class women, with poorer women and women in rural areas covering only their hair. The veil was therefore as much a sign of social stratification as it was of religious devotion. Rejecting the face veil was an important step in fostering solidarity between women of different social classes. 

Many have described the public removal of her face veil as one of Huda’s most memorable acts of protest. 

Fight for Egypt’s independence 

Alongside her work to advance women’s rights, Huda was also actively involved in the movement to end the British protectorate in Egypt. 

In 1919, she helped organize the largest women’s demonstration against colonialism in Cairo and the following year formed and led the women’s arm of the movement for independence. 

In 1922, the British acquiesced to Egyptian demands for independence, but women were excluded from participating in negotiating the terms. 

In 1924, Huda expressed her disappointment to then Prime Minister Saad Zaghloul, alongside whom she had fought for independence, writing, “It is completely unjust that the Egyptian Wafd, which fights for the rights of Egypt and its liberation, denied half of the population the gains made from this liberation.”

Legacy 

Huda Sharawi’s activism changed the lives of millions of Egyptian women across social classes. Google’s recognition of her work on the 141st anniversary of her birth is fitting tribute to her ongoing legacy.  

Saudi Arabia to Expand Library Network

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Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture announced on Friday a plan to radically overhaul the country’s public library system. Under the plan, which was launched by Minister of Culture Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan, the kingdom has committed to opening 153 libraries by 2030.

The new libraries are designed to accommodate a variety of activities and will feature a book-borrowing section, theatre stages for live performances, cinema screens, and multipurpose halls. With the ability to host extensive cultural events, the libraries will bring together members of the public and foster knowledge-sharing. 

Developers will complete the first 13 libraries by 2022 with the remaining 140 to be completed by 2030. Saudi Arabia announced the plan following a review by the Ministry of Culture of the kingdom’s library system. 

The Libraries Authority will oversee the project, which is part of Saudi Arabia’s broader plan to support and advance its cultural sector. In February 2020, the Saudi government established 11 new authorities tasked with overseeing various cultural sectors including fashion, film, museums, theatre, and music. 

Announcing the new authorities, the Saudi Ministry of Culture said that “the aim is to promote culture as a lifestyle, contributing to economic growth and enhancing the Kingdom’s position internationally.” Promoting Saudi Arabia as a cultural hub is part of the government’s Saudi Vision 2030 reform plan which seeks to diversify the country’s economy and lessen its reliance on oil revenues. 

The extension of the country’s library network via the cultural hubs announced on Friday will provide a much needed space for emerging artists to nurture their talents. 

A ‘Radical’ Platform Features Work from MENA’s Contemporary Creatives

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In 2017, Nour Hassan wanted to provide young creatives in the Arab world with a platform and exposure that she felt was not forthcoming from established magazines. Three years later, Radical Contemporary has grown from an online magazine project to a creative platform and business providing brand building and consultancy services. 

Explaining the platform’s success, founder Hassan says she found a “gap in a micro niche market and pounced at the opportunity to create and collaborate.” Based between Cairo and Jeddah, the platform’s online content, which includes articles and creative showcases, is available for free. The accessibility contributes to the platform’s ability to drive the conversation and provide the exposure for young creatives that was central to the project’s founding. 

The platform is also a space for important cultural conversations. In one project, Hassan and the Radical Contemporary team tackled the pressure young girls from conservative families face to marry early. Titled “Runaway Love,” the piece combines text and photography to tell the story of a young woman who found the courage to leave a loveless relationship because she ultimately loved herself more. 

This convergence between culture and society or politics is a constant throughout the work on the platform. Another project tackles the dissatisfaction that the youth feel with the values of older generations through illustration, whilst a written piece provides tips for young women to succeed in a corporate workplace.  

In May this year, the Radical Contemporary team launched a podcast aimed at creating dialogues with and about emerging creatives from the region. The podcast, co-hosted by Hassan and Yasmine Kenawi, is an avenue for growing the platform’s audience and community. Explaining the podcast, Hassan says, “I am making sure we have conversations, and this is important because there isn’t really any dialogue on creatives in the region and their work.”

Podcasting is an increasingly popular means for creatives to share their work in the MENA region. Earlier this year, the Designers Marocain (Moroccan Designers) podcast launched to showcase the work of creatives from Morocco. With 14 episodes to date, the podcast, which features interviews in French and Darija (Moroccan Arabic), has explored relevant topics with artists, architects, jewelry designers, photographers, and graphic designers. 

A platform for good 

In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, creatives from the platform have come together to raise money for less fortunate members of Egyptian society. The campaign, launched April 15, aims to raise LE 25,000 to distribute food and hygiene packets to approximately 30 families in need.

In supporting the project, Hassan explains that Radical Contemporary is “trying to target the creative community and say let’s be creative in a different way— let’s create hope.” 

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