Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Hello and welcome to Woman of the Middle East Podcast. This podcast relates the realities of Arab woman and the rich and diverse experiences. It aims to present the multiplicity of women's voices, and it wishes to break cultural stereotypes about women of the Middle East, as well as educate and empower the younger generation of Middle Eastern women who were stripped off their historical reference and weren't necessarily raised to believe in their agency and power to create their own destiny. Um, I'm a malki. I'm a feminist scholar and educator. I'm also the author of Arab Woman and Arab News, All stereotypes and New Media. I created this podcast to be an extension and an update of the book and its main topics.
Speaker 1 00:00:58 Hello and welcome to episode 12 from Woman of the Middle East Podcast. I record this episode in the midst of nature in, uh, Croatia, uh, with unfiltered sounds of, uh, nature, which I hope, uh, this recording with the transmit to you, uh, along with the tranquility, uh, that I'm, uh, living, uh, in as I record this episode. Uh, this episode continues featuring the talks from Empower. Now, the online forum that took place in March, 2021, uh, which presented a collage of form leaders, experts, and business owners who share their experiences and expertise. This intervention is, um, by Rita Hayyim, who will be talking about women at the front lines leading the battle against Covid 19 a Rita Hayyim is an experienced humanitarian worker with a demonstrated history of working in civic and social organization industry, skilled in nonprofit organization management, gender and pharmacy, strong business development professional with the doctor of pharmacy from University of St.
Speaker 1 00:02:19 Joseph and Lebanon. In her intervention, she speaks about the woman humanitarian workers, uh, who led the fight against Covid 19 and, uh, Lebanon and specific, this sheds the light on women's hands on approach during hard times. Now, the conversation between Hanan, the facilitator and retailer, the speaker focuses on how women, how women have been leading, uh, whether in times of crisis or not. But this role that woman, uh, assumes, uh, is usually, um, uncovered. Um, uh, it goes unnoticed sometimes, and it's very important to shed the light on that. It, of course, manifests the quality of the feminine and feminist leadership, and it breaks all of the traditional stereotypes about women and their roles in such times of crisis or times of hardship that, um, their societies go through. Let's widen the scope. Women's roles during the pandemic have ranged from, of course, caregivers to decision makers, women working at the front lines exposed, uh, to contracting the virus.
Speaker 1 00:03:45 Uh, women work in, uh, working in the health and education sector like nurses and teachers who had to take the double weight of, and the double burden of the formal and informal jobs. They lead, uh, woman leaders also in these, uh, two sectors, but also in other sectors like economy, politics, and social and woman affairs knew that this crisis, like all other crises, is not gender neutral and would have women paying the biggest price as we have already seen what they, the increase of, uh, gender-based violence against women, uh, that spiked all around the world. But our region was the place in which the cruelest killings took place, at least from my point of view. Girls leaving school and not having access to online schooling, women losing their jobs, uh, are things that have become so common, um, to see and to hear about. During the pandemic, activists and humanitarian workers and feminist NGOs in the Arab region have also been working with their governments when possible on adding gender perspective to their national coverage response plans.
Speaker 1 00:05:01 The UN's generic response plan have created a framework, uh, for other nations to map their national, uh, response plans against, uh, and has called for pandemic responses that address the intersection of gender conflict and COVID 19 UN Secretary Council resolution 25 32 calls for concrete actions to ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and youth and the development and implementation of an adequate and sustainable response to the pandemic and the CAU committee's guidance note on CAU and COVID 19 aims to ensure that measures taken to address the COVID 19 pandemic do not directly or indirectly discriminate against women and girls. It advises, uh, states to continue implementing the woman peace and security agenda, including gender conflict analysis, as part of responses in humanitarian and conflict affected settings.
Speaker 2 00:06:15 Good afternoon. It's to see you again. Um, it, it's always a pleasure to, to you reading you, uh, and um, I was honored to, um, have an interview with you before and I'm really impressed with all the work that, that you do on, uh, gender balance, on, uh, uh, bringing awareness and written awareness on a lot of humanitarian issues. And, uh, so I'm really happy to welcome Dr. Rita Hyam, she's International strategy and partnership lead and humanitarian experts. And today, the topic that would love to hear your insights about is women at the front lines and how women are leading the battle against Covid 19. Actually, we cannot have any conversation today without linking it to this still ongoing process that has impacted us on many, many fronts. So I'd love to hear from you, uh, your views and your insights, and, uh, I'm sure there will be very enlightening. As usual, this stage is yours.
Speaker 3 00:07:14 Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh, thank you Hannah, for your, uh, wonderful words and I'm so happy and honored to be part of this wonderful events. Uh, actually, um, I'm so happy that now we are speaking in terms of gender because for the first time when we are talking about a pandemic, we are looking at it and saying it is not gender neutral. And this is, per se, is an achievement. Um, yes, Covid has impacted women, um, on a different way, and we have seen with, uh, with Rita before how this, uh, Covid has increased the vulnerability of women. Uh, and by doing this, uh, vulnerability will not be only attribute to to women, but it is as well the resilience that we're talking about in terms of Covid as a humanitarian workers, I have mentioned different emergencies and covid, uh, on top of Beirut, blast on top of of the economy crisis in Lebanon has shown the great work of women.
Speaker 3 00:08:07 Uh, women at the front line were there on a daily basis. When everyone was called to stay home. Women were there, they were challenging, they were fighting covid and they were helping people. And because of women, we as organization, our projects were really targeting people who are really in need. We saw how women, because they were part of the community, they were able to speak the exact language of the community as social workers, as health workers. They were there to stop the rumors concerning Covid to, uh, raise awareness about Covid, but as well as to predict the trends for Covid. And because they could read the community cuz they are part of the community cuz they can speak the language of the community. NGOs and different organizations were able to put in place projects that will mitigate and will, uh, decrease the effect of covid.
Speaker 3 00:08:57 It was really interesting to see how women can lead and lead from the field. And this is something really important because leading sometimes and talking about leadership is talking about people and women within a, uh, setting at the office. This is not always the case. Women at the in the field are the one who are leading this fight against Covid. If we look at what happened, the combination of Covid and Daru to blast, if we see the pictures, and this is what happened as well with Caritas, there are women who went to the streets. There are girls who went to the street to clean the streets, to help with the, uh, with the destroyed houses, to remove furniture, to paint the houses. And this is where breaking gender stereotypes were existing and society was saying, Welcome. So I guess let's look at those positive examples and build on them.
Speaker 3 00:09:47 It's so interesting to see how women who already have lost their houses, They were there to volunteer and to support others. It was really nice to see how nurses, how doctors were in the field adapting their project, their healthy project, and exactly knowing what the population needs, implementing mental health project, going, uh, going, um, stopping taboos when it comes to mental health. They were there to distribute food, to listen to people. So I guess looking at Covid, there are many lessons learned and one of them is that women lead, we don't need office to lead. We can lead from where we are. And yes, as an important, they, they form an important part of a humanitarian workers and, and health workforce. Yes, they have led and they are fighting against Covid and they are sending beautiful examples of resilience.
Speaker 2 00:10:37 Absolutely. Thank you for mentioning that. It, it reminds me of an article I just saw, I think a week ago. I probably shared it in my social media that talked about, uh, female leadership and how women don't need business to lead. Like you said, they don't need an office to lead because when we, when we say leadership, leadership is about influence, it's about doing good. So, and leadership is about impacting positively your communities and the people around you that you need to work to serve. So, and women have shown that because they are out there and as, as you rightly shared, the, uh, the example of <inaudible> in its crisis in August that, you know, we were all really impacted with. Definitely they have shown sense of leadership and that's the kinda because in business that is management leadership was when you want to serve others, when you want to create that social impact, you can never disassociate leadership with social impact. It's, it's a great example that you shared with us. And uh, so, um, how can we create more spaces or more opportunities to raise awareness about this importance of feminine leadership in handling crisis or in, uh, enhancing positive impact?
Speaker 3 00:11:49 Well, I guess yes, we're talking about a covid crisis, but with every crisis there's an opportunity, and this is an opportunity. This is a very important time where we can build on what we, what everyone is speaking about, which is women, uh, at the front line of the cupboard. This was as well the topic of the UN for the, for the, uh, women's day. So let's build on this momentum. Every time once there have been any changes in societies, when have been any revolutions, women were at the front line. But unfortunately when it comes to the decision, women were sent back to the private, that sphere, and then it is all man leading. Um, I think that this is an important time to say that business as usual should not continue. This is a time to say that yes, we are uploading uh, uh, health, health workforce, we're uploading humanitarian, but it's not only about uploading, it's as well giving the time and giving them the place to sit at the, uh, at the decision making to sit at the table.
Speaker 3 00:12:45 There are beautiful examples of this. One of the examples, which is not in Lebanon, but Caritas Uganda, for instance, Uh, in Uganda there have been many important, um, uh, steps undertaking to decrease the number of covid, yet the number of covid didn't decrease. And why? Because women, as per the culture, they are responsible of collecting water. So they go to the water col, uh, waters stations to collect water where there's more than 300 women there. However, when they started to work at the district level and include women within the decision making, everything has changed. So I think that now let's first of all collapse those wonderful examples. Let's have those wonderful examples because this is not only, it's a data, it's based on data and science, but as well it's stories. It's pure stories collected this data and let's go let those stories and let's build on it.
Speaker 3 00:13:39 So I think giving them a place, giving them a place to speak and to take decision and to act. But most importantly, and I know that this topic is dear to your heart, is, um, not only, uh, speaking about inclusion, but putting in place inclusion. It's deciding, uh, to how we're gonna select our future leaders. Because this pandemic discovered has shown us that leaders who believe in inclusion have managed the crisis better than, than the others. So let's add inclusion as a selection criteria. Uh, not only, uh, looking at the expertise and the city, but as well as it as is this person do believe in inclusion or not. I think it's really important to, um, to look at the myth there that we were, uh, we were living with. So the fact that women cannot manage or the fact that a mother doesn't have time to manage those myths were debunked during covid because, uh, a humanitarian worker, uh, was, is a mother.
Speaker 3 00:14:39 Uh, she was, she was not only going daily basis to her, her job, but she was as well children additional tasks such as online education, such as being mother, such as uh, taking care of other and they managed to do it. So let's debunk those myths and say that it is time to, uh, think about the systems that we are using in our societies. It is time to think about how to include the humanity within our system because when we include the humanity within our systems, this is a place where we include everyone, men and women, and who are not saying that women only should lead. We're saying that men and women should compliment each others and should lead. And um, I probably would, people will say in a humanitarian sector, there's the essential s nature of women, which is, um, nurturer, uh, taking care of others.
Speaker 3 00:15:25 I will say no cause this is not the case. But the women, especially at Covid, have shown their courage to go and search for the people who are in need. They have shown an incredible courage in going out at, not in terms of leading their home, but in terms of seeking who, who is in need. And this has been reflected on different projects that we are leading because we're not only focusing on people who are, uh, subject to covid. We are focusing on refugees, on migrants, on people who have lost their jobs. We are going beyond covid to look and search for vulnerability because vulnerability now is not an attribute of women, but it's an attribute to anyone who can be vulnerable. And vulnerability is not permanent. It's not every time and it's not
Speaker 2 00:16:10 Everyone. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Amazing insights. And um, yeah, I like the word that women have shown that they can lead and um, and they've shown that they can impact positively as well. And as Mrs. Radda was sharing before, sometimes because you need a mindset, uh, mindset shift, sometimes you need those quotas. So I have mixed feelings about those. But there is a term, uh, that is, uh, widely, um, also applied or widely spoken about, which is positive discrimination, uh, which is sometimes you need that so that you kind of like impose with those codes to give a place at the table, as you mentioned, for women. Because without that it will take us centuries for some decision makers who could, could be men and women, for them to see that a value add of having diversity. Cuz at the end of the day, as you said, it's not about just having women, but it's about having men and women.
Speaker 2 00:17:04 It's about balance and that's what we advocate for and that's what we strive for. And you know, I wear the hat of Lazon as well, which is really about, let's have those and told stories. Like you said, it's not just about really looking at what's happening, but it's about show listens, shedding the light, because those stories tell a lot and there are so many out there, so many success stories, so many impact, uh, impactful stories that are not told. So I think we should start somewhere. And, uh, thank you, uh, Dr. Rita, if you, you have a closing comment. It, it was amazing when <inaudible> insight for all of us to see the, the, the role of women in the crisis and the lessons that were learned from this, this, uh, cri, this covid 19 limit. Cuz I think all of all of these challenges were there. What happened with Covid 19 accelerated and also exposed so many things that were just hidden under the carpet, as we say.
Speaker 3 00:17:59 Exactly. I guess that's what we've learned and throughout all the discussions at national and international level one, uh, things keep repeating. We keep repeating the same rhetoric, which is women are a force of change. So let's believe in this, let's choose to challenge and let's start, uh, acting because it's time now for, for more action rather than,
Speaker 2 00:18:21 I love that. Thank you. Women are force of change. Thank you so much. And I'm sure that our pass will cross again on another stage, other ritual or uh, face to face. Sha, thank you so much. Have a great evening.
Speaker 1 00:18:32 I hope you have enjoyed this episode and the tranquility of my background, although there is a, a bit of a chanting, um, in the background, I'm not sure where it's coming from. Next episode would conclude our social impact selected, um, talks, um, with Dagmar seams, intervention on the glass ceiling, ambition versus gender. All brought to you by woman of the Middle East podcast and executive woman keep on writing to me. And until next time, please stay safe and stay well.
