Five Saudi women pilots have obtained licences by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) that allows them to work as captains on Saudi Arabian Airlines aircraft.

The issuance of licenses to Saudi women is part of GACA’s drive to empower Saudi women to work in the aviation sector in line with the objectives of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Although around 500 Saudi women are employed by Saudia, the kingdom’s national carrier, mainly in the financial and IT departments and the reservation section, none of them are pilots.
Yasmeen Mohammad Al Maimani who made history by becoming in 2014 the second Saudi woman to receive a commercial pilot license from GACA, last year said she had high hopes for the opportunity to fly a plane for Saudia.
“My greatest dream was to become a pilot and my family fully supported me,” Yasmeen said. “My high school average was high and I could join some of the best universities to study medicine or architecture. However, the dream of sitting in a cockpit and soaring high in the sky was a potent and sweet dream that truly overwhelmed me.”

The family went along and they supported Yasmeen in all ways as she headed to Jordan where she joined a private aviation academy.
“I obtained my private pilot licence after one year and went back home to Saudi Arabia where my attempts to get recruited by an airliner failed. “I took up an administrative position in Rabigh Wings Aviation Academy and I became the head of pilots, but I did not fly any plane.”
Determined to make her dream come true, she continued with her studies and training.
Yasmeen said that she received an offer from a US flight academy to be their representative in the Arabian Gulf.
“I accepted the offer and they later gave me half scholarship to study for a commercial pilot licence. I accepted the offer and I was able to finish my studies one a half years and obtain the licence. I returned home in 2013 upon my graduation and the GACA endorsed my licence. I was looking forward to piloting a Saudia plane after I was duly certified by the Saudi authorities to fly a plane, but I am still waiting.”
Women in Saudi Arabia made history on June 23 when they were allowed to drive in the kingdom. Several other measures to empower them politically, economically and socially as part of an overhaul of the conservative society, may seem them allowed to pilot planes soon.

Donning a helmet, Rana Almimoni skids and drifts around a Riyadh park in a pearl silver sports sedan, its engine roaring, tyres screeching and clouds of dust billowing from the back.
For Saudi women, such adrenalin rushes were unimaginable just weeks ago.

Speed-crazed women drivers are bound to turn heads now in the country, which overturned the world’s only ban on female motorists in June, as part of a liberalisation drive led by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

Almimoni, 30, a motor racing enthusiast, is defying the perception — or sexist misconception, depending on who you ask — that only dainty cars in bright colours are popular with women drivers.

“I love speed. My dream car is more than 500 horsepower,” said Almimoni, slamming the accelerator of her silvery sleek Kia Stinger inside Riyadh’s Dirab motor park.
“It’s a myth that Saudi women only choose pink and cute cars.”
Almimoni said she was awaiting an expected government decision that would permit women to obtain a ‘racing licence’ which would allow her to participate in motorsport competitions.

That includes drifting — oversteering the car to slip, skid or even spin and other high-speed daredevilry — which is illegal in public but tolerated in the controlled environment of Dirab park, whose private owners insist on safety.

Need for speed
Author Pascal Menoret’s acclaimed book Joyriding in Riyadh described the high-octane Saudi obsession for drifting, long seen as a symbol of revolt among legions of restless youth, as all “about being a real man”.

Now, newly mobile Saudi women are embracing what was previously deemed a male entitlement — speed. “Most of our enquiries (from women) are about drifting: how to learn drifting, which cars can they train on, how long will it take them to drift ...” said instructor Falah Al Jarba, as he watched Almimoni zip around the park.
Auto showrooms tapping new women clients have rolled out a line-up of cherry red Mini Coopers, but sales professionals say many exhibit an appetite for muscle cars like the Camaro or the Mustang convertible.

Many new drivers seek inspiration from Aseel Al Hamad, the first female member of the country’s national motor federation, who got behind the wheel of a Formula One car in France in June, to mark the end of the driving ban.
Clad in skinny jeans and Harley Davidson T-shirts, a handful of women are also training to ride motorbikes at a Riyadh driving school, a scene that is still a stunning anomaly in the country.

Transport authorities have rolled out racing simulators to help first-time women drivers get a feel of being behind the wheel.
As a male traffic official demonstrated the importance of seat belts by buckling up inside a car tethered to a flat platform and upturning the vehicle, some women zipped around twisted tracks in toy cars.

Another sat down behind the wheel of a simulator and instantly floored the accelerator, sending the speedometer soaring. “I don’t feel I’m in Saudi Arabia anymore,” said Nagwa Mousa, a 57-year-old university professor in Riyadh. “But I don’t expect to see many women in Saudi Arabia overtaking and speeding in the streets anytime soon.”

The driving reform is said to be transformative for women, freeing them from dependence on private chauffeurs or male relatives, but many are keeping off the streets.
“Congratulate me, finally saw a female driving! Although she is Bahraini, it counts as she is driving in Saudi land,” comedian Yaser Bakr said on Twitter after the ban was lifted.

For now, most women drivers appear to be those who have swapped foreign licences for Saudi ones after undergoing a practical test.
Many complain that driving courses cost several times more than those available to men and that women instructors are in short supply.

While no overt incidents of street harassment have been reported publicly, many women are also wary of pervasive sexism and aggression from male drivers, despite warnings from authorities.

Outsmarting security officials, a homeless woman not only managed to get on board the British Airways plane but also flew from America to London without a ticket or passport.

Marilyn Hartman slipped on to the jet with a large group after she got through security at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and boarded a flight to Heathrow, police said.

The airline crew realised that the woman was flying without a ticket and was held at Heathrow and sent back to Chicago. Hartman, 66, appeared in court for theft and trespassing and police said that she spent 24 hours at Chicago airport before boarding but airport staff assumed she was simply confused, according to The Mirror.

However, this is not the first time that Hartman has been detained for trying to bypass airport security in the US and claimed she may have boarded planes without a ticket eight times. She also told police that she felt safer inside the airports than living on the streets.

Hartman was caught three years ago trying to sneak on to a plane at the same airport just hours after she was let out of prison. While in 2016 she was placed on mental health probation for two years.

The Transportation Security Administration, investigating the matter, said, "Upon learning of the incident TSA, and its aviation partners took immediate action to review security practices throughout the airport."

A water vendor, who allegedly sexually harassed a female customer while at her place to deliver a water bottle, was charged in a Dubai court on Tuesday. A complaint was registered on December 17, 2017, at Al Rashidiyah police station.

The complainant, an air hostess from Costa Rica, accused the Pakistani vendor, 24, of touching her inappropriately. He denied a sexual harassment charge when his case was heard by the Court of First Instance. He claimed he unintentionally touched her because of the small space inside the kitchen.

"It was 10am and I was at home alone as my husband was in Australia on a business trip. I telephoned the defendant who worked at a company that usually delivered water to us," said the 32-year-old woman.

"When the worker arrived, I let him in and told him to insert the bottle on to the cooler because I am pregnant. But then I noticed there was still some water in the bottle that needed to be changed, I told him to put the new one on the floor because he was still carrying it on his shoulder.

"As I was busy emptying the old bottle, I was surprised when he grabbed me by the waist from behind and pulled me towards him. I pushed him away, yelled at him and told him to leave. About five minutes later, he came back with another man and knocked on the door, but I did not open for them."

During the investigation, she was asked whether she initiated a conversation with the accused. She said she just apologised as she hadn't heard him ring bell initially.

She told the prosecutor there was no possibility for him to touch her by mistake as "there was enough space in the kitchen". She said she filed a complaint against the vendor the next day when her husband came back.

A police sergeant said the accused was arrested on December 18, 2017, in Al Quoz. "He said the cooler was in a narrow corridor and he accidentally touched the woman when she stepped back. He said he then stepped away when she screamed," the officer said.

The complainant identified the accused three times among other suspects at the police station.

The court is set to pronounce a verdict on February 18.

What role should women play in society, political, and business leadership is a question at the center of controversy in the conservative Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) where religion, customs, and traditions strongly influence the role of gender in society. Yet there is a growing recognition that to develop the GCC states and overhaul their economies to remain prosperous in the post-oil era, women must be increasingly involved in more areas of life. 

In a watershed last month, Qatar appointed women to the Shura Council for the first time in the Arabian emirate’s history. Four women will participate in the 45-seat council, which will discuss the bills passed by the Cabinet after approval, the government’s general policies, and the state budget draft.

The important step came two days after the Qatari Foreign Ministry appointed a Qatari woman to be Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, marking a first in the country’s history. Shortly before that, the UAE appointed a Minister of State for Youth Affairs to be the youngest woman minister in the UAE. In Kuwait a female MP elected in 2016 serves in the 50-member National Assembly.

Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to allow Saudi women to drive has received substantial international attention because Saudi Arabia was the only country that prevented the woman from doing so. However, the Saudi Shura Council in the latest decision before the end of 2017 rejected the recommendation to empower Saudi women to leadership roles in the Kingdom’s embassies, consulates, and attachés.

Since 2003, women in the GCC have participated more in public life, education and business, particularly in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The struggle for suffrage in Kuwait reached a watershed in 2004 when Kuwaiti women gained the right to vote and run in elections. Despite more than a decade having passed since women entered Kuwait’s political arena, many female candidates in Kuwait remain unable to secure enough votes to qualify for appropriate representation in parliament.

In terms of the workforce, the gender ratio remains highly imbalanced. Of the GCC’s population (54 million in 2016), more than 52 percent of them are women who make up no more than 29 percent of the workforce in these countries.

The recent study by the International Labor Organization revealed that women’s participation in the labor force was 28.6 percent in Oman; 39.4 percent in Bahrain; 43.4 percent in Kuwait; 46.6 percent in the UAE, and 50.8 percent in Qatar.

Qatar ranked the highest among the six GCC states while Saudi Arabia ranked the lowest at 18.2 percent, indicating that women in the Gulf still occupy low levels, despite promises by Gulf regimes to enact reforms aimed at empowering women. In reality, gender disparities continue to plague institutions in the GCC including educational ones. Political and economic reforms in the GCC countries have not fundamentally changed the role of women in the Gulf because such reforms have failed to overcome cultural barriers and values rooted in hearts and minds of GCC citizens.

Eleven Arab countries, including the GCC members, have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). But none have put in place effective mechanisms to implement their provisions. For example, in Saudi Arabia every Saudi woman has a male guardian (usually her father or husband, but in some cases her brother or even her son) who has the power to make many important decisions for her from renting an apartment to filing legal claims and accessing health care to working a job. All women in Saudi Arabia, regardless of socio-economic status, are subject to this guardianship law.

Long-term human development in the GCC can only become a reality when women are empowered in all fields. As all of the GCC states’ visions for economic diversification realise, women in the Gulf need a voice to defend their interests and the right to participate in decision-making and change.

Educational sector has been rocked by a serious scandal after the sudden death of a cleaning worker — as revealed by female cleaning workers in some public schools.

Although the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohammad Al-Fares last week tried to end a protest initiated by cleaning workers in some schools, the corpse of a female who lost her life in the course of aborting an illegitimate pregnancy is a wake-up call, especially after the police has detected she was working in a school at one educational area without residence visa.

A security source said the corpse was found close to a clinic and police investigation revealed that she did not have any identity card. Further investigation indicated she was working in a public school, which prompted detectives to request the school principal for data of the workers.

They discovered that 80 percent of the workers did not have residence visa but the principal cleared herself from the responsibil- ity, saying the company that sup- plied the cleaning workers had signed the contract with Ministry of Education rather than the school.

The cleaners were referred to investigation. Official statements made at the police station revealed details of the cleaning worker who died in her vain attempt to abort a pregnancy. It also revealed the deceased declined to visit the clinic for treatment to avoid arrest since she did not have residence visa.

The incident has made the majority of cleaning workers to desert the school in question for fear that they’ll be arrested, although the police did not go after them since the school was not responsible for the contract. Consequently, the school administration and students have been facing difficulty since the incident was reported last Tuesday.

Officials of the ministry have since expressed concern that moral decadence of this nature has nega- tive implication on the school and students.

Investigation revealed the act of employing absconders as cleaning workers is not limited to the school under consideration, because most of the public schools use cleaners who are without identity cards and have run away from their sponsors.

Kuwait's Sheikha Intisar Salem Al Ali Al Sabah and veteran singer Nawal have won the Arab Woman Award 2017.

During a ceremony held in London Thursday evening by the Arab Women Organization (AWO), an intergovernmental specialized agency affiliated to the League of Arab States, Sheikha Intisar was offered the prize for her non-profiting initiative "Alnowair" for disseminating positive thinking.

The event was attended by Dean of Diplomatic Corps, Kuwait's Ambassador to Britain Khaled Al-Duwaisan and a representative of the London Mayor.

Talking to KUNA, Sheikha Intisar voiced delight for attending the "distinctive" gathering to honor Arab creative women in various fields.

She stressed the integral role of Arab women in serving their communities, saying that in Kuwait, for instance, they represent 80 percent of the output of higher education. She believes this is the case in most world countries.

It is high time, people knew that women are the "active element" in development and the success of any work they get involved in, she added.

Sheikha Intisar commended support to women by the Kuwaiti political leadership, with His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on top.

His Highness the Amir has relatedly directed the government to provide all means for empowering the Kuwaiti women to play their due role in the society, she said.

In a similar statement to KUNA, Nawal, who was honored for her three-decade distinctive musical career, said that "being honored in Britain means a lot for me." She urged Arab women to work seriously and not to yield to any obstacles, saying: "The path to success requires strong determination and will."

Winners included Sudan's Haniya Morsi, community leadership; prominent Lebanese media figure Raghda Dhurgham, press and media; Lebanon's Maha Al-Khalil, culture.

Saudi Princess Luma Al Saud was honored in the charity work category, Bahrain's Sheikha Hind Al Khalifa in trade development, and Egypt's actress Yasmin Sabri in promoting women's status.
Envoy Al-Duwaisan expressed pride for taking part in the honoring of two Kuwaiti women in Britain.

Sheikha Intisar and Nawal have managed through their hard efforts to realize further achievements for Kuwait, he said.

INJAZ Kuwait is currently preparing for participating in the 11th Annual INJAZ Al-Arab Young Entrepreneurs Regional Competition, to be held, at the Four Seasons Hotel Nile Plaza, Cairo- Egypt on 20 and 21 November.

As usual, the competition will witness participation of the winning teams at the Company Program Competition (CPC) from all over the Middle East and North Africa, that includes 17 teams from 10 countries; namely Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia,  Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon and  Oman, where students will compete and showcase their knowledge and understanding of companies’ establishment, marketing, and profit making, to a panel of distinguished businessmen and leaders from the Arab region.

INJAZ Kuwait will participate in this competition, representing Kuwait, with two companies 'Agrivage' for high school category, and 'Youth Creation' for university category, both teams were winners of ‘Best Student Company of the Year 2017’ in INJAZ Kuwait Company Program Competition.

“Agrivage” is a startup business created by a group of Kuwaiti students, aim to help the environment by recycling the food waste and turn into a usable rich soil. The project supervision was handled by Othman Boodai, who is a previous INJAZ Kuwait student and one of the founders of Green Target Company, which won the first place in the INJAZ Al- Arab Regional competition for 2008.

“Youth Creations”, is a company established by university students to offer innovative products and entertainment solutions to raise awareness among the society by giving exciting tips and challenges. They launched its first product, an entertaining game called “Bo Tambeh”. The project supervision was done by Mr. Abdullateef Al-Sharikh, Head of Corporate Communications at Alghanim Industries, in coordination with Dr. Samar Baqir from Kuwait University.

Through the competition process, participating teams will have to present their ideas to the panel of independent and carefully selected judges, who will base their decisions on student’s creativity, delivering successful vision for innovative ideas, their ongoing commitment towards their business, and professionally executing it.

The program consists of four main stages, including handing a report that discusses the various stages students underwent in establishing and managing their companies, discuss the different challenges that they had to overcome to keep the business progressing, a visit by the judges to their booths to check their progress. Lastly, the participating companies will have to meet with the judges individually to further discuss their developments.

INJAZ Kuwait CEO, Laila Al Mutairi said: “INJAZ Kuwait has always been keen to participate in various Arab competitions, an act that helps supporting young Kuwaitis capabilities and skills and enhance their practical experience, through dealing with other students from different countries with different background”.

“Agrivage and Youth Creations are among the strongest teams participating in the regional competition, both are so committed and excited to be part of such a renowned competition. We wish them both all the best and wish other participating teams the best of luck as well,” added Al Mutairi.

The INJAZ Al-Arab Young Entrepreneurs Competition was established in 2007 and is recognized as the region’s leading entrepreneurship competition for Arab youth. Since its inception, the annual event has been hosted by various INJAZ Al-Arab member nations including Oman, Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and now Egypt for the first time. To find out more about INJAZ Al-Arab Young Entrepreneurs Regional Competition, you can follow through #YECINJAZ.

Since 2005, INJAZ-Kuwait has reached over 54,336 students from 129 educational institutions, thanks to 4,859 volunteers—and growing. INJAZ Kuwait connects corporate volunteers to mentor youth in collaboration with the privet sectors and organizations, who have provided their professional experience in the financial literacy, entrepreneurship and business management fields. INJAZ Kuwait continues to equip and support youth, to ensure a more prosperous future for generations to come.

Kuwaiti women empowerment is one of the objectives of Kuwait sustainable development strategy, said Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Dr. Hind Al-Sebeeh on Monday. "Today we have seen Kuwaiti women serving as doctors and researchers and engineers at various quarters and academies namely Kuwait University," said Al-Sebeeh in a statement to journalists on sidelines of the International Conference on Women Leaders in Science and Technology, which kicked off earlier today at the Arab Organizations headquarters.

The Ministry and General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development support the Kuwaiti women in sciences, where aid is provided to female researchers, she added.

For his part, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr. Mohammad Abdulatif Al-Fares, also speaking on the convention margins, affirmed that Kuwait has made headways on the path for women empowerment at various levels.

Many Kuwaiti female citizens have occupied senior posts and specialized in technology, engineering and innovation. Meanwhile, Dr. Fayza Mohammad Abdulmohsen Al-Kharafi, the conference chair and board member of Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), said in her statement at the event that the conferees would debate women leadership toward social and economic development.

The United Nations, she added, has affirmed that objectives of the sustainable development for 2030 emphasize the need for empowering the woman and putting her on par with man. The convention deliberations focus on hindrances facing the women in various fields, propose solutions and incentives to enable the females make accomplishments, Dr. Al-Kharafi added.

US Ambassador to Kuwait H.E. Lawrence R. Silverman, also addressing the conference, has asserted that the whole world nowadays needs full and effective participation of the women for facing looming challenges.

Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dr. Celeste M. Rohlfing told the conferees that the United Nations has adopted the issue of women empowerment and gender equality as some of the goals of the sustainable development till 2030. KFAS Director General Dr. Adnan Shihab Eldin said a number of women involved in sciences are partaking in the three-day convention.

Citing a UNESCO's report, he said proportion of female graduates from universities globally reached 53 percent, as compared to 37 percent in Arab countries.

Europe’s stock markets diverged Monday in a muted response to the US government shutdown, and despite hopes that German

Chancellor Angela Merkel will be able to form a new administration.The Frankfurt and Paris stock markets edged lower in late morning deals,
but London bobbed into positive territory.

“Stock markets in Europe are a mixed bag … as investors assess the political landscape,” said CMC Markets UK analyst David Madden.

“The shutdown of the US government has not spooked investors as there was a similar muted reaction the last time it happened in 2013, but nor has it given traders a reason to buy into the market.”

In the eurozone, Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats voted Sunday to begin formal coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

The news, which brought Europe’s top economy a step closer to a new government after months of deadlock, helped guide the euro higher.

The Dubai Police raided a hotel room after receiving a complaint from a husband that his wife was cheating on him there.

The Court of First Instance heard on Thursday that the raid led to the arrest of both the alleged lover and the cheating wife.

The lover, a Palestinian student, 26, and the wife were referred to public prosecution investigation and later to the Court of Misdemeanors on an illicit sex charge.

The student was charged in the Court of First Instance with taking drugs, providing his partner with crystal meth and having sex out of the wedlock. The incident was reported on September 6, 2017, to Bur Dubai police station.

"The woman's husband complained that she had gone with another man to a hotel. After verification, we checked the hotel cameras which caught them check-in to a room," said a police lieutenant.

"We obtained a public prosecution warrant and raided the room. The two were found under the influence of drugs. The woman admitted she had consensual sex and had been in a sexual relation with him. She also confessed that the accused had given her crystal meth for free about five or six times since July 2017."

The woman said she had taken psychotropic pills and claimed she carried a medical prescription.

The student admitted the charges and claimed he had got the crystal meth from his brother who had bought it from a Pakistani man.

About 18 medically-controlled pills were found in the woman's purse. More than eight empty shots were found in a small plastic bag left on the table.

A report from the specialised criminal evidence department said the student's urine sample tested positive for three types of narcotics. The woman's urine sample test came out positive for drugs too.

The court postponed the trial to January 29.

Ask any writer or reader and they will tell you that poetry is the highest form and use of language. So much so that poetry is almost intimidating. It can, at times, feel too pure, too out of place with how we usually interact with words on the page, with words performed in song or on the stage.

For some reason people assume that they need to read poetry and understand it instantly. That the meanings, images, the nuances and the thought process of the poet need to be transparent and plain for the reader to pick up on from the first reading. This isn't, it probably shouldn't be the case. Reading poetry shouldn't be hard but it shouldn't be a transparent and banal exercise either.

Poetry is an experience. It is an interaction with ideas that the reader doesn't necessarily need to understand if not initially then at all. It is in a way a cathartic connection with a cloud that holds emotions, imagery, ideas and experiences shaped and molded by the poet in a certain form.

Once you understand this, reading a poem can be a completely different experience that bears a lot of fruit. This art form is also a bridge connecting ideas, expressions and cultures allowing us to experience the other in new and profound ways. It is for this reason that the poetry of Dubai based poet Zeina Hashem Beck in her latest collection Louder Than Hearts is pivotal, ground breaking and essential.

The Lebanese poet with a BA and an MA in English Literature from the American University of Beirut, won the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize in April last year for Louder than Hearts which is her second full-length collection.

Arabic finds a new life in Louder than Hearts. References and experiences, history, poetry and music make their way flawlessly imbued in Zeina Hashem Beck's voice and her storytelling.

Readers will experience a new and reflective way in which Arabic and English meet, interlock, and co-exist in a meaningful, poignant and playful use of words, rhythm and pace. Zeina Hashem Beck weaves her own experiences through great influences from legendary Arabic poetry and music to classic and powerful English voices in literature and song. Home, existence, nostalgia, identity, culture, family - these stories although personal are also universal and in Zeina Hashem Beck's work accessible to many.

City Times sat down with the poet for a fruitful discussion on her journey as a poet, her influences, the rejections she faced and how to define poetry.

When did this idea of putting words together to create poems start? Did you always have a love of words?
I always had a love of words and it was always poetry. From the beginning it was poetry rather than any other form of writing for me. Of course I didn't always know I was a poet. Though I do believe that you are born with this affinity. Like this isn't something you can make up but you can either choose to continue and do the work or not. I do believe you're born with this affinity, to explore these connections with words and images. My favourite activity as a student, which is very nerdy, was to memorise poems and recite them to the class. These were in French as I was French educated. I learnt English when I was 12. I also recited Arabic but more French. My favourite activity was to memorise poems and recite them out loud. I loved that and for me, poetry and performance were interlinked. No one told me you have to perform it but I always sort of "performed it". I always heard the music in it. So that was present at a very young age.

When and how did you make that decision to be a poet in the sense to get your work published?
I think the year that I realised that I should start working on this, that I should start thinking about how to get my work out there was in 2006. That was the year that I graduated and got married and moved out of Lebanon. Big year. I think the moving away from Beirut triggered the first book because I was suffering from nostalgia. It was also the year that you're out of University now you're no longer a student you have to do something. I was teaching and I loved that and so I had to decide that year, am I going to pursue this idea to be a poet? I loved poetry so much I wrote it, but how do you actually do it? That year was pivotal for me because I decided by the end of it, okay, we are going to sit down and do the work.

And how does one do that work?
I was going to start submitting to literary magazines and read more and write more and revise. My first book didn't come out until 2014 so it's quite a gap. I also coached myself to answer the questions, so what are you? I dare say I am a poet. Because there is almost a shame or a taboo you know when people ask you what do you do and I kind of hate this question cause you do a zillion things. we are all very multiple, but we all ask this question. So I started saying that year, I'm a poet. That was a pivotal year, internally for me. 

How did you deal with initial rejection?
It was very disheartening at the beginning getting rejection, after rejection, after rejection. But I'm stubborn by nature. So if I make a decision, I make decision, I go for it. I think at the end of the day even what I tell myself now, even after I got published is that it's important to do the work. Really why did I begin doing this? Of course, I want to get published. Of course, I want people to read my work and discuss it. It's a really beautiful part and an essential part of being a poet. But really first and foremost what gives me the upmost pleasure is when I'm creating the work, when I'm doing what I love doing. It's not like I could have given up because it's in spite of me. Some days you think, I wish I could just give up. You have this urge that you can't stop. I think this is what kept me going. You can't help but do the work. I trained myself to think that editors too are people. With certain magazines they receive hundreds of thousands of submissions so it's a whole process. And little by little the poetry scene is changing in the US; it's opening up a lot more to voices from the margins.

Do you think the issue there was that literary magazines weren't listening to the voices from "the margins"? Did the Arab voice in poetry not exist or do you think you weren't good enough yet?
It's a mixture of all of these. The Arab voice always existed. It just wasn't given the space. Because a lot of editors were white and male. Even female voices weren't given the space that they are given now. So there is this evolution that the world of publishing has gone through and it's now "easier" because so many editors now are writers of colour who want to champion other writers of colour. But I do believe that some of my earlier poems, thank God, were rejected, because they weren't good. In a way the time it took for me to get published, for me personally, was beneficial. Because it allowed me to grow into my own voice. 

You speak Arabic, English and French, how does occupying that space, between languages affect, influence your poetry?
I'm definitely much more comfortable writing in English. But when I speak with my husband, with my kids, it's Arabic. If I'm with an Arabic person, I have the need to switch into Arabic. French is in the back of my head somewhere. It's strange how the mind works. I think they are all in there. And definitely in terms of poetry, the poetry I write exists in that space and the English I write in is very different to the English a native speaker would write. 

Many writers of colour prefer to write in English even if it isn't their mother tongue. What is it about English that we are so comfortable in?
I don't know if the language itself. I just felt an ease in it, more than even French which is a language I studied in for the first 18 years of my life. So I don't know if it's "easier" but I don't think that's the point. I think the reason why we are comfortable in English is because we have been colonised. It's the language of the empire. It's every where, it's on TV, radio, it's the language of technology, it's the language of power. It's around us and we internalise this. I don't think it now, but I do think when I was a little girl, a part of me thought that if I wrote in a language other than Arabic. that it will get me more places. That's the colonised mentality, that you feel inferior. It's very sad but its true. I felt that even as a little girl that his language had more power. And now that I realise because we have been colonised and our Arabic is beautiful, we should try to read more writers in Arabic and encourage it - that's part of what I'm trying to do in this book. 

What influences your poetry?
It's definitely other poets. I learnt by reading other poets. I learnt by reading. My influences keep shifting and changing. For this particular collection, music was a big influence. It all started with me listening to Umm Kulthum and I thought how do you write about that? How do you convey this in a poem in English? Which is a crazy idea, you're setting yourself up for failure, really you can't, but its good to try. So I wanted to celebrate all of these singers that I grew up listening to and hence the presence of Warda and Abdul Halim and Umm Kulthum. Music was a big influence.

An alien arrives on earth and asks you, what is poetry? How you would you answer this question?
That's a very tough question. Has anyone answered it? In terms of words on the page and language I think it's one of the most condensed uses of language. It's language at its most highly condensed form. You do not have to completely understand what you're reading and listening to in order to enjoy it. Just like music. Music is a very important element in poetry of course. It's about really paying attention, looking at the details, looking at the world and trying to question and invert and subvert and see differently. But that can be the definition of any art form. With poetry though you use it for words. One could also say that poetry is a way to try to express what can't be expressed, to use language to go beyond language. Something like prayer, or rather, for me, it is prayer.

Possibly one of the biggest scandals of the Obama administration was the blocking of active investigations into Hezbollah and Iran’s complicity in the deadly global trade in drugs and armaments. Former US Treasury official Katherine Bauer testified that these investigations were “tamped down for fear of rocking the boat with Iran and jeopardizing the nuclear deal.” In recent days, the US Justice Department has reopened these investigations. This couldn’t come a moment too soon.
We all remember former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cozying up to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as part of their anti-American axis. It later came to light that this alliance brought forth a vast drug-trafficking operation, which saw Venezuelan cocaine sales skyrocket from 50 to 250 tonnes a year — mostly bound for the US. In and around 2007, Venezuela’s state airline was ferrying large quantities of cash and drugs to Tehran each week, returning laden with weapons and Hezbollah operatives.
Venezuela was just one segment of Iran and Hezbollah’s strategy for cultivating crime networks in South America, operating via Lebanese and Syrian communities across the continent. US officials recognized that Hezbollah was becoming one of the largest global crime networks, yet this flew in the face of the criminally naive Obama administration orthodoxy that the Islamic Republic could be sweet-talked into becoming a constructive member of the international community. Barack Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan was an advocate of cultivating Hezbollah’s “moderate elements,” commending the movement’s success in “assimilating” into the Lebanese political system, just as Hezbollah was rolling up its trousers to wade into the blood-soaked Syria conflict. In reality, the 2015 nuclear deal emboldened Tehran, eased the constraints of sanctions, and removed global pressures as European nations trampled each other in the unseemly stampede to tap into Iran’s oil economy.
Figures like Lebanese arms dealer Ali Fayad, who the Obama administration missed an opportunity to extradite from the Czech Republic, are today deeply involved in diverting a flood of Russian heavy weapons to Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and the wider region. Similar routes transported chemical weapons used by Bashar Assad against his people: Just one strand of a dense clandestine network connecting Iran, North Korea and entities like the Pakistani A.Q. Khan network for smuggling nuclear and ballistic materials.
Hezbollah’s ambassador to Tehran, Abdallah Safieddine, reputedly oversaw one of the world’s largest drug-smuggling operations, laundering around $200 million per month out of the US from profits of narcotics imports. At one point an “entire Quds Force network” was active in the US, laundering money and trafficking drugs and weapons. Counter-narcotics officials amassed detailed information about this activity, which ran in parallel with plots to assassinate foreign diplomats and terrorist operations elsewhere. However, Obama hindered investigations (known as Project Cassandra) by his own law enforcement agencies and blocked preventative action; even though US agents discovered that narcotics revenues were being channelled to Iraqi Shiite militants who were then engaged in killing American troops. Nevertheless, during 2016 some Hezbollah personnel were indeed arrested by US police on drugs trafficking charges.
A DEA official who led these investigations commented: “(Hezbollah) were a paramilitary organization with strategic importance in the Middle East, and we watched them become an international criminal conglomerate generating billions of dollars for the world’s most dangerous activities, including chemical and nuclear weapons programs and armies that believe America is their sworn enemy.”
Hezbollah previously dabbled in arms smuggling and criminal activity, but observers were dumbfounded by this wholesale shift into global organized crime from around 2006. Hezbollah strongholds became awash with foreign currency, with cash reserves of US dollars in Lebanon doubling to $16 billion in just a few years. This was massively important in helping Hezbollah rearm and rebuild its infrastructure after the 2006 war with Israel. Hezbollah operations in south Beirut during April 2017 against local drug dealers appear designed to ensure a monopoly over the drugs trade. Hezbollah was criticized for behaving like a state within a state by embarking on such actions.
Iran’s shared border with Pakistan and Afghanistan is one of the world’s busiest drug smuggling corridors (an estimated 140 tonnes a year). The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is well placed to monopolize this cross-border trade. This has had terrible consequences inside Iran, with up to 10 percent of Iranian nationals estimated to be drug addicts — the highest proportion in the world. 
With Hezbollah heavily implicated in Syria, Iranian financial transfers to the movement recently soared to an estimated $800 million, yet this is exceeded by the approximate $1 billion a year it is reported to receive from narcotics, arms trafficking and organized crime. Data indicates that the IRGC may double its formal budget (around $8bn) through illicit economic activities. After encroaching on territory formerly held by Daesh, Iran’s new corridor of control through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to the Mediterranean opens up lucrative and potentially destabilizing pathways into the heart of Europe. 
Tehran’s proxy militias of Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (the Popular Mobilization Forces) in Iraq act like gangsters in the expanding territories they control, with militants fighting among themselves to monopolize the oil smuggling trade around Basra; reportedly conducting systematic kidnappings of Sunnis and often murdering them after ransoms are paid; and engaging in the full spectrum of organized crime: Extortion, drugs, expropriating property, terrorizing local people, and the theft of historical artefacts. As primary benefactors of laundered funds from Hezbollah’s American narcotics network, Al-Hashd factions are said to be investing these funds in activities to perpetuate Tehran’s cultural control: Universities, schools, religious institutions and paramilitary training for young people — all calculated to indoctrinate Iraqi Shiites into Iran’s theological model of Wilayat al-Faqih.
Iran has reportedly become deeply complicit in arms smuggling throughout Africa. Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Senegal and other states are key proliferation hubs, with a broad range of African insurgent and terrorist groups benefiting from Iranian military munificence. Several West African states also became integral parts of Hezbollah’s cash-laundering network for billions of dollars of drugs money flooding out of the US. Sudan had been a key ally in facilitating Iranian arms smuggling towards conflicts that claimed countless lives. However, GCC states notched up a remarkable success in drawing Sudan away from Tehran’s orbit. 
Intelligence officials describe a standard operating procedure of Hezbollah, Quds Force and Iranian diplomats establishing connections through the Lebanese diaspora across Africa and the Americas. Front companies and smuggling routes are then established and evangelical Shiite institutions are set up to cultivate local support and nurture proxy groups. These channels are then exploited for a variety of illicit purposes. Iran’s support for the Houthis in Yemen, meanwhile, offers opportunities to expand new routes through Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Ocean.
The US Justice Department’s reopening of investigations into Iranian crime networks may have to start from scratch, having lost institutional expertise and on-the-ground sources after Project Cassandra was closed down. We have yet to see whether these investigations are a stepping stone to decisive action against Iran and its proxies, or whether this is more empty rhetoric against both Tehran and the Obama administration.
After the investigation announcement, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah came out with a vigorous denial of any involvement in drugs, claiming that such activities violated the movement’s fundamental principles. I fervently wish this was true, just as I wish that Hezbollah had adhered to its founding principles of being a Lebanese nationalist bastion against Israel — yet a mountain of evidence tells us otherwise. 
All this illustrates why Tehran constitutes a greater proliferation threat than Pyongyang. While tiny North Korea is an isolated and encircled failed state in Far East Asia, imperialist oil-rich Iran is expanding out of Central Asia, through the Middle East and towards the shores of Europe. Tehran is furthermore aggressively branching out through Africa, Latin America and South Asia, profiting from organized crime to bankroll its blueprint for paramilitary expansionism. With each successive year that the world turns a blind eye to these activities, Iran becomes stronger, more belligerent, wealthier and wider-reaching.
Even though the Trump administration is willing to revisit evidence of Hezbollah’s role in narcotics and arms trafficking, much of the West remains stubbornly in denial that Iran, Hezbollah and Al-Hashd al-Shaabi are pursuing a coherent long-term strategy for aggressively expanding their influence. What will it take for Europe to wake up to the Iranian proliferation threat? Automatic weapons in the hands of Eastern European anti-democracy militias? The streets of Hamburg, Paris and Barcelona awash with heroin? Or a 9/11-style major terrorist atrocity?

Women's rights protesters took to the streets in European cities on Sunday (Jan 21) to voice their frustration at sexual harassment, violence and discrimination against women.

Hundreds of people gathered in London chanting "Time's up! Time's up!", as similar demonstrations took place across the continent.

"I am here today to say time is up on violence against women and girls all across the world," Kiyleigh, 29, told AFP at the march outside Prime Minister Theresa May's Downing Street office.

"I work with women who suffer from domestic abuse, sexual abuse from male perpetrators and I don't want to see that anymore," she said.

Protesters also waved placards reading "Don't touch my rights" and "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries".

Social campaigner Helen Pankhurst, the great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, was among the speakers.

"'No' means 'no'. Sexual harassment is not OK. Abuse is not OK. People have to respect what women say," said Liberty Folker, 27, who came with her dog Gwen and held a placard reading: "Even this dog knows 'no' means 'no'".

"Every woman I know has experienced some kind of harassment or abuse or rape. I myself have and I don't want that for any woman anywhere, not just here but all across the world," she told AFP.

'GRAB 'EM BY THE MID-TERMS'

In Berlin, a few dozen people gathered by the US embassy at the Brandenburg Gate and waved slogans in English including "Resist", "Stand, unite, fight" and "Time's up: Impeach now", referring to US President Donald Trump.

Others denounced Trump's remarks about women, one held a placard reading: "Grab 'em by the patriarchy".

As protesters moved through Berlin's government district, the crowd grew to around 1,000, including expatriate Americans and a large male minority.

Many parents brought their school-age children, who carried signs with slogans including "Love trumps hate" and "Equality for all".

Speakers encouraged Americans abroad to sign up for absentee ballots for the US midterm congressional elections in November.

A popular poster read: "Grab 'em by the midterms".

Meanwhile in Spain about 200 people, mostly women, gathered in Plaza Isabel II in downtown Madrid.

They chanted slogans and held signs in Spanish and English decrying Trump and encouraging a global feminist "revolution".

"We stand here united to find our way towards equality and to demand our rights", said Cristina Rodriguez-Carretera, a 40-year-old university professor in the United States on a visit to her native Spain.

"We are more united than we think," she added, noting that women feel under attack by Trump's constant "misogyny".

In the United States, protesters took to the streets en masse on Saturday, hoisting anti-Trump placards, banging drums and donning pink hats for a second Women's March opposing the president - one year to the day since his inauguration.

Hundreds of thousands of marchers assembled in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, Boston and other cities nationwide, many donning the famous pink knit "pussy hats" - a reference to Trump's audiotaped boast of his licence to grope women without repercussions.

They were joined by actresses including Whoopi Goldberg in New York and Natalie Portman in Los Angeles.

Other demonstrations were held elsewhere in Europe including Paris.

Germany's centre-left Social Democrats voted Sunday to begin formal coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, bringing Europe's top economy a step closer to a new government after months of deadlock.

At a special party congress in the western city of Bonn, 372 out of 642 delegates (56 percent) backed SPD chief Martin Schulz's appeal to approve a preliminary coalition deal painstakingly hammered out with Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc.

The thumbs-up will come as a huge relief to Merkel, staving off the threat of snap polls or the unappealing prospect of leading an unstable minority government.

The veteran chancellor, in power for more than 12 years, said she welcomed the SPD's green light but warned that there were "many issues left to work out".

"We have a lot of work ahead of us."

The narrow vote victory also means a reprieve for Schulz, who had staked his political future on a "yes" outcome, despite initially rejecting another stint as Merkel's junior coalition partner.

"We are relieved, the result shows that we had to fight for this majority," Schulz said.

The vote, which was closely watched in Germany and abroad, paves the way for negotiators to launch in-depth talks that should lead to an official coalition agreement in several weeks.

Merkel said the first meetings on how to organise those talks would start Monday.

But another make-or-break hurdle looms before she can clinch a fourth term, as Schulz has pledged to give the SPD's 440,000 rank-and-file party members the final say on any formal coalition "contract".

If the deal is approved, a new government could be in place by mid-March at the earliest -- nearly six months after September's tricky election.

- Europe waiting -

Sunday's breakthrough is likely to be welcomed in capitals across Europe, eager to see an end to a political impasse in a pivotal member state that has left key EU policy decisions on hold.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been openly rooting for a repeat grand alliance in Berlin given the enthusiasm among the pro-EU SPD for his EU reform plans, including his more ambitious proposals to install a eurozone budget and finance minister.

Macron "is waiting for a partner," Schulz said in an impassioned speech to delegates ahead of the vote.

He urged the SPD to seize the chance to help drive deeper EU integration and counter the rise of right-wing populists across the continent.

"Only a strong and united SPD can make our country and Europe stronger," he said.

The European Commission hailed the SPD's "yes" vote, with EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici praising the "sense of responsibility" shown by the Social Democrats.

The closer-than-predicted result however underlined the SPD's lack of enthusiasm for the coalition blueprint thrashed out earlier this month, which critics said contained too many concessions to the CDU/CSU.

- Scepticism -

Germany has been stuck in political limbo since September's inconclusive general election saw mainstream parties bleed support to the far-right AfD, which tapped into anger over Merkel's open-door refugee policy.

Stung by his party's worst result in decades, Schulz initially vowed to go into opposition but then caved to pressure to reconsider after Merkel's attempt at a novel tie-up with two smaller parties collapsed in November.

The U-turn angered many grassroots SPD supporters, who believed some time on the opposition benches would help the 150-year-old party regain its fighting spirit.

Resistance to a renewed Merkel alliance was loudest among the SPD's left and youth wings, who complained the preliminary coalition agreement fell short of campaign pledges.

The 28-page document that lays the basis for future government policies promises more spending on childcare and education as well as joining France in its push to overhaul the bloc.

But the SPD failed to secure a tax hike for the rich or a restructuring of the country's two-tier healthcare system -- two key campaign promises.

Schulz on Sunday vowed to extract more concessions in the formal coalition talks.

He also pledged to resist the CSU's demand to cap migrant arrivals at 200,000 a year and promised that any future coalition government would be put up for review after two years.

Merkel, often dubbed the world's most powerful woman, has been hamstrung on the global stage as the domestic drama has played out.

Commentators say her struggles to form a new government have damaged her political standing and she is increasingly described as entering the twilight of her rule.

Mary Lou McDonald has been introduced to http://www.emiratesvoice.com/en/img/2018/01/mediam/Emiratesvoice-70news12.jpgSinn Féin supporters as the party's President-Elect by Gerry Adams at a meeting this morning of the party Ard Comhairle and its Northern region organisation in Belfast.

Sinn Fein's governing council met in Belfast to formally ratify Ms McDonald, with a special conference to elect her to be held next month when Mr Adams, 69, steps down after nearly 35 years at the helm. A special party conference to elect a new leader will be held on 10 February.

Cathaoirleach of Ennis Sinn Féin Tommy Guilfoyle is confident Mary Lou is the woman to drive the party forward.

"Irish unity is the best solution for this island and we will work to convince our unionist friends and neighbours of that", she declared.

More news: Angelique Kerber beats Maria Sharapova to reach Australian Open fourth round

Ms McDonald, 48, was Sinn Féin's first MEP and has been TD, a position equivalent to a MP, for Dublin Central since 2011.

Deputy McDonald's succession to president-elect comes after Gerry Adams past year announced he would be standing down as his party's leader in 2018.

She will take over from Gerry Adams.

"I never thought come February 10 I would be the boss man!" "I won't fill Gerry's shoes - the news is I've brought my own".The change represents a major shift for Sinn Fein, so closely associated with Adams' leadership, which started in November 1983.

Mr Adams also used the Belfast gathering to indicate Sinn Féin wants to see an end to the stalemate at Stormont.

Ms McDonald had criticised Mr McElduff but described the three-month suspension handed down by the party as "appropriate and proportionate".

Sinn Fein is now the third biggest party in the Republic of Ireland and the second biggest party in Northern Ireland.He said Ms McDonald was the "ideal candidate" to "lead Sinn Fein into the future". "We also need to win that referendum. don't believe the naysayers and begrudgers who claim that a United Ireland is a pipe dream".

A man, who allegedly lured a six-year-old girl to the stairs of the top floor of a building where he molested her and showed her a porn video clip, was charged in court on Sunday.

The Court of First Instance heard that the 28-year-old Pakistani assistant mechanic was in a building to drop business cards when he spotted the little girl and led her away to sexually abuse her.

He is accused of kissing and inappropriately touching the girl as well as showing her an adult video clip.

Upon referring him to court, prosecutors requested that a stiff penalty be inflicted on him.

He denied charges of molestation and possession of morally inappropriate material with the intention of showing them to others.

The complaint was filed on May 10, 2017, at Al Muraqqabat police station.

The girl's father, a 40-year-old Indian warehouse supervisor, said his daughter went outside their building in Hor Al Anz to play with other children in the same complex.

"At around 5:40 pm, we received a phone call from the mother of another girl telling us that our daughter was sexually abused by a stranger. She then brought our girl home," the father said.

"Our daughter, who looked very scared, told us that a man, who spoke our language, grabbed her by the hand and led her to the higher floor stairs of an adjacent building where he inappropriately touched her and showed her a porn clip on his mobile phone. That man let her go after threatening her not to inform her parents."

The father then called the police stating that it was not the first sexual assault incident to take place in their complex and other kids had been sexually abused prior to this episode.

"We received several complaints at Al Muraqqabat police station about kids falling victims to sexual harassment," a policeman said.

"During interrogation, the defendant confessed he was in a building to distribute air-conditioning maintenance cards. He spotted a little girl and grabbed her hand taking her to the upper floor stairs. He admitted he molested her but denied having shown her any porn photos or clip."

A man, who allegedly lured a six-year-old girl to the stairs of the top floor of a building where he molested her and showed her a porn video clip, was charged in court on Sunday.

The Court of First Instance heard that the 28-year-old Pakistani assistant mechanic was in a building to drop business cards when he spotted the little girl and led her away to sexually abuse her.

He is accused of kissing and inappropriately touching the girl as well as showing her an adult video clip.

Upon referring him to court, prosecutors requested that a stiff penalty be inflicted on him.

He denied charges of molestation and possession of morally inappropriate material with the intention of showing them to others.

The complaint was filed on May 10, 2017, at Al Muraqqabat police station.

The girl's father, a 40-year-old Indian warehouse supervisor, said his daughter went outside their building in Hor Al Anz to play with other children in the same complex.

"At around 5:40 pm, we received a phone call from the mother of another girl telling us that our daughter was sexually abused by a stranger. She then brought our girl home," the father said.

"Our daughter, who looked very scared, told us that a man, who spoke our language, grabbed her by the hand and led her to the higher floor stairs of an adjacent building where he inappropriately touched her and showed her a porn clip on his mobile phone. That man let her go after threatening her not to inform her parents."

The father then called the police stating that it was not the first sexual assault incident to take place in their complex and other kids had been sexually abused prior to this episode.

"We received several complaints at Al Muraqqabat police station about kids falling victims to sexual harassment," a policeman said.

"During interrogation, the defendant confessed he was in a building to distribute air-conditioning maintenance cards. He spotted a little girl and grabbed her hand taking her to the upper floor stairs. He admitted he molested her but denied having shown her any porn photos or clip."

When Dawa Yangzum Sherpa first set her sights on being a mountain guide, she was told it was no job for a girl. Now she has proved her doubters wrong, becoming Nepal’s first woman to earn a prestigious international qualification.
Last month, the 27-year-old completed a rigorous course run by the Swiss-based International Federation of Mountain Guides, often described as a PhD in mountaineering.
The prestigious qualification has been awarded to around 6,000 people worldwide and just 50 men in Nepal, despite climbing being a major revenue earner for the impoverished country.
Sherpa belongs to the Himalayan ethnic group that has become synonymous with mountain guiding thanks to their reputation for being strong climbers with a natural tolerance for the lack of oxygen at high altitudes.
“This is a challenging field, even more so if you are a girl. There were people who said this is not a girl’s job, that I won’t get work or (asked) what will I do if I have kids,” Sherpa said.
Mountaineering is the lifeblood of Sherpa’s home village in Rolwaling valley, which neighbours Mount Everest, and scores of its residents have summited the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) peak.
“I knew what I wanted to do. My passion was to be outdoors, to climb. And my family did not discourage me,” Sherpa told AFP.
At 17, Sherpa was already guiding tourists on trekking routes, and soon after that scaled her first mountain, Nepal’s 5,500-metre Yala Peak.
American climber David Gottlieb, who works with US-based expedition operator Alpine Ascents International, remembers Sherpa showing great promise when he roped her in for an ice-climbing trip in the Rolwaling Valley.
“It is something else to see that great a promise of ability in a craft that not everybody is good at. And she displayed that immediately,” Gottlieb said.
‘Like an addiction’
After racking up a number of summits of smaller mountains, in 2012 Sherpa was selected to join an expedition organised by National Geographic to the world’s highest peak.
“Everest used to be my aim. I used to think that once I scale Everest it will be enough. But climbing is like an addiction. The more I climbed, the more I wanted to climb,” she said.
It was after returning from that successful summit that she signed up to become a certified mountain guide.
In 2014, she was part of the first Nepali women’s team to scale Pakistan’s K2, considered one of the world’s toughest climbs.
Last year, she attempted to climb the world’s third highest peak, Kangchenjunga on the Nepal-India border, but bad weather forced her to turn back before the summit.
“She was already moving forward to become one of the top women mountaineers not just in Nepal but in the world, but this certificate will open many new opportunities for her,” said Sunar Bahadur Gurung, President of the Nepal National Mountain Guides Association.
“Dawa is very capable but is also extremely determined.”
Sherpa is planning to guide a team to North America’s highest peak Denali with Alpine Ascents International this June, and will then return home to Nepal where she also works as an instructor at two climbing schools.
She hopes that she is just the first of many women from Nepal who will look to the fabled peaks of the Himalayas for a career.
“I didn’t have anyone to look up to and sometimes doubted if I could do it,” she said.
“But hopefully my small success will inspire other girls to follow their dreams.” 

Private investigators hired by the children of late Canadian pharmaceutical tycoon Barry Sherman concluded that he and his wife were murdered, the Toronto Star reported Saturday.

The 75-year-old chairman of Apotex and his 70-year-old wife Honey were found dead in their Toronto home on December 15. Apotex is the largest maker of generic drugs in Canada, and the Shermans' fortune was estimated at more than $3 billion.

Toronto's homicide unit, which took over the investigation into the "suspicious" deaths, earlier said that they had been strangled to death, but stopped short of calling them homicides.

The Shermans' bodies were found hanging from a railing around a basement pool, the theory being that the Apotex chairman killed his wife Honey, hung her body and then hanged himself by the pool's edge, Canadian media reported in December, citing a police source.

Sherman's four children however said that a murder-suicide made no sense, and hired criminal lawyer Brian Greenspan to help, the Star reported.

Greenspan in turn hired private detectives and asked for a second autopsy, which was carried out by a forensic pathologist on December 20, just before the funeral.

- "Contract killing" -

The pathologist and the detectives, which included former Toronto homicide investigators, found markings on the victims' wrists indicating that their hands had been tied with cord or a plastic zip tie.

When the bodies were found the wrists were untied, and no rope or cords were found, the newspaper said. Furthermore, toxicology tests on the bodies showed no abnormal sign of drug use.

The team concluded that the couple was strangled to death with men's leather belts found around their necks attached to a bar at the edge of the pool.

Sources close to the family probe used words like "professional," "contract killing," and "staged homicide" to describe the couple's death, the Star said.

The private detectives have not been granted access to the house, according to the Star, which quoted sources as saying that there was no damage or other evidence inside pointing to a home invasion.

And though both the police and private detectives canvassed nearby home for surveillance video, "nothing has come from a study" of the footage, the Star said.

Sherman founded Apotex in 1974, and over the following decades became known as a ruthless businessman who shunned the limelight while revolutionizing the drug industry in Canada.

Today, the company employs over 11,000 people and sells 300 generic drugs in 120 countries.

Protestors took to the streets en masse across the United States Saturday, hoisting anti-Donald Trump placards, banging drums and donning pink caps symbolic of the resistance for a second Women’s March opposing the president one year to the day of his inauguration.

By mid-morning hundreds of thousands of marchers had assembled in Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities nationwide, many donning the famous pink knit “pussy hats” — a reference to Trump’s videotaped boasts of his license to grope women without repercussions.

Protestors hoisted placards with messages including “Fight like a girl” and “A woman’s place is in the White House” and “Elect a clown, expect a circus.”

Another took aim at Trump’s government: “I’ve seen smarter cabinets at IKEA,” it said, referring to a furniture store with items requiring often-tedious and time-consuming assembly.

In New York a diverse crowd comprised primarily of women descended on Central Park West, the avenue that borders Manhattan’s beloved park and finishes at the foot of the Trump International Hotel, part of the magnate-turned-commander-in-chief’s real estate empire.

“We live in an alternate universe — it is so bad,” said Althea Fusco, 67, who traveled to the city from upstate New York with two neighbors.

“I see an erosion of democracy,” she said.

The marches aim to build on the movement launched last year when more than three million people turned out nationwide, voicing opposition to the Republican president’s swearing-in.

The weekend of demonstrations have vowed to keep that momentum rolling with the theme “Power to the Polls” — a message designed to drive national voter registration and maximize women’s involvement in the 2018 midterm elections, translating enthusiasm into concrete political action.

The president meanwhile posted a deadpan tweet referencing the rallies protesting his policies, urging people to “get out there and celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months.”

“Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March,” he wrote.In Los Angeles throngs of people marched towards City Hall, while protestors rallied in Washington at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial that towers over the capital’s sprawling National Mall esplanade — speaking out on a raft of issues ranging from immigrant protections to racial equality to the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct.

“We feel like our work isn’t done and that there’s so much more that we need to fix,” said Tanaquil Eltson, 14, who also demonstrated in Washington’s 2017 march.

“I know the world around me isn’t happy colors; it’s scary. But I’m excited to be able to fix it,” she said, clad in a red and blue Superwoman outfit.

Her mother Vitessa Del Prete, a retired US army lieutenant colonel, pointed to the recent flood of sexual abuse and harassment allegations against powerful men that has galvanized women to fight back against injustice.

“I’ve lived through decades of sexual harassment issues and it’s getting better — but it’s nowhere near where it needs to be,” the 51-year-old said, sporting a full Wonder Woman costume in coordination with her daughter.

“Issues that face women are just not being represented well enough in our country, so it’s a privilege to be able to get out here and try to do something from a citizen standpoint.”

More than 300 towns and cities are organizing anniversary marches and rallies.

“We cannot rest,” said Pam Morris in Washington. “We have to keep energized until we overcome this administration.”

“We cannot get worn down. We have to be here.”

Former president Dilma Rousseff said Friday Brazil will be ungovernable if a court decision due next week blocks Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva from running in October polls, and upholds his corruption conviction.

"Any government that assumes power by winning the 2018 elections, without a transparent and correct electoral process, without maneuvers to invalidate candidates -- as in Lula's case -- will not be able to govern this country," Rousseff told AFP in an interview.

Lula was sentenced in July to 9.5 years behind bars after being convicted of corruption in Brazil's huge "Car Wash" graft scandal. The court in Porto Alegre said it will rule on his appeal on January 24.

That could decide whether Lula -- hugely popular during his 2001-2010 two-term presidency -- can take part in October 2018 presidential elections in which he is currently the frontrunner.

Speaking by phone from her home in Porto Alegre, Rousseff -- who was impeached in 2016 for breaking budget rules -- said she believed Lula can calm the South American country's stormy political waters.

"I don't think that insisting on the political use of the judicial system will stabilize and grow the country," she said.

"Lula can help turn the page, help in a transition period between now and a reconstruction.

"We are going to have to try to heal the wounds and mend the country."

After years of economic decline and corruption scandals, Brazilians are so far turning away from centrist, traditional candidates, with Lula a comfortable leader in the polls, despite his many legal problems.

Rousseff, 70, still believes that her impeachment was a parliamentary coup intended to cut a cycle of 13 years of leftist rule, and that the legal process against her mentor Lula is aimed at "dismantling" his socialist policies.

Rousseff lives near her daughter and grandchildren in Porto Alegre, where the court verdict on Lula's future will be delivered on Wednesday.

- Tensions ahead of verdict -

Lula's Workers' Party (PT) expects to flood the southern Brazilian city with its supporters ahead of the ruling.

The local authorities have called on the army to provide extra security. PT chairman Senator Gleisi Hoffman said that if they wanted to arrest Lula they would have to "kill people."

Rousseff distanced herself Friday from such talk.

"What there is, is indignation, and indignation is a peaceful, democratic feeling. That indignation is an expression of an awareness of injustice and political persecution," she said.

Rousseff remains convinced of a plot by judicial, political and business sectors to sideline the PT.

They wanted to "destroy the PT, destroy their greatest leader, but they went wrong because all the polls show a growing intention to vote for Lula."

Rousseff -- who is active on social media, where she describes herself as "president-elect of Brazil" -- says she is still evaluating a possible run for Congress, but for now is focusing her efforts on defending Lula, who faces six other corruption cases.

She believes that the man responsible for removing Brazil from the UN hunger map will not go to prison.

"I don't believe in that possibility. They're not going to want to make him a bigger hero than he already is."

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday she is expecting her first baby, and is set to become the country's first leader to give birth while in office.

The 37-year-old, who was sworn in last October, made global headlines when she slapped down pre-election questions over whether she intended to start a family, insisting pregnancy had no bearing on a woman's career opportunities.

Ardern was all smiles Friday as she appeared with partner Clarke Gayford at their home to announce the "unexpected but exciting" news of their first baby.

"Clark and I are really excited to share...that in June we are looking forward to welcoming our first child," she told reporters.

"We still have to get used to saying that out loud because we've been keeping that to ourselves for quite a long time."

The charismatic leader enjoyed a rapid rise to the top ranks of politics, winning office last year just months after taking the helm of the centre-left Labour Party.

"We thought 2017 was a big year!" she tweeted.

"This year we'll join the many parents who wear two hats. I'll be PM and a mum while Clarke will be 'first man of fishing' and stay at home dad."

Ardern said she would take six weeks off after the birth of her child, with maverick Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters taking the reins of office.

She said she aimed to be "contactable and available" during the period and would resume all leadership duties when it was over.

Ardern, who did not reveal whether she was expecting a boy or a girl, said she and Gayford previously had doubts they could conceive.

"Clarke and I have always been clear we wanted to be parents but had been told we would need help for that to happen," she said.

"That's made this news a fantastic surprise."

She tweeted a picture of two large fishing hooks, one with a smaller hook inside it, in reference to Gayford's career as a television fishing show presenter.

- Sexism row -

Ardern's plans for a family sparked a sexism row during the election when a television host quizzed her on the issue, saying voters had a right to know before they cast their ballots.

She rejected the line of questioning as "unacceptable", saying pregnancy and child rearing should not hinder women's opportunities in the workplace.

"It is a woman's decision about when they choose to have children and it should not predetermine whether or not they are given a job or have job opportunities," she said.

While several male prime ministers have become parents in office -- including Britain's Tony Blair -- late Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is believed to have been the first head of government to have given birth during her term, when she had a baby in 1990.

Ardern said "there's no doubt times have changed" making it possible for her to juggle motherhood and a high-profile political career.

But she played down suggestions she was a trailblazer.

"I am not the first woman to multitask. I am not the first woman to work and have a baby," she said.

"I know these are special circumstances, but there are many women who would have done this well before I have.

"There are plenty of women who carved a path incrementally to make it possible for people to look upon my time in leadership and think 'yes I can do the job and be a mother'."

- 'More excited than election' -

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered his congratulations on the "wonderful news".

"When we spoke this morning you sounded more excited than you did when you won the election!" he tweeted.

Ex-New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, Ardern's mentor early in her career, said her former charge was in for "a super busy year".

"Every woman should have the choice of combining family & career," she tweeted.

Green Party co-leader James Shaw said Ardern's announcement was significant for many women.

"That a woman can be the prime minister of New Zealand and choose to have a family while in office says a lot about the kind of country we are and that we can be -– modern, progressive, inclusive, and equal," he said.

Gayford was non-committal when asked if the pregnancy meant he would now marry Ardern.

"Wow, I like the idea that we are doing everything in reverse," he told reporters.

"We bought a house together, then we are having a baby and will see..."

They starved, shackled, beat and even hogtied their 13 captive children — and now it’s their turn to rot in prison, prosecutors said Thursday.

David Turpin, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49, were formally charged with 12 counts of torture, seven counts of abuse of dependent adults, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment, Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said.

David was also charged with one count of a lewd act on a child 14 or younger.

“We are alleging David Turpin touched one of the victims in a lewd way by using force or fear,” Hestrin said.If convicted as charged, the parents each face 94 years to life in prison.

“They have been severely hurt and damaged,” Hestrin said of the 13 siblings rescued Sunday from their house in Perris, 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles. “The abuse was horrific and over time.”

Hestrin revealed that the 17-year-old daughter who jumped from a window early Sunday and called 911 on a deactivated cell phone had plotted her escape with her siblings for more than two years.Another sibling joined her on the daring dash but turned back out of fear.When police knocked on the door of house of horrors later Sunday, the Turpins rushed to unchain an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old, he said. A 22-year-old remained chained to a bed when police entered the home.

Hestrin said the house was the site of “frequent” beatings for minor infractions and that the children were tied up for punishments at first, then later chained.

They were allowed only one shower a year, and if they washed their hands above the wrist area, they were accused of “playing in the water” and punished, Hestrin said.

Hestrin said evidence in the house showed that when the children were chained as punishment, they were not released to use the bathroom.The parents also taunted them with toys left in their wrappings and delicious food that was just out of reach.“They would buy food including pies — apples pies, pumpkin pies — leave it on the counter, let the children look at it, but not eat it,” he said.

He said the kids suffered in the shadows, “supposedly home-schooled,” and filled “hundreds” of journals that were recovered at the scene.

“All 13 of the victims, including the defendants, typically go to sleep around 4 or 5 in the morning, sleep all day and (are) up all through the night,” he said.One of the adult children at one point was allowed to attend classes outside the home, but the mom, Louise, waited outside the class to take him home, Hestrin said.

When police first made contact with the siblings, they all appeared to be minors, officials said. It turned out seven were actually adults ranging in age from 18 to 29.

“One of the children at age 12 is the weight of an average 7-year-old. The 29-year-old, the female victim, weighs 82 pounds,” Hestrin said.He said several of the victims have cognitive impairment and neuropathy, a kind of nerve damage, as a result of the “extreme and prolonged” abuse.The children hadn’t seen a doctor in four years and never saw a dentist, he said.

David and Louise Turpin appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to all the charges Thursday afternoon.

They were the ones shackled this time, with David slumping in his chair, his long gray hair matted and unwashed.

They spoke only to say they understood their preliminary hearings would not happen until after a Feb. 23 court date. “This is a very serious case of course. He could spend the rest of his life in prison," David's public defender David Macher told the Daily News after the hearing.“It doesn't get much more serious in terms of the severity of the conduct being alleged,” Louise’s lawyer Jeff Moore, who was appointed by the judge, said.

Judge Michael Donner set bail at $12 million each, instead of the $13 million originally requested by prosecutors.

Hestrin said earlier in the day his office filed only 12 torture charges in the end because the couple's 2-year-old child "apparently was getting enough to eat." 

Despite enjoying some newfound freedoms such as the right to attend a football match, Saudi women, particularly rights activists, continue to be silenced, two rights groups said Wednesday.

The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) said the "scandalous" treatment of women activists in the Islamic kingdom raised questions about the monarchy's "genuine willingness" to modernise.

"On the one hand, since 2016, there have been momentous announcements on the societal reforms to come; on the other, since 2011, there has been an ongoing and unprecedented wave of repression directed against human rights defenders," they said in a joint report released in the French capital.

Last week, Saudi Arabia allowed women to enter a football stadium for the first time to watch a game. The move came four months after King Salman announced an end to a longstanding ban on women driving -- a major change to the country's ultraconservative social order.

The FIDH and OMCT said that largely "symbolic" move had detracted attention from the plight of women activists.

"Although in recent years the government has given indications of more openness, especially since the arrival of a 'new generation' of leaders represented by Crown Prince Mohammas Bin Salman, women are still exposed to a double vulnerability," they said.

Like all women they are still subject to a guardianship system, meaning they have to obtain permission from a male family member to study, travel and engage in a host of other activities.

And as activists, the report added, they risk being jailed under terrorism, religious and other laws used to detain dozens of rights campaigners, bloggers and lawyers.

Under new counterterrorism legislation, those who defame or insult the king or crown prince risk up to 10 years' imprisonment.

- 'Most activists silenced' -

Addressing a Paris press conference by Skype, US-based Saudi activist Hala Al-Dosari, a researcher at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, said the modernising image the Saudi crown prince was trying to project abroad contrasted with the repressive climate at home.

"Most of the (female) activists have been silenced," she said.

The report profiled seven women, including 28-year-old Loujain Al-Hathloul, who spent 73 days in jail in 2014-15 for driving a car, and Maryam al-Otaibi who spent more than 100 days behind bars last year for leaving her male guardians.

Dozens of princes, ministers and businessmen were also arrested last year in a purge billed as a crackdown on corruption.

An Israeli military judge Wednesday ordered a Palestinian teenager who was arrested after a viral video showed her hitting two Israeli soldiers held in custody through her trial, possibly for months, despite calls from rights groups for her release.

The teenager's mother has also been ordered held until trial in the high-profile case that has put the family at the centre of a propaganda war between Israelis and Palestinians.

"I found no alternative other than to order her detention in custody until the end of proceedings," the judge ruled, referring to 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi.

"The gravity of the offences of which she is accused does not allow an alternative to custody."

Ahed Tamimi has been hailed as a hero by Palestinians who see her as bravely standing up to Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Israelis accuse her family of using her as a pawn in staged provocations.

She has been charged with 12 counts including assault and could face a lengthy jail term if convicted.

The charges relate to events in the video and five other incidents. They include stone-throwing, incitement and making threats.

The judge's decision on Wednesday raises the possibility she could spend months in custody before the conclusion of her case.

Representatives from the French and Swedish consulates as well as the European Union attended the hearing for Tamimi, who sat impassively in a khaki prison jacket.

"The court said that because she is so dangerous there is no possibility of bail," her lawyer Gaby Lasky told reporters.

Human rights groups have criticised the minor's continued detention since her arrest on December 19, while the EU has expressed concern.

Lasky says it violates international child welfare conventions.

Her mother was arrested over the incident the same day, while her cousin Nour Tamimi, 20, was arrested on December 20. Nour was released on bail on January 5.

The accusations against Nariman Tamimi include using Facebook "to incite others to commit terrorist attacks" and participating in the incident on video.

- 'Discriminatory treatment' -

Ahed Tamimi's family says the December 15 incident that led to the arrests occurred in the yard of their home in Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah in the West Bank.

Israel's military said the soldiers were in the area to prevent Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists.

A video shows the cousins approaching two soldiers and telling them to leave before shoving, kicking and slapping them.

Ahed Tamimi is the most aggressive of the two in the video.

The heavily armed soldiers do not respond to what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seriously harm them.

They then move backwards after Nariman Tamimi becomes involved.

The scuffle took place amid clashes and protests against US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Relatives say that a member of the Tamimi family was wounded in the head by a rubber bullet fired during those protests.

Seventeen Palestinians have been killed since Trump's declaration on December 6, most of them in clashes with Israeli forces. One Israeli has been shot dead since then.

Ahed Tamimi has been involved in a series of previous incidents, with older pictures of her confronting soldiers widely published.

She has become something of an icon for Palestinians who have flooded social media with praise and support.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has praised her and spoken with her father.

Rights group Amnesty International has called on Israel to release her immediately, while the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights has criticised Israeli authorities' actions in the case.

It said "deprivation of liberty of children shall only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and the best interests of the child are to be a primary consideration."

The video has led to varied reactions among Israelis.

Some have hailed the restraint of the soldiers, but others said the Tamimis' actions merited a tougher response and called for a heavy sentence.