In the dozen conflicts and warzones where Lise Grande has worked, she says women's right have been marginalised, neglected or entirely forgotten.
Before becoming President and CEO of the US Institute for Peace in December last year, Ms Grande served as UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the world’s worst place for women: Yemen.
"Since the war started, 80 per cent of the population have been hurt but those hurt the most are women … Women are a million times worse off because of the war. They have lost access to food, access to the political sphere, access to education and access to healthcare," she told The National before International Women's Day on March 8.
“At the same time, women are also the ones expected to cope with every disaster, to feed the family, get medicines when children are sick, find fuel, look after relatives, run the household, even as their own lives are disintegrating."
Women are not offered the resources to carry out the disproportionately large responsibility expected of them by society, she added.
“The burden of supporting and caring for their families falls on them. Women are the least empowered but expected to do the most despite this.”
Women’s oppression does not occur within one sect, group or affiliate but across the board, Ms Grande says.
“The systems of patriarchy, power and oppression are deeply embedded and extremely difficult to transform. That also means that the process of change is not something that will happen quickly or overnight. It’s a long road and struggle."
For 13 years in the row, Yemen ranked last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, making it the worst place for a woman to live.
It moved up four places in the Index’s 2020 edition but remains the least progressive country for women in the Middle East.
Only a third of women in Yemen are literate, making up less than 2 per cent of the political process and a mere 6 per cent of the labour force, the lowest in the world, according to the 2020 Global Gender Gap Index.
Ms Grande says she saw some of this first hand.
"I was the only woman in 98 per cent of all official meetings in Yemen," she said.
People make the argument that the peace process is hard enough and that it would be harder to achieve and take longer if the process has to include women. 'We'll get to the women later,' people would say. That's what has to stop and that has to stop now.
In 2019, rights group Amnesty International released a report featuring interviews with women from Sanaa, Taez and Marib.
“By God, I am broken from the inside. It’s not normal, I don’t feel like a human being. I can’t breathe properly like other human beings," one of the women told Amnesty.
"We suffer from the forced niqab, child marriage, divorce shame, domestic violence and honour killings. I don’t know … as if we are aliens. They [male family members] have to oppress us and we have to stay oppressed – like a puppet controlled by strings."
Ms Grande says the situation for women in Yemen was incomparably dire – even against other conflicts she has worked in like Sudan, the Congo and Armenia.
“I have seen nothing like it,” Ms Grande says.
Against all odds, local and UN-supported women’s rights groups exist across Yemen, hoping to make strides for women in education, policy, and human rights.
Organisations like women-led NGO Food 4 Humanity and the Abs Development Organisation for Woman and Child (ADO) have collaborated with other like-minded groups on equality in Yemen.
“It is our collective responsibility to support these groups, politically and financially, and to stand in solidarity with them," Ms Grande said.
Some 230,000 Yemenis have been killed since the war began with the Houthi takeover of Sanaa in 2015, and the Saudi-led Arab Coalition's intervention to restore Yemen's legitimate government into power, according to UN estimates.
For years, the UN and the US have been attempting to bring all warring parties of the conflict to a negotiating table for peace talks.
While progress has been made on several occasions, resulting in the mutual release of prisoners and precarious ceasefires, lasting and concrete steps have yet to be taken in the political process.
“People make the argument that the peace process is hard enough and that it would be harder to achieve and take longer if the process has to include women. 'We’ll get to the women later,' people would say. That’s what has to stop and that has to stop now,” Ms Grande said.
“It’s high time that the mediators who help to build peace are women. Women mediators won’t say that women’s equality can wait – that men have created the problem and need to solve it. As victims of patriarchy women mediators understand, in ways that most male mediators do not, that patriarchal systems do not produce lasting peace or equality.”
On this year’s International Women’s Day, Ms Grande says one of the most important things the world can all do is to honour, support and stand in solidarity with women in every country who are struggling for peace and changing the patriarchal status quo.
"Our job is to help build networks of women across the world that may one day be the foundation for tangible progress in the realm of women’s rights in Yemen."
A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Company profile
Company name: Nestrom
Started: 2017
Co-founders: Yousef Wadi, Kanaan Manasrah and Shadi Shalabi
Based: Jordan
Sector: Technology
Initial investment: Close to $100,000
Investors: Propeller, 500 Startups, Wamda Capital, Agrimatico, Techstars and some angel investors
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
'Nope'
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Company%20Profile
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
The Details
Article 15
Produced by: Carnival Cinemas, Zee Studios
Directed by: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Zeeshan Ayyub
Our rating: 4/5
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Brief scores:
Juventus 3
Dybala 6', Bonucci 17', Ronaldo 63'
Frosinone 0
TUESDAY'S ORDER OF PLAY
Centre Court
Starting at 2pm:
Elina Svitolina (UKR) [3] v Jennifer Brady (USA)
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) v Belinda Bencic (SUI [4]
Not before 7pm:
Sofia Kenin (USA) [5] v Elena Rybakina (KAZ)
Maria Sakkari (GRE) v Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) [7]
Court One
Starting at midday:
Karolina Muchova (CZE) v Katerina Siniakova (CZE)
Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) v Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR)
Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) v Dayana Yastermska (UKR)
Petra Martic (CRO) [8] v Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)
Sorana Cirstea (ROU) v Anett Kontaveit (EST)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20Profile
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Brief scoreline:
Toss: South Africa, elected to bowl first
England (311-8): Stokes 89, Morgan 57, Roy 54, Root 51; Ngidi 3-66
South Africa (207): De Kock 68, Van der Dussen 50; Archer 3-27, Stokes 2-12
Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
