NourHaha!

To come from an upbringing where male individuals around you can practice several forms of power but be forbidden to exercise any of it for yourself is a form of entrapment. It is that way because one becomes compelled to think for themselves and commit the criminal act of attempted independence. An act punishable by law for most women in the Gulf region. Shaikha Latifah may have felt this frustration, even from the comfort of her own palace. There is no hierarchy of oppression, and everybody struggles differently. As a passion that was born out of a coping mechanism, she poured all her love into skydiving and caring for animals.  She is an experienced skydiver with accelerated freefall instructor ratings. As an outsider, this marvelous horse-riding princess doesn’t sound nor look suppressed. In fact, she is living her best life. But sounds and looks don’t matter as much as the seven-year escape and safety plans she had carefully calculated over the years. The escape plan was mist...

Advocacy can take on many lanes or show up in different forms. Conversations happening offline and alongside online Tweets are generously pouring in from those who so desperately seek justice for vulnerable survivors with no advocates. Strength in numbers is the advocate’s road to solidarity. This is one way advocacy is giving a new voice to the trans experience in Kuwait. Even though trans people undergo extensive and often complex changes including surgeries to finally feel like the gender they identify with, legal barriers fueled with public hate, and coupled with internalized shame, do not permit a wholesome transition. Article 198 of Kuwait’s Penal Code, which was amended in 2007, gives law enforcement the right to arrest those who “imitate the opposite sex.” Transgender individuals are virtually viewed as impostors who deserve criminal punishment. Their best bet is to avoid law enforcement at all costs, but even that does not guarantee amnesty. As for the legal writing...

Car manufacturers are increasing their advertising via televised platforms that promote their products to their target market. The critical observations in this report will analyze demographics, gender, storyline, type of humor, and effectiveness of 20 commercial ads to their target market. The commercial ads are taken from Youtube and iSpot, 10 of which are from BMW, and the other 10 from Lexus. These observations are analyzed from a marketing lens to conclude the extent to which they have effected their viewers. between quality and great value, both BMW and Lexus would fall under quality. these are not cheap cars. I chose these two brands for the analysis because even though both brands sell luxury cars to similar markets, both have interesting marketing campaigns that are unique to their brand. BMW premieres a storyline with (an increasingly) diverse representation, and Lexus has a narrowed focus on the car itself and its qualities. Lexus uses marketing pro...

Shifting Perceptions to Shift Gears High-profile women chipping away at the “cement ceiling” in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries that were interviewed for The Future of Women Leaders in the Middle East are Muna Abu Sulayman (secretary general of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation), Haifa Jamal AlLail (president of Effat University in Jeddah), Sheikha Hanadi Al Thani (Founder of Amwal, Qatar’s leading investment banking and asset management firm), Shaikha Lubna Al Qassimi (Minister of Foreign Trade for the UAE), Amina Al Rustamani (CEO of TECOM Business Parks), H.E. Fatima Al Jaber (COO of Al Jaber Group), Khawla Al-Kuraya (principal clinical scientist at the King Faisal Hospital and Research Center and director of the Research Center for Children’s Cancer), and Raja Al Gurg (Managing Director of Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group). Their comments posted around guardianship provided by education, work-life balance, mentorship, and family support are the means by which female leadership ...

--> Hugh Hefner was one (of many) clear embodiment of how much a guy could degrade women  around him be and still get celebrated as a progressive idol. This piece will not highlight Hefner’s work as a writer or his other positive contributions to society because, as truth holds, it is indeed possible for people to do good and bad things in their lifetime. But focusing a lens on his many problematic sexual formations, and the start of legitimizing the business of buying and selling women’s bodies, this is someone who, despite how vulgar he is in the way he has portrayed the body of woman since 1953, is remembered as a good man. Why? Clearly, this was someone who showcased the beauty of women. This is his legacy, right? Women’s beauty, although fluid in the unlimited sense of spectrum’s humanity, was very particularly standardized under the Heffner brand. It’s not like he was showing examples of beauty in the form of colored women, disabled women, non-gender binary w...

Challenges Women, in the general sense, are well-educated in all of the GCC nations, but women’s decision to work past that education is still controlled by the conservative culture that surrounds them (Asia Business Council). Even as women are now granted more rights, many laws continue to discriminate against women and their progress in leadership development. In Saudi Arabia, women are seen as minors under the eyes of the laws, requiring male guardian consent for even basic things. Furthermore, women in Saudi Arabia still cannot drive, attend school, or travel abroad without such consent. Kuwait, although less restricted, still gives a mixed bag of laws that may allow women to travel abroad but on their own but not be permitted to obtain a driver’s license without permission from their male guardian. In the UAE, the culture still practices sexist ideals that make women’s leadership difficult to stand on its own. Bahrain and Oman, although achieving gender parity in education, st...

Women’s participation in leadership positions is an intersection of political, economic, and educational factors put in place by gender-specific traditions that culturally hinder, and usually bar, women’s career development in the Gulf. An accumulation of cited research will portray the status of women in the GCC countries as well as outline some key challenges they face in their battle to achieve top management roles. The research will conclude with recommendations that could be set by companies and regulators to move the social status of women forward, and tools and resources necessary to maintain and grow women’s leadership and management in the labor force. Background Improving the economic status for women in the Gulf countries will not be successful without creating favorable factors that catalyze on women’s pursuit of leadership. Key recommendations in the report will improve the developments on labor representation, academic representation, and the overall social status o...