[WCUSP] Fwd: Saudi Women Passing the Science Gate

[yvonne simmons]

>  
>  
> Saudi Arabian Women  Passing the Gate of Science 
> By Mohammad  Arif, adviser in science and
> technology. 
> Translated by Wafaa’  Al-Natheema
> In  the minds and hearts of Saudi women scientists
> are thoughts, dreams, 
> emotions,  poems and songs that are much more
> dramatic than those in the novel 
> "Ar-Riyadh  Girls."^ I returned with this impression
> recently  from a mission in 
> Saudi Arabia to prepare a study, commissioned by one
> of the  United Nations 
> organizations for women of science in the Arab
> world. Perhaps the  novel 
> "Ar-Riyadh Girls," which had its fifth edition
> published, is interesting,  frivolous, 
> or playful, however it was nothing more than an
> "Internet chat"  compared 
> with women science epic, medicine and engineering in
> Saudi Arabia.  While the 
> chatting continues about the need to achieve gender
> equality, the  number of 
> female students in higher education exceeds that of
> males in Saudi  Arabia. 
> In  the last academic year 2004 – 2005, the total
> number of students at 
> universities  and institutes exceeded half a
> million, and reached 571813, including 
> 334817  women, compared with 236996 men.
> Surprisingly, the number of female 
> students of  mathematics and statistics (4320),
> which is equivalent to five 
> times the males  (867), and the ratio is three times
> higher in physics, where the 
> number of  female students is 2880 versus 975 male
> students. The total female 
> graduates in  the last year were 43823 compared with
> 38798 male graduates. 
> But the picture is  different when calculating the
> number of members of the 
> teaching staff in 2004,  5041 females compared with
> 9736 males. This doubles the 
> burdens women science  teachers face in universities
> and institutes of higher 
> education. But this did  not interfere with them
> achieving remarkable results 
> even in areas as  mathematics. One quarter of the
> members of the "Saudi 
> Association for  Mathematical Sciences" are women
> holding doctorates, whose research 
> used as  sources in the work of researchers in
> Britain, China, Mexico, Serbia 
> and other  countries. One can find innovative
> solutions to intractable 
> mathematical  equations in the research of Fatima
> Jamjoom, Professor at the 
> Department of  Mathematics, College of Sciences at
> King Saud University in Riyadh; 
> Fadwa  Sallama, Professor at the College of
> Education for Girls in Riyadh as well 
> as  the research of her colleagues, Suad
> Al-Hemaidan, Naela Al-Daihan, Abir  
> Al-Harbi, Ferdous Mohammed Omar, Naela Al-Oboudi and
> Ibtisam Bajnaid. 
> The  work of most Saudi women penetrates the walls
> of laboratories. Suad 
> Mohammad B.  Amer, who obtained a doctorate degree
> from the University of London 
> in the  subject of "Human cells’ Resistance to
> Medical Drugs," chairs the 
> Research Unit  of Breast Cancer at the King Faysal
> Hospital in Riyadh, and focuses 
> her research  on the inherited genetic causes of
> this disease, which affects 
> 500 women in  Saudi Arabia each year, and on average
> it kills one woman in the 
> world every 13  minutes. Suad M. B. Amer also
> launches voluntary national 
> campaign to raise  awareness of this disease, during
> which tens of articles get 
> presented and  thousands of educational pamphlets
> are distributed on genetic and 
> environmental  causes of the disease, and ways of
> early self-examination, 
> treatment  opportunities, and the disease’s
> physical and psychological effects, 
> as well as  the role of families in the care of
> infected women, and how to 
> mitigate their  pain. Yasmin A. At-Tawaijeri, the
> Director of the Department for 
> Biological  Statistics of the Research Center at the
> King Faisal Specialist 
> Hospital,  obtained a Ph.D. from the University of
> Houston in the United States.  
> Her current research examines diseases  affecting
> the lives of millions of 
> people in the Gulf. It addresses the  phenomenon of
> new nutritional epidemics in 
> the region, including obesity, poor  nutrition,
> smoking, lack of physical 
> movement, and how all that affects blood  pressure,
> heart disease, diabetes, 
> malignant diseases, which result in the loss  of
> billions of dollars annually. In 
> the research of Firdous S. Al-Salih, a  professor of
> nuclear physics at the 
> University of Girls in Riyadh, the sciences  of
> physics, the environment and 
> archaeology converge. Her research includes the  use
> of gamma ray to determine 
> the dates of ancient artifacts in areas like 
> Najran, Taj and Ukhdood, and 
> checking the natural radiation in the local 
> construction materials, as well as 
> measuring the rates of radioactive radon gas  in
> buildings. 
> At  the time when the author of “Ar-Riyadh
> Girls” uses the Internet for 
> chatting,  Arwa Yousif Al-Ama wins the award of the
> Computer Organization ACM, 
> which is  supported by "Microsoft". The award
> arbitrators were surprised when 
> they learned  that the winner was not a man, as they
> imagined, but a Saudi woman 
> doctorate  student in the subject of computer
> security at George Washington 
> University.  Currently, she Chairs the Computer
> Science Department at the King 
> Abdul Aziz  University in Jeddah.  The progress  of
> research projects by the 
> female university students gets the support of major
>  private companies in the 
> Kingdom. 
> In  sciences, “women,” are supposed to be
> "partners with men," according to 
> the old  Arabic proverb, which means that they have
> rights as well as duties. 
> That is  achieved with considerable caution in Saudi
> Arabia. The King Abdul 
> Aziz City for  Science and Technology, with its
> board of directors headed by the 
> King, composed  of 11 ministers as the Council of
> Ministers of Science and 
> Technology, has only  one Woman; Dr. Mashaail B. M.
> Al Saud. Being a specialist 
> in  geomorphology, provided her with the chance to
> participate in the  works 
> of "the Institute of Space" in the city of
> Al-Madeena, yet she remained  
> officially an Associate Professor at the Faculty of
> Arts, University of King  Saud. 
> Is this due to the fact that higher education for
> females in  Saudi Arabia did 
> not begin until the 1970s?
> Samira  Ibrahim Islam, who was the first Saudi woman
> to receive doctorate 
> degree in  science, recalls how the chemistry
> laboratory director at the King 
> Abdul Aziz  University in Jeddah requested the
> signature of students’ parents to 
> ensure that  they exonerate him from liability
> charges regarding their 
> exposure to any  accident in the laboratory that may
> damage their body. The tale of 
> Samira Islam  deserves to be made an interesting
> novel; she was the first among 
> the women and  men of Saudi Arabia to obtain the
> title of "professor" in 
> pharmacology, first  Arab Moslem woman to be awarded
> the world’s "Loréal-UNESCO" 
> award allocated to  women in 2000, she founded the
> first private college in the 
> kingdom, "Effat  College for Girls,"* and
> established the  "Medicine Control 
> Unit" at the King Fahd Center for Medical Research. 
> She also published more 
> than 70  scientific studies. 
> We  cannot grasp the essence of Arab women
> scientists without knowing how 
> they  reconcile activities between academic teaching
> and research and the duties 
> of  marriage and motherhood. Samira Islam has a
> daughter and a son who are 
> pursuing  graduate studies in medicine in London. 
> I  wish for the United Nations to distribute
> information about Arab women in 
> the  science outside their region, making it
> available to people worldwide. 
> The data  from the progress of Arab women scientists
> enriches the economic and 
> political  records worldwide about the nature of
> women and their ability to 
> waging a  scientific and technological revolution.
> In the science gate, as 
> philosophers of  science say "here the heart should
> be cohesive and the 
> determination firm."  So with which heart and
> determination  Iraqi women scientists 
> entered and exited the gate of science? They spent
> all  their youthful years in the 
> collection, production, preservation, camouflaging 
> and dismantling as well as 
> re-packaging and rebuilding of science. The heart of
>  one of those in charge 
> at the United Nations crashed when she was asked to 
> remove the names of women 
> scientists living inside Iraq from the report for
> fear  of being 
> assassinated. 
>  /////////
>  
> The original Arabic version of the article is 
> attached.
>  
> Footnotes:
>  
> ^ Ar-Riyadh  literally means ‘the Riyadh’, which
> is the capital of Saudi 
> Arabia.  The hyphenation between the Rs is to 
> ensure emphasis of the ‘ r ‘ 
>  
> * A  detailed article about “Effat College for
> Girls” appears in the 
> January/February  2007 issue of the Saudi Aramco
> World magazine on page 2.  The issue 
> is strongly recommended for  those who are
> interested in sciences, history 
> and archaeology.
> 
>  
>  
> Note: The above footnotes have been added by the
> translator, 
> and not in the original (Arabic)  article.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ************************************** See what's
> free at http://www.aol.com.
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: saudiwomenscientists.doc
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 34816 bytes
Desc: pat2009928358
Url : http://wilpf.org/pipermail/wcusp_wilpf.org/attachments/20070503/0f7e32e2/attachment-0001.obj