Arab women in science
PHOTO: JUBEIHA STUDIOS
It's a common trope that Arab women lack equality of opportunity and freedom to engage with the world. The received wisdom is that they are prevented from pursuing an education and a career by religious and/or cultural restrictions. But the truth is more nuanced. Religion and culture are not the strongest determinants of Arab nations' approaches to women's education—systems and resources are. Choosing to see religion or ethnicity over economics and prosperity is both careless and damaging.
There is no religious bar to education for women in my faith, Islam. Indeed, according to religious doctrine, the acquisition of knowledge is binding on all Muslims, regardless of gender. A peppering of female role models, stretching back to the earliest days of Islam, supports this assertion and gives women today a pedigree to be proud of. For example, in 859 CE, Fatima al-Fihri founded the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco, today the oldest continuously operating university in the world. Of course, highlighting this heritage of education must not disguise the cultural impact of patriarchy in some societies that are predominantly Muslim, but it is a way to put that in its proper place—that is, patriarchy is neither unique to the Arab world nor intrinsic to its predominant religious tradition. Arab women have more opportunities to pursue an education and career in Malaysia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain but fare much worse in Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, and Chad. Why? The differences have little to do with a common religion and more to do with economic development and national prosperity.
For Jordan, there is an interesting story to be found in the middle of those extremes. In a 2019 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Jordan was one of three countries where women felt more comfortable with mathematics than men. The reality of Jordan's university output is also surprising. According to the most recent data available (2016), almost half (47%) of undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields were women. In the same year, 56% of M.Sc. degrees and 61% of Ph.D. degrees in STEM fields were awarded to women. Unfortunately, many of these women graduates now face an environment that provides a strong university education but little opportunity to forge a career path close to home.
The challenge is not persuading Arab societies, and the families that define them, to open STEM education to their daughters. The issues arise further downstream. Jordan's pipeline of scientific female talent flows most strongly at its beginning. Like many other nations, research-strong or not, the cracks begin appearing quickly as this talent flows through. Today, just 19% of Ph.D. researchers in Jordan are women.
This is partly because the deep social cohesion within Arab societies places a greater onus on women to juggle their careers while playing an integral role in family development. This challenge is not specific to Arab women but to most women in science. We, in Jordan, must ensure that opportunities are available closer to home for women scientists to flourish. Jordan spends only 0.3% of its gross domestic product on research and development, which translates into a failure to create meaningful career pathways for women—or anyone—with a STEM education. This has left Jordan as a consumer, rather than a producer, of new knowledge.
Jordan cannot create opportunities without the honest engagement of global actors. Research-strong nations are well-placed to leverage our research-weak systems and to profit from talent mobility. For Arab nations, like Jordan, the result is a drain of STEM talent, including women. This situation is not going to change overnight. If we truly want to help Arab women scientists to thrive, then both Arab governments and the global science community must invest in improving career prospects in Arab countries.
The global science community needs to be mindful of the real challenges facing Arab women in science—those that are universal to women in science and those that are distinctly related to an absent science infrastructure—and not to be sidelined by the tropes that veil the truth. Arab women in science are educated and ambitious. Let's give them opportunities at home so that they can help build a better future for all.
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Science
Volume 368 | Issue 6487
10 April 2020
10 April 2020
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Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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- The (Un)Sustainability of Higher Education Institutions in Jordan, Frontiers in Sustainability, 2, (2021).https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.653992
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Jordan and the Arab Women in Science
Jordan and the Arab Women in Science
I read the article, Arab women in science with a keen interest [see Sumaya bint El Hassan, Arab women in science, Science, 368 (6487), 113 (10 April 2020)]. I had a privilege to attend the Eighth World Science Forum (WSF-2017), the world's largest biennial science event on global science policy, held at Dead Sea, Jordan, during 7-11 November 2017 (WSF, https://2017.worldscienceforum.org/). The event at Jordan had a record of drawing an exceptionally large number of 3,000 attendees from 140 countries. There were about fifty thematic/special sessions. It is remarkable to note, that there were four sessions dedicated to Women in Science evident by the session titles (A) Inspiring the Future – Role of Women Engineers; (B) Women as Leaders for Diversity and Development; (C) Promotion of Arab Women in Science; and (D) Women in Science to Achieve SDGs. For me, it was a first time to see such dedicated sessions. In other conferences, which I attended across the globe, the meetings on the theme, "women in science" were conducted during tea/lunch breaks or at the end of the day. Jordan provided dedicated sessions long due to theme, requiring urgency and action. During the WSF, I go to know the works of several women scientists, whose contributions were highlighted not only through the four special sessions but also through a dedicated pavilion at the WSF venue. I also got to meet several luminaries including Prof. Wejdan Abu Elhaija (the first Dean of Engineering in Jordan, 2011).
Jordan is home to the SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East), which has eight member countries. It is remarkable to note that that, globally there are very few women Infrared Beamline Scientists and Dr. Gihan Kamel is one of them and is at SESAME.
The WSF at Jordan had several medical related sessions including, "Fighting Resistant Bacteria and Global Pandemics". These sessions had the foresight to discuss in detail the spread of diseases across national borders through insects and other means. This is more relevant that ever in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I had the privilege to meet Her Royal Highness (HRH) Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan during WSF-2017 in Jordan and again during the WSF-2019 (20-23 November 2019, Budapest, Hungary) where I was one of the Co-organizers of the Thematic Session: Basic Sciences Infrastructures for Ethical and Responsible Collaborative Development. Princess Sumaya had given the opening talk followed by Herwig Schopper (Former Director General, CERN: European Organization for Nuclear Research), Sekazi Mtingwa (Chair of Executive Committee, LAAAMP: Lightsources for Africa, the Americas, Asia and Middle East Project Executive Committee), Atish Dabholkar (Director, ICTP: Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics) and Sanja Damjanović (Minister of Science, Government of Montenegro). This landmark session was moderated by Michele Zema (Executive Outreach Officer, IUCr: International Union of Crystallography) and Michel Spiro (President Designate, IUPAP: International Union of Pure and Applied Physics). This session is beacon of hope for the proposed African Synchrotron.
Further Reading:
1. Sameen Ahmed Khan, Dead Sea Comes Alive with Science, (Report of the World Science Forum, WSF 2017: Science for Peace), 7-11 November 2017, Dead Sea, Jordan), Radiance Viewsweekly, Vol. LV, No. 44, pp. 26-27 (28 January – 03 February 2018). http://radianceweekly.in/portal/issue/the-great-dissenters-of-indian-jud...
2. Azher Majid Siddiqui and Sameen Ahmed Khan, Need to Create International Science Centres in Arab Countries, Chapter-15 in Light-Based Science: Technology and Sustainable Development, The Legacy of Ibn al-Haytham, Proceedings of The Islamic Golden Age of Science for today's Knowledge-based Society: The Ibn Al-Haytham Example (14-15 September 2015, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France). Editors: Azzedine Boudrioua, Roshdi Rashed and Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan, (CRC Press, Taylor & Francis) 205-220 (2017). https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315155081/chapters/10.1201/97813....
Sameen Ahmed Khan,
Department of Mathematics and Sciences,
College of Arts and Applied Sciences,
Dhofar University,
Salalah, Sultanate of Oman
[email protected], http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1264-2302