عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Features

Saudi Women Break Barriers, Shine in Politics, Sports, AI

Rayyanah Barnawi (Photo taken from her account on X)
Rayyanah Barnawi (Photo taken from her account on X)
TT
TT

Saudi Women Break Barriers, Shine in Politics, Sports, AI

Rayyanah Barnawi (Photo taken from her account on X)
Rayyanah Barnawi (Photo taken from her account on X)

On International Women’s Day, Asharq Al-Awsat highlights Saudi women’s great contribution to the development of society in various fields, including human rights, space, artificial intelligence and sports.

Saudi women have made remarkable progress in recent years in a number of areas, including political work, as Saudi Arabia now has five female ambassadors abroad - an important development that reflects the Kingdom’s commitment to empowering the role of women in decision-making.

- Human Rights

In a historic step, Hala Al-Tuwaijri was appointed President of the Human Rights Commission in the Kingdom in December 2022. Al-Tuwaijri’s assumption of this post comes within the framework of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to promoting human rights and achieving sustainable development.

Al-Tuwaijri plays a vital role in enhancing awareness on respecting human rights and the values of justice and equality. She also works to emphasize the need for communication and interaction with the local and international community to achieve the goals of the Human Rights Commission.

- Space

In February 2023, a new page was opened in the history of Saudi space exploration, with a historic achievement that saw Saudi Rayyanah Barnawi becoming the first Saudi female astronaut. The event constituted a turning point in the development of Saudi women and their realization of their dreams in the fields of science and technology.

Barnawi, a biomedical researcher, was part of a Space X mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2023. She has over 9 years of experience in stem cell and tissue re-engineering programs, and throughout her career she has worked on improving research protocols, exploring many technologies, managing several breast cancer research projects, and publishing numerous publications in the same field.

- Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Kholoud Al-Mana recently established the Saudi Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence, which is the first of its kind in the Kingdom, with a global multidisciplinary team, to target high-impact artificial intelligence projects that fuel innovation and investment in the field’s infrastructure.

Al-Mana is an exceptional Saudi woman, who was appointed as ambassador for global women’s empowerment by the United Nations International Organization for Human Rights and selected as a keynote speaker at the 7th World Summit on Human Rights in Geneva.

- Motorsport

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has witnessed great development in women’s participation in fields that were previously limited to men, including motorsport.

Maha Al-Hamali is considered one of the most prominent female drivers in the field, as she won a number of local and international races, and became an inspiration for many ambitious Saudi women.

Most Viewed

 
 
Features

Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
TT
TT

Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)

Golden fields of wheat no longer produce the bounty they once did in Morocco. A six-year drought has imperiled the country's entire agriculture sector, including farmers who grow cereals and grains used to feed humans and livestock.

The North African nation projects this year's harvest will be smaller than last year in both volume and acreage, putting farmers out of work and requiring more imports and government subsidies to prevent the price of staples like flour from rising for everyday consumers.

"In the past, we used to have a bounty — a lot of wheat. But during the last seven or eight years, the harvest has been very low because of the drought," said Al Housni Belhoussni, a small-scale farmer who has long tilled fields outside of the city of Kenitra.

Belhoussni's plight is familiar to grain farmers throughout the world confronting a hotter and drier future. Climate change is imperiling the food supply and shrinking the annual yields of cereals that dominate diets around the world — wheat, rice, maize and barley.

In North Africa, among the regions thought of as most vulnerable to climate change, delays to annual rains and inconsistent weather patterns have pushed the growing season later in the year and made planning difficult for farmers.

In Morocco, where cereals account for most of the farmed land and agriculture employs the majority of workers in rural regions, the drought is wreaking havoc and touching off major changes that will transform the makeup of the economy. It has forced some to leave their fields fallow. It has also made the areas they do elect to cultivate less productive, producing far fewer sacks of wheat to sell than they once did.

In response, the government has announced restrictions on water use in urban areas — including on public baths and car washes — and in rural ones, where water going to farms has been rationed.

"The late rains during the autumn season affected the agriculture campaign. This year, only the spring rains, especially during the month of March, managed to rescue the crops," said Abdelkrim Naaman, the chairman of Nalsya. The organization has advised farmers on seeding, irrigation and drought mitigation as less rain falls and less water flows through Morocco's rivers.

The Agriculture Ministry estimates that this year's wheat harvest will yield roughly 3.4 million tons (3.1 billion kilograms), far less than last year's 6.1 million tons (5.5 billion kilograms) — a yield that was still considered low. The amount of land seeded has dramatically shrunk as well, from 14,170 square miles (36,700 square kilometers) to 9,540 square miles (24,700 square kilometers).

Such a drop constitutes a crisis, said Driss Aissaoui, an analyst and former member of the Moroccan Ministry for Agriculture.

"When we say crisis, this means that you have to import more," he said. "We are in a country where drought has become a structural issue."

Leaning more on imports means the government will have to continue subsidizing prices to ensure households and livestock farmers can afford dietary staples for their families and flocks, said Rachid Benali, the chairman of the farming lobby COMADER.

The country imported nearly 2.5 million tons of common wheat between January and June. However, such a solution may have an expiration date, particularly because Morocco's primary source of wheat, France, is facing shrinking harvests as well.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization ranked Morocco as the world's sixth-largest wheat importer this year, between Türkiye and Bangladesh, which both have much bigger populations.

"Morocco has known droughts like this and in some cases known droughts that las longer than 10 years. But the problem, this time especially, is climate change," Benali said.