Flourishing of Women in Saudi Arabia Turns IWD into a Joyful Celebrationhttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4200051/flourishing-women-saudi-arabia-turns-iwd-joyful-celebration
Flourishing of Women in Saudi Arabia Turns IWD into a Joyful Celebration
Saudi women contributions in most of the local and foreign activities have enabled them to occupy various positions (Asharq Al-Awsat)
International Women’s Day (IWD), celebrated on March 8 each year, is an occasion on which the world observes dreams and wishes that have been put off. But the story is different for Saudi women, who find this day an opportunity to exchange chocolates and roses to memorialize the growing renaissance movement of women.
Adopted by the UN in 1977, IWD is celebrated worldwide. Despite that, the day in Saudi Arabia has bloomed into an occasion where many workplaces and activities of private and non-profit organizations find the opportunity to remember women’s gains.
Stores across the Kingdom offer exclusive deals on this day, and many cafes hand out delicious sweets.
All this takes place away from the feminist hustle and bustle that plagues cities worldwide, where little progress on women’s demands is made each year.
IWD in 2023 comes nearly seven years after the Saudi Council of Ministers approved the Kingdom’s Vision 2023 on April 25, 2016.
Since the vision’s launch, the country has witnessed a vast movement that included improving the conditions of women as one of the strengths and pillars of the national renaissance.
According to a report issued by the General Authority for Statistics, Saudi women account for almost half of the Kingdom’s local society, standing at 49% of the total population.
Half of the Saudi women are under 27 years of age. In other words, a new generation of future women has become part of these rapid positive transformations.
Saudi Arabia has also implemented reforms to enhance women’s participation in economic development.
These reforms included unifying the retirement age for both males and females and preventing gender discrimination in terms of wages, type of job, field, and working hours.
Centuries-old Japanese Art of Ikebana Draws Those Seeking Calmhttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5321737-centuries-old-japanese-art-ikebana-draws-those-seeking-calm
Centuries-old Japanese Art of Ikebana Draws Those Seeking Calm
This photo released by Hiroyuki Okada shows a free-style Ikenobo ikebana arrangement in Tokyo on March 11, 2026. (Hiroyuki Okada via AP)
Ikebana, the Japanese art of arranging flowers, is a form of expression that dates back more than 500 years. It continues to blossom, quietly, not only with traditionalists but also with newcomers who find its blend of creativity and mindfulness to be restorative.
Ikebana can be a bit like solving a puzzle, except there’s no fixed answer. Because each flower, and human individual, is different, there are multiple solutions.
“There’s a ‘detox’ purifying factor, and a healing,” says Hiroyuki Okada, 40, who began taking lessons in ikebana about seven years ago. He now teaches Ikenobo, the oldest of three major ikebana schools, The Associated Press reported.
Ikenobo headmaster designate Senko Ikenobo speaks during an interview in Tokyo, on July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Mayuko Ono)
Okada, who also teaches backflips to anyone who wants to learn, usually wears silver chains and jeans, but he wears a nice kimono when he formally demonstrates his arrangements. He considers himself typical of those drawn to ikebana today, people looking for joy, purpose, or solace from the daily grind or pain of modern life.
“In arranging (flowers), you are dealing with the life that is there, the beauty, of course, but you find what’s in your heart,” said Okada. “You come face to face with yourself.”
The Kyoto-based Ikenobo school, which is rooted in Buddhism, now has chapters around the world.
Okada's previous job at a nonprofit involved talking to people from around the world, and he realized how different — and alike — people were. When he switched to his current job, at a flower shop, he decided to take up a pursuit that was Japanese, so he could explore that aspect of himself, and one that could be done for a long time, alone.
Ikenobo ikebana instructor Hiroyuki Okada demonstrates a basic flower arrangement style called “Shoka Shofutai” at a studio in Tokyo on Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
Observing how flowers and plants grow is part of the art Ikebana involves interacting with nature, although on a small scale — usually in a little vase.
“It is about the relationship of the creator with the flowers,” said Senko Ikenobo, headmaster-designate of the Ikenobo school.
Her family dates back generations to the originators of the art. Her father is the current headmaster.
Jeannette Haviland-Jones, professor of social psychology at Rutgers University, says studies have shown “that flowers and even flower scents promote happiness in people. We suggested a coevolutionary theory for this in which flowers became the ‘pets’ of the plant world.”
Besides a flower's beauty and fragrance, the feel of its petals and leaves to the touch is crucial, like petting a kitten or a puppy, according to Okada.
There are toddlers who do Ikenobo, copying their moms, and there are devoted centenarians. The headmaster-designate says she has seen ikebana help women who are juggling work and motherhood, or taking care of aging parents.
Ikebana has a healing effect similar to that of yoga, meditation or play, says Mayu Shimizu, who works for an online educational service and has been taking lessons from Okada for about three years.
“I like this moment of nothingness when you are concentrating on the flowers before you,” she says. “My mind feels clearer. I feel more at peace, and gentle.”
This photo released by Hiroyuki Okada shows a free-style Ikenobo ikebana arrangement in Tokyo on March 11, 2026. (Hiroyuki Okada via AP)
One traditional Ikenobo arrangement is shoka shofutai, which attempts to arrange the flowers, leaves and branches as they might look in nature, reaching toward sunlight or bending in the wind. The vase, sometimes crafted from wood or pottery, also becomes part of the arrangement's vision.
Yet the overall look is pure and simple, expressing the life cycle of flowers — from blossoming through withering — through three main elements:
— Shin, the tallest element, is arranged first, representing one's core, reaching up toward the sky.
— Soe, which is trimmed to about two-thirds the height of the shin and is placed at the side, expresses the flower’s individuality. The leaves might be slightly faded, representing the later stages of life.
— Tai, the third element, is the future. Choose a blossom or fresh small leaves — things that are being born.
There are also freer, spinoff styles that look more like casual, Western-style bouquets than the stoic, textbook-oriented shoka shofutai. That may feel easier, and more fun, for beginners.
Just as ikebana connects a person with flowers, those who practice the art say it’s also about the passing of the art over generations, connecting people.
In First, French Presidential Candidate Gives Birth During Campaignhttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5321587-first-french-presidential-candidate-gives-birth-during-campaign
Marine Tondelier, National Secretary of Les Ecologistes (the Ecologists - EELV - French Green Party) party arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron about the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine and their consequences for France's security and energy supplies, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
In First, French Presidential Candidate Gives Birth During Campaign
Marine Tondelier, National Secretary of Les Ecologistes (the Ecologists - EELV - French Green Party) party arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron about the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine and their consequences for France's security and energy supplies, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
French Greens leader and candidate in the 2027 presidential election Marine Tondelier said Wednesday she had given birth to a son, emphasizing that she would press on campaigning while prioritizing the health of her child.
Tondelier, 40, was the first candidate in French politics to campaign while pregnant and, while acknowledging the challenges, she had expressed hope it would push issues including infertility and motherhood up the agenda.
Her boy Leon was born in Lens in northern France on September 18, Tondelier told AFP, saying the family had kept the news private for a few days.
He was born hours after Tondelier as Greens chief had attended a rare meeting at the Elysee Palace where President Emmanuel Macron had warned France's political leaders over the risk of Russian hybrid attacks.
She told AFP that the birth had gone "very well," adding that she would be "working differently" for a while and "trying to figure out how to balance a presidential campaign with a newborn, whose health and well-being come first."
Already the mother of a 7-year-old boy, Tondelier was confirmed as the candidate for the Greens on Monday. In December, the party will decide whether to maintain her candidacy or withdraw and throw the party's weight behind another left-wing figure.
Polls currently show Tondelier, who has the slogan "another Marine is possible!" in reference to far-right frontrunner Marine Le Pen, lagging well under five percent in the first round of voting.
Voting Opens in Alaska's Annual Fat Bear Weekhttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5321521-voting-opens-alaskas-annual-fat-bear-week
A brown bear eats his catch while fishing for salmon in Brooks Falls, Alaska on August 12, 2023. (Photo by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
A brown bear eats his catch while fishing for salmon in Brooks Falls, Alaska on August 12, 2023. (Photo by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
Polls opened Tuesday in the only American election that really matters: Fat Bear Week.
While the United States might be gearing up for midterm ballots that will decide who runs Washington, hundreds of thousands of people were readying to vote on animals gorging themselves in rural Alaska.
In a contest that has rapidly become one of the internet's favorite moments, the brown bears of Katmai National Park unwittingly compete in a series of head-to-head contests to see which one of them has most impressively piled on the pounds ahead of hibernation.
Viewers can watch a livestream of the enormous animals as they scoop salmon from the Brooks River, or browse biographies of some of the top contenders, including before-and-after pictures showing how much weight the bears have gained over a summer of feasting.
"For each match-up, vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears," said organizers, according to AFP.
"The bear with the most votes advances to the next round. Only one will be crowned Fat Bear Week champion."
Last year's winner, Chunk, beat out a stiff challenge from two-time winner Grazer.
Summer and early autumn are key fueling periods for the brown bears, which will not eat for five months of hibernation, relying on their store of fat to survive the punishing Alaskan winter.
The online contest began in 2014 with just a few thousand people voting, but has now turned into an eagerly awaited exercise in tongue-in-cheek democracy with more than a million people voting every year.
The aim is to raise awareness of brown bears and their habitat in Alaska, and the risks they face from human activity.
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