RELATED LINKS

Weleslly Center 

Web site for journal

Arab Regional Resouce of VAW [AMAN] 

AYAMM, Arab Youth and Modern Media 

 FREE IRAQ

IS A NEW IRAQ

IFC Trains Iraqi Businesswomen to Promote Local Entrepreneurship
FWD by Rana Akhal
CEO - JFBPW
www.bpwa.org.jo

Amman, Jordan, June 5, 2006—The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, recently organized a three-day workshop for Iraqi businesswomen with the goal of strengthening local women-owned small and medium enterprises. The workshop was held in conjunction with the Iraqi International Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women and was part of IFC’s regional Gender Entrepreneurship Markets program.
The workshop, entitled "Successful Marketing and Pricing Strategies," was designed to enhance local women entrepreneurs’ competitiveness through better approaches to pricing and marketing. Using IFC’s Business Edge management training methodology, the workshop aimed to respond to women’s specific training needs. Similar Business Edge workshops have been held in other IFC frontier countries, including Afghanistan and Yemen. These training sessions have been well received due to their practical applicability for small and medium enterprises.
The Iraqi International Chamber of Commerce and Industry promotes entrepreneurship in Iraq. To ensure the success of the training workshop, it liaised closely with the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women. The Forum, one of Jordan’s leading women’s business associations, provides a business incubation program, counseling on legal matters, and mentoring to encourage the start-up and growth of women owned-businesses.
Tameem Al-Shawi, Public Relations Manager at the Iraqi International Chamber of Commerce and Industry noted that, “The IFC workshop has provided a rare opportunity for Iraqi women to receive training highly relevant to their business needs and to network and share knowledge. We are grateful to the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women, which has arranged for valuable visits to Jordanian women-owned businesses.”
Despite the challenges arising from the conflict-affected environment of Iraq, IFC believes that unleashing the potential of entrepreneurship is crucial to helping women transform their socioeconomic status, strengthen private sector development, and ultimately contribute to the country’s reconstruction and economic progress.
Ahmed Attiga, IFC’s Resident Representative in Jordan, noted, “A key component of this workshop was to foster relationships between women-owned businesses in Iraq and Jordan. These networks are critical in expanding SMEs’ markets and boosting trade.” He added that small and medium enterprises have significant potential to contribute to growth and employment in the private sector.
The workshop was co-sponsored by the World’s Bank’s Multi-Sector Institutional Capacity Building Program for Iraq. The program aims to strengthen economic management and build institutional capacity to cope with the economic and social environment of a market economy; assist the government in building systems and strengthening its capacity to improve the efficiency and quality of public services; and assist the Iraqi administration in building capacity in key areas of public administration areas, thus facilitating use of public resources, including donor funds, for urgent reconstruction and development efforts.
The International Finance Corporation is the private sector arm of the World Bank Group and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. IFC coordinates its activities with the other institutions of the World Bank Group but is legally and financially independent. Its 178 member countries provide its share capital and collectively determine its policies.
The mission of IFC is to promote sustainable private sector investment in developing and transition countries, helping to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. IFC finances private sector investments in the developing world, mobilizes capital in the international financial markets, helps clients improve social and environmental sustainability, and provides technical assistance and advice to governments and businesses. From its founding in 1956 through FY05, IFC has committed more than $49 billion of its own funds and arranged $24 billion in syndications for 3,319 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC’s worldwide committed portfolio as of FY05 was $19.3 billion for its own account and $5.3 billion held for participants in loan syndications.

My name is Baghdad, Je m'appelle Bagdad

To listen please go here

No Bravery in Iraq 

By James Blunt - No Bravery Lyrics

Iraqi League IL
 

The Iraqi League (IL) is a non-profit making popular organisation with the sole aim of promoting the interests of the Iraqi people living in Iraq and abroad. The IL believes Iraqi interests are best served by a truly independent and fully sovereign Iraq; and with an Iraqi government free from foreign influence and/or control which has the Iraqi people’s interest at heart and foremost
IL releases please click here

Heinrich Böll Foundation Funds IPJ Workshop for Iraqi Media at LAU

Magda Abu-Fadil

IPJ director , Magda Abu-Fadil is LAU’s Director of the Institute for Professional Journalists and of University Publications. Said We're still getting good media coverage of our workshop for Iraqi journalists.
To view on line  you may check out HERE 

A published story By Mahasen Al Emam in 

NEWSDAY news paper 

Newsday, one of the nation's largest daily newspapers, serves Long Island and New York City as the premier source of local news and comprehensive national and international reporting

After Shock

By Mahasen Al Eman
Mahasen Al Emam is founder and director of the Arab Women Media Center in Amman. She was the first female editor of Al-Bilad, a weekly Jordanian newspaper. 

April 13, 2003

Like all Arabs, Jordanians are addicted to living in agony, as if to grieve has become their lot in life. While the crisis of the Palestinian people stretches from the past to consume the present and to impede the future, Jordanians now must live through the drama of the war on Iraq, which adds yet another catastrophe to the other tragic visions blaring on the Arab horizon.

Jordanians have been glued to the TV screens to watch the calamities of the war, and they find themselves stricken by depression and stress and confusion of memory. They live in a state of intense apprehension, as one news item raises their morale - seeing American pilots captured - while another - seeing high casualties among Iraqi women and children - strains their very souls.

The war on Iraq has paralyzed business for restaurants and cafes. Social gatherings are being canceled or scaled down; wedding halls are closed. According to one owner, patrons of Internet cafes have decreased dramatically because they watch the news of the war at home. He said he has had to lay off numerous workers.

So it is at fast-food restaurants, which were frequented by youth before the war. But in the case of American-style restaurants, business is shrinking as a result of the tendency of people to boycott anything American or American-style.

Movie theaters have become empty. Hotels have turned into lifeless statues at the outskirts of the city. Mothers at home are perplexed about how to answer their children's questions: Why the war on Iraq? Why do Americans and British hate us? Don't we have the right to live?

All, young and old, take the war on Iraq to be the first of a succession of wars on all Arab nations, with no exception. Fear and acute anxiety strike adults, perhaps more than youngsters.

Intellectuals and members of labor and trade unions have organized intense marches in solidarity with the Iraqi people. The marchers light candles, donate blood, wear dark clothes and write statements and appeals signed by public figures to send to the United Nations. These statements express their rejection of the war and demand that it be stopped immediately for the safety of women and children. They also voice concern for the preservation of historical and religious sites in Baghdad, a city known to be the most important Arab center of culture, sometimes referred to as the Civilization between the Two Rivers (the Tigris and the Euphrates). When Baghdad fell last week, friends of our family said it reminded them of the 1967 war, when the Arabs lost the West Bank and observed Israeli soldiers marching in east Jerusalem's streets. One went deep into history and recalled when the Moguls destroyed Baghdad.

There are few Jordanians who have never visited Baghdad. Jordanians go there to participate in conferences or to visit religious and historical sights. Jordan was the Iraqi window to the outside world during 12 years of UN embargo. And, as there is considerable intermarriage between Jordanians and Iraqis, families from both countries frequently exchange visits. A Jordanian artist married to an Iraqi woman says he wishes he could be in Iraq to take part in defending this precious homeland.

In general, Jordanians viewed Saddam Hussein through two different goggles: To some he was a hero who was going to unify Arabs and liberate Palestine; others saw him as an Arab dictator who, like others, should be out of power. Nonetheless, feelings of fury and disgust prevail against what is taking place in Iraq.

But all words and expressions are futile in the ugly face of the war we observe on a daily basis. It is an ugliness that reiterates what is happening in Palestine. We see the same F-16s and Apaches flying over Iraq that we see bombarding Gaza and the Jeanine refugee camps.

News coverage and editorials in the Jordanian press reflect the people's rejection of the war and of the American-British invasion of Iraq's territory and its people. A fellow journalist asked, Is this justice? Is this liberation?Another answered, The Americans are achieving liberation by liberating the souls of Iraqis from their bodies and carrying out justice through indiscriminate attacks by missiles and cluster bombs.

Journalists are particularly furious and offended at what happened to Tariq Ayoub, a Palestinian-Jordanian correspondent for Al-Jazeera in Baghdad. He was killed when the Americans fired on the roof of Al-Jazeera's offices in a residential section of the city. They consider this incident a crime against journalists, an assault on freedom of expression and a raid on the democracy that British and American leaders claim to promote.

From what I hear on the street, Jordanians have lost confidence in all Arab leaders, and in the United Nations. They see the Arab leaders as cowards, as America's agents. They ask, If these leaders don't care about this national crisis, how will they care about their own people? The UN implements its resolutions when it is easy, as against Iraq, but not when it is hard, as against Israel. People here anticipate at any moment the fall of another Arab city.