Promoting Gender Equality and Reducing Inequalities: An Academic Symposium
The University of Warith Al-Anbiyaa is organizing an academic symposium in collaboration with the Women's Empowerment Unit, in association with the College of Medicine. The symposium, titled "Empowering Women from an Islamic Perspective," features presentations by Mr. Sabah Al-Jubouri and Dr. Abeer Nouri Qahtan.
This event underscores our commitment to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 - Gender Equality. We believe in creating a society where women have equal opportunities and access to resources, and where their voices are heard and valued. Through this symposium, we aim to shed light on how Islamic principles support gender equality and empower women in various aspects of life.
Additionally, this initiative aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 10 - Reduced Inequalities. We recognize the importance of addressing inequalities in all forms, including those based on gender. By promoting gender equality through academic discourse and collaboration, we take a significant step towards reducing inequalities within our community and beyond.
Encouraging Female Students To Apply
Women’s role in building society can't be denied, the need is to educate and train them, so they’re able to perform at the peak of their abilities. Gender inequality is dominant in Middle Eastern culture, despite the need of almost every other household for their women to participate in bread-winning due to ever-increasing inflation and a rise in male civilian deaths, during Iraq’s latest struggle in the fight against ISIS and during wars and invasions.
The University of Warith Al-Anbiyaa deemed it its responsibility to help build a women-inclusive society. As an educational institution, we believe we can help educate our girls/women to better equip them with resources and potential to be independent enough to support themselves, we, therefore, try our best to maintain a healthy male-to-female ratio and support admission rate by offering dedicated scholarships for deserving students with a large recipient of our scholarship being female. Several scholarship quotas are in place for war-stricken states and governorates during the invasion of ISIS. We make sure to offer women-only quotas for gender-specific seats for scholarships, avoiding any non-binary gender entrance into women's schemes, so as to not limit their chance of acceptance by awarding funded seats to other genders or X.
Special accommodation only for females with high security and subsidized fees with free transportation is offered for all female students, so as to increase the number of applications from female applicants from far-fetched and remote regions of our country. This has shown a remarkable improvement in the application rate from females, as the enrollment of female students in Warith Al-Anbiyaa has increased remarkably over time.
How We’re Taking Care of Disadvantaged Groups Among Us
Each year a percentage of female students drop out of higher education due to financial difficulties or the culture and trend of getting married during higher education, however, little has been done to support the changes being dealt with by newlywed couples. The University of Warith Al-Anbiyaa, therefore, has put several measures in place to help students in similar situations. Other than this, women from far-fetched or remote areas or female students who’re the first-ever women to receive a higher degree in their family, who’ve to face some hurdles and resistance from their families are also on the verge of leaving their studies or not starting at all for worst. We at the University of Warith Al-Anbiyaa have tried our best to introduce such a culture and support system in our prestigious university, where everyone can access support system and enjoy the same privileges as other genders on and off campus.
Scholarship quota for female students to maintain the healthy ratio of different genders studying on scholarship, the system is merit-based, however, preference is to be given to a female candidate when competing with male students with similar/competitive percentages and averages.
Loan for dealing with financial difficulties and hardships (accommodating Female students with empathetic female staff, with their privacy fully respected)
Mental health counselling for dealing with ongoing hardships, including but not limited to abusive relationships, depression, anxiety, stress, divorce/breakups, postpartum depression after childbirth, adjusting to a new environment, coping with life after marriage, getting bullied, dealing with post harassment impact
Women mentoring schemes include training for technical and non-technical skills; including workshops for resiliency and English language, topics under the mental health counselling centre, entrepreneurship, helping with new business launch
The female student community centre promotes a sense of belonging for female students who feel intimidated in the new higher education environment and evade the feeling of being left out
Affordable high-standard accommodation with high securities and amenities, with no (or say minimising) return on investment to encourage participation from the low-income sector from remote regions
Free transportation to and fro from the university to the hostel to help students with the cost of living in Karbala, with expensive transportation due to religious tourism
Creating a sense of belonging for female students via anti-bullying, and anti-harassment policies, promoting active female student participation, and women's inclusion in major activities/schemes
Online Module/Virtual attendance option for students in emergency situations or in a new phase of their lives, so as to maximize their participation, making female students encourage to attend virtually instead of dropping out
Parents’ involvement, engage with parents to make them interested in their daughter’s studies and have a sense of pride in their daughter’s achievement. Primarily targeted parents are from conservative backgrounds originating from or residing in small towns and villages, who’re not comfortable with the idea of letting their daughters study in higher education institutions.
Student support centre with qualified emotionally intelligent/empathizing staff, trained enough to be a good communicator and listener; never allowing a scenario of letting students down or making them feel embarrassed.
Displacement of students’ families due to war or other terrorist activities. Special support programs for girls or female students to support them with their studies via loans, fee deferrals, scholarships, fee instalment options, and preference granted for subsidized housing.