Hasta La Gadget!

Policy experts are hoping that a small patch of desert in Jordan can provide global answers to the refugee crisis by giving displaced Syrians the right to work.

There is little beyond some roads, power lines and a handful of sand-blown warehouses to suggest that this patch of barren land in Jordan is the center of one of the most important economic experiments in the world today. Most of the 8 square miles (21 sq km) of the King Hussein Bin Talal Development Area remain desert.

It is nonetheless the centerpiece of a major trade deal with the European Union and has been the subject of some of the sharpest policy minds in the world, pushing for a plan to get Syrian refugees out of camps and into legal work.

This week, a deal was finalized between the E.U. and Jordan granting sought-after trade concessions in exchange for work opportunities for refugees. Spanning 10 years, it will apply to 52 product groups that are manufactured in special economic zones (SEZs), on the condition that producers employ more Syrian refugees. The requirement for workforces is at least 15 percent Syrian participation now, rising to one quarter after three years.

The use of King Hussein Bin Talal (KHBTDA), and SEZs more broadly, follows on from an influential proposal made last October by two Oxford University professors, Paul Collier and Alexander Betts. In it they pointed out that 60 percent of the world’s displaced were concentrated in just 10 haven countries, including Jordan. While granting citizenship to such large numbers was not currently feasible, the targeted use of SEZs might offer the right to work and transform them from a burden to an asset.

Collier and Betts argued that Jordan could provide displaced Syrians with jobs, education and autonomy while advancing the kingdom’s own industrial development. The KHBTDA also happens to be a short distance from the Zaatari refugee camp, which houses nearly 80,000 Syrian refugees.

The endeavor must negotiate a political minefield in Jordan. Some 650,000 Syrian refugees are registered in the kingdom but few are legally permitted to work. Many have taken jobs in the black economy at the risk of deportation and forgoing legal protections.

Although the logical solution to such vulnerability is to allow Syrians to work legally, things are not that simple. Jordan’s unemployment rate is at a record high of nearly 15 percent and folding refugees into the workforce could be politically explosive.

But SEZs do not function like the rest of a country’s economy. Under the Development Areas Law, companies in the KHBTDA pay a comparatively tiny amount of income tax, are bound by less red tape and the Jordanian government has already invested more than $100 million in infrastructure.

Michael Castle-Miller, whose organization Refugee Cities advocates for SEZs as special zones to employee refugees, said they can be beneficial to both Jordanians and Syrians. They can serve as places where forward-thinking trade rules, that he suggests would be too politically controversial to be applied nationally, can be tried out.

“We have to make the case that these zones are going to benefit Jordanian nationals as much as they benefit refugees,” he explained. When the SEZs are built in remote areas, such as KHBTDA near Mafraq, the benefits are especially marked. “A new zone like this has the potential to attract a lot of foreign investment into the area, a lot of infrastructure development, which means that there’s going to be a lot of job opportunities for Jordanians.”

The E.U. deal is a crucial development in the plan to motivate employers to take on refugees. Until now, plans to use SEZs to employ refugees have only been tentative.

In the organized assembly room at Petra air conditioning factory in the KHBTDA, all the employees are currently Jordanian. Speaking before the E.U. deal was finalized, senior staff were supportive of Syrian refugees working at the firm. It would be better, they said, than having employable people stuck in camps. But Jordanians interviewed were unclear about the potential for taking on Syrian workers and only knew that employing them without permits was illegal.

“I approached the UNHCR and asked them to have some refugees as employees; they were very helpful, but nothing happened,” said Ahmad Khamis, the manager of the site. “It’s not allowed for refugees to work here. I think it’s a problem with the government.”

Business leaders have welcomed the deal. Nayef al Bakheet, the general manager of Mafraq Development Corporation, which runs the KHBTDA, said the zone’s priority is employing Jordanians rather than Syrians. Privileging refugees over locals would not be “just,” he added. But he believes that the effect of the deal will be positive for all.

“This will give incentives to investors to come and invest in Jordan. It’s good news, the E.U. is a very big market and this is a good incentive to invest,” he said, adding that two zones in the Mafraq area would be covered by the agreement. “And of course it will create jobs for Syrian refugees, which is also a good thing.”

While the agreement opens the door for the employment of many refugees, there are still significant obstacles standing between Syrians and legal work in SEZs, as recent experiences have shown.

Pilot projects recruiting Syrians for SEZ garment factories had limited take-up from Syrians themselves. The work – which primarily appealed to women – was best suited to live-in workers, demanded long hours far from home and didn’t pay generously. Although the informal economy means risking deportation, it often also pays reasonably well, and there’s none of the costly paperwork associated with work visas: Without an economic imperative to work, legally refugees are unlikely to move in large numbers to SEZs looking for jobs.

Other stakeholders, too, are skeptical about the potential for SEZs to really make a tangible difference to Syrians’ working conditions. “What we want to see is meaningful work, just work with enforceable rights and conditions,” said Dominique Sherab from Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development. SEZs, she pointed out, can compromise on minimum wage and workers’ rights and opportunities are often limited to garment work or menial jobs.

Those arguing for the SEZs are not unaware of these risks. And many are still optimistic that the zones, while not a magic bullet, have the potential to deliver legal work for Syrians in Jordan. “I have no doubt that if we have strong oversight and transparency these problems can be dealt with,” Castle-Miller said.

However, if they’re to attract and support refugee workers, the Special Economic Zones must do the same for investors. For those running King Hussein Bin Talal, the priority now is attracting businesses to the park and to Jordan. Something that has traditionally been easier said than done.

Before the deal was signed this week, Bakheet said he had taken part in numerous discussions with the World Bank, and the E.U. on promoting investment but had yet to see much material progress. Now that the ink on the E.U. deal has dried, he is positive about the potential for new investors to put money into zones like King Hussein Bin Talal.

Whether work opportunities for Jordanians and Syrians will be broadened in SEZs still relies on whether foreign direct investment will follow. One obstacle to this is the same one that saw refugees flee to Jordan in the first place: few businesses want to set up shop 18 miles (30km) from a brutal civil war.

“It’s the burden of private sectors and donors,” Bakheet explained. He is evidently proud of the zone and is enthusiastic about making it work, but is pushing for support from outside. “If the world is willing to help then it can, by bringing investment projects into Jordan and making opportunities for refugees and for Jordanians.”

This article originally appeared on Refugees Deeply. For weekly updates and analysis about refugee issues, you can sign up to the Refugees Deeply email list.

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One month into her hunger strike, jailed Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has gained an army of supporters – at home and abroad – on social media, increasing pressure on authorities to stop the mistreatment of inmates in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

When Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi started her hunger strike on June 27, she wrote an open letter pleading with the government to let her have telephone contact with her 9-year-old twins.

“I have gone through our last meeting a hundred times. I cannot remember how much I cried,” she wrote in the letter that was published by her supporters. “I meet with my dearest Kiana and Ali in my daydreams. I smell their small hands and kiss their beautiful faces.”

The letter struck a chord with hundreds of thousands of Twitter users in Iran – many of them women, according to activists monitoring the campaign. They took to Twitter under the hashtag #FreeNarges to express their support and press authorities to improve the conditions for all female political prisoners in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Mohammadi, 44, was given a 16-year prison sentence in May for publicly supporting an anti-death penalty campaign in Iran. Her son Ali and daughter Kiana have been living in France with their father since she was arrested last year.

Evin Prison is notorious for its harsh treatment of detainees, many of them political prisoners. According to Mohammadi, there are around 25 female inmates being kept on her ward. These women are supposed to be allowed regular contact with family members, but the activist said in her letter that they are being denied their rights with no explanation from prison authorities. She said she has been allowed one phone call with her children in over a year and her repeated requests to speak to them have gone unanswered. She said in her letter that her hunger strike was a last resort.

“In a land where being a woman, being a mother and being a human rights defender is difficult on their own, being all three is an unforgivable crime,” she wrote.

Fears are growing for Mohammadi’s health four weeks into the strike, especially as she suffers from a pulmonary embolism and a neurological disorder that has caused her to have seizures and experience temporary, partial paralysis.

“Doctors treating her say every day she continues the hunger strike is like pumping poison into her veins,” said Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International’s researcher on Iran. The organization is in contact with the prison and with Mohammadi’s husband, and said there is no evidence yet that the authorities will back down.

“A representative of the prosecutor has said she will not be able to speak to her children if she continues the hunger strike because [the strike] has been used by opposition groups and the media to tarnish the reputation of the state,” said Bahreini.

Women & Girls Hub contacted the Iranian embassy in London for comment but got no reply.

But Mohammadi’s supporters say the show of solidarity she has received from ordinary Iranians has helped raise awareness of Evin Prison’s mistreatment of its female political prisoners.

“We were very heartened when we saw so many people inside Iran joined the social media campaign to free Narges,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “This shows the situation of these women is becoming known to the general population in Iran.”

Ghaemi said the #FreeNarges campaign was the fifth highest trending topic on Twitter on the day they launched, 15 days into Mohammadi’s hunger strike. Using keyword-tracking software, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has determined that over 60 percent of the campaign’s supporters are tweeting from inside Iran, despite the fact that Twitter is officially banned in the country. Iranians access the social media network through virtual private networks (VPNs) and other circumvention tools.

Ghaemi said the move by the prison authorities to block Mohammadi from having contact with her children is just one way female prisoners of conscience are intimidated and punished while serving their sentences. “This is a form of double punishment,” he said. “These women should never be in prison in the first place. The authorities want to make sure that these women have suffered so much inside prison that they will be silenced when they are released.”

A report published in June by Ghaemi’s organization contains testimony from scores of other current and former detainees detailing other ways authorities mistreat female prisoners. These include denying detainees access to medicines or healthcare, providing the prisoners with inadequate food rations, depriving them of heating in the winter and repeatedly strip-searching them.

A July report by Amnesty International drew a similar picture of mistreatment in Evin Prison, saying the authorities were “toying” with the lives of prisoners of conscience by denying them medical care. The report said female prisoners in Evin were routinely denied care for serious medical conditions because the clinics are only staffed by men and it was deemed inappropriate for women to be treated by male medical staff.

Authors of both reports said international attention could be the only way to force the authorities to make changes. “Things won’t happen overnight,” said Ghaemi. “But public interest in [Mohammadi’s] case puts the judiciary under the microscope and forces them to be accountable.”

Mohammadi was arrested in May 2015 to serve the remainder of a six-year prison sentence dating back to September 2011, when she was found guilty of acting against national security because of her support for human rights groups.

She was given a further 16 years in May this year in relation to her work with an anti-death penalty campaign. The ruling sparked international outrage and calls for her immediate release.

“We are appalled by the sentencing of a prominent Iranian anti-death penalty campaigner, Narges Mohammadi, to 16 years’ imprisonment on charges that stem from her courageous human rights work,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Mohammadi has dedicated years to exposing human rights abuses in Iran. In 2009, she won the Alexander Langer award for her work, and this year, she received the City of Paris medal for her peaceful activism.

She is believed to have developed her neurological disorder after a previous arrest in 2010, when she was kept in solitary confinement in Evin.

In a letter she wrote to PEN International after her sentencing earlier this year, Mohammadi said that 23 of the inmates in the women’s ward have been sentenced to a total of 177 years.

“We are all charged due to our political and religious tendency and none of us are terrorists,” she wrote. “The reason to write these lines is to tell you that the pain and suffering in the Evin Prison is beyond tolerance.”

This article originally appeared on Women & Girls Hub. For weekly updates, you can sign up to the Women & Girls Hub email list.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

As the decision on climbing’s inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is approaching fast, the sport is attracting more and more attention from outside of its community.

Meanwhile, the climbing world itself is split between those who support making the lifestyle pursuit an Olympic sport, and those who oppose it. Many wonder what the limelight will mean for a discipline which originated in the wilderness, far from the mainstream lifestyle.

Since those days much has changed, and now the competitive side of climbing is growing fast, on artificial walls and in front of the cameras.

Marketing, money, and social media are affecting the discipline much in the same way that they affected skateboarding and surfing.

From the fringes of society to the centre stage of the Olympics, I wonder what this change will mean for the women who climb.

Like most other communities, climbing has a wealth of its own, dedicated media. Two decades ago, it used to be print magazines, eagerly awaited every month, and every blue moon a videotape documenting the most coveted ascents. Now, everything is different.

Social media has brought about an era where the line between the audience and the creatives is blurred. Whatever the flaws of the media we consume, we’ve got the power to change it through producing our own. And the obvious flaw of lifestyle sports media used to be the absence of women.

Three years ago I researched female climbers’ attitudes towards this issue. One of my first informants was Vanessa, an instructor at my local climbing gym in London. We sat under a campus board, a ladder of wooden rungs to hang off and train finger strength. Vanessa was apprehensive, and I couldn’t put her at ease.

I switched off the recorder, knowing that interviewees tend to say the best things when theoretically done. Vanessa didn’t disappoint. “If you go to the shop and look at the magazines,” she suddenly said, “there will always be — I don’t know why — seventy-five percent of covers featuring a female. But there are fewer girls climbing. Have a look. If you have a nice cover, it’s always a girl.”

So we got up and walked outside to the gear shop located on the other side of the climbing centre’s yard. There was a big pile of magazines by the entrance, and we flicked through the covers. Quickly it turned out that more than half of the random sample indeed portrayed women.

The shop owner peered at us from behind the till, intrigued to know what we were doing. I explained, and he leaned over the counter and said: “Well, it will sound horribly sexist, but it depends on what kind of a cover it is. If it’s decorative, it’s usually a woman. The route doesn’t even need to be hard.”

And that’s how to sell a climbing magazine.

It’s been three years since that interview, and they were three poignant years for the women in climbing. Not only is the performance gap between the genders rapidly closing, but also, as with many other lifestyle sports, women took to keyboards and cameras to produce their own media.

“We’re on the cusp of a shift, a cultural and gender swing, if you will. Soon, the men’s world tour will be the support act,” starts an interview last year with surfer Coco Ho for Stab Magazine.

But if indeed surfing is on a cusp of a gender revolution, then I fear it’s the revolution of 16-year-old chicks, clad in scanty bikinis. Yet again, empowerment gets confused with sexualization.

Taking into account the history of women’s objectification in sport-related media, should this really come as a surprise?

The dominant discourse goes something like this: Girls are pretty, but they can’t really do sports, so let’s put a token girl in here and there. Make sure she looks really hot. After all, it’s not about her skills, it’s about her cute face. She will make men buy the magazine and make other women want to be like her, because men find her attractive. What other things could a woman possibly want from doing sports apart from finding a guy?

It may sound grim, but this is the truth of mainstream media. And apparently, the marketing tactics kick around in lifestyle sports media too; as open-minded men and women fight the bias, it punches back with an influx of big sponsors wanting to make big money. And you can’t go bigger than the Olympics.

Huge money, huge audiences, huge stakes. Climbing — originally a domain of the white, upper class and heterosexual men — is an increasingly egalitarian community, but outside pressures are likely to obliterate the push.

While the interest that comes with the Olympic bid might bring more women into the sport, it will also bring the same sexist currents that characterize mainstream sport and the celebrity culture around it. I fear that, as with surfing, the climbing community won’t be able to fight it off.

Competing for sponsorship deals and the attention of cameras, top female athletes will go out of their way to please the male gaze. Something intangible, but pure and beautiful about our discipline will likely be lost.

Organizations such as Outdoor Women’s Alliance in the US, or Women Climb in the UK, as well as a wealth of independent websites and bloggers do their utmost to empower women and promote fair representation in climbing and adventure sports media, but if climbing becomes an Olympic discipline, coveted by the mainstream outlets, our efforts might just become a drop in the ocean.

As climbers, media consumers, creatives and simply decent human beings, we must remember that in the long run, sex sells you short.

The only thing we can do as the audience of great sporting events, is maintain a critical eye. Although I don’t feel like we had a say when London 2012 was sponsored by sugary drinks, beer, and fast food brands, I want to believe that we can still stop the objectification of the climbing athlete, before it’s too late.

The original article was written for Outdoor Women’s Alliance and can be found here.

The full text of my MA thesis on climbing women and media can be found here.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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