Outstanding Libyan women: brain and beauty
Blogger Hanu was recently featured in the Mideast Connect online magazine ( hattip Suliman) because of her work as Managing Director of the Tibra Foundation whose aim is "to organize community-sponsored supportive projects to benefit women of the Libyan community and highlight their achievements." One of the main achievements of Tibra is the "Tibra Awards [..] an annual program that highlights the success of Libyan young women, and through which the Libyan community recognizes excellence and achievement in these young women.
The Tibra Awards project is completely funded by donations and conributions from members and friends of the Libyan community" .
Please go to the Tibra website and make a donation, you will be sponsoring your Libyan fellow-women .
What I enjoyed most was reading about these talented women , below are two examples only you will have to go to the site and click on all the brainy beautiful Libyan women there, you would be astonished :) I can promise that - guaranteed to erase a few stereotypes .. ...
Here is Nisma's statement...
"As a little girl, I didn’t understand why I was the only one who didn’t celebrate Christmas, why I was the only one easting weird spicy food at lunch time, rather than the usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I couldn’t understand why my name was the one that teachers always mispronounced when taking attendance. There was a time when I tried to hide being different, to just fit in and be “normal.” Now, as a young woman, I embrace my diversity, and couldn’t imagine who I would be if I didn’t have my culture or religion to give me guidance."
and Olaa's statement...
"My body tingled as I imagined the might of God. I was able to feel a bond of love and trust between my soul and my creator. Flowers of calmness and comfort bloomed in my heart as birds of depression flew away; I have never felt so secure and protected. I then realized that no matter how much injustice and cruelty will spread in this world, God will always appear in the light of righteousness and defeat the darkness of wickedness and evil with His enormous power and mercy. Such lessons are things that can never be learned in books, only through experience and observation, so they are the most valuable and the most precious lessons we will ever learn in our life. "
To find out more , please click on the 'Spotlight' and the 'Awards' features I promise you will not regret it....
One more thing , Hanu is a prime candidate to figure among these special Libyan women.
I would personally nominate Smokey, Dunia, Nura and Hibo , but also Khadijateri for having proven herself more Libyan than any Libyan women I know :). Bravo ladies ! you rock ...
11 comments:
Thank you dear (blushing).
So,you are included as well as you should be?
I nominate highlander also! Only problem is, I think she'd have to fess up about herself, as those awards are not anonymous :P
What's a little bit unclear to me (despite I checked the website as well) is how 'Libyan commmunity' is defined here - all Libyans in the US, all Libyans in the world a.k.a. global Libyan community, and what the role of Libyans in Libya actually is in these activities. Highlander, you know it better?
Brainy and beautiful women rule, by the way, with emphasis on the former.
Yes, we should be able to vote for the Brainy Libyan Community Member of the Month online! Candidates should present here what they have achieved, what they plan to do etc.
NBA
I also nominate you highlander, you found the site, you should be a contender on it
Highlander,
Thank you for shedding a light on Tibra in your active blog--much appreciated!
All the women you mentioned deserve to be recognized... All we need is someone to write the feature and of them to give some of their time to be interviewed. Not asking for much, are we? So, who's to take the lead?
NBA, Libyan community in Tibra's terms includes Libyans all around the globe; so, yes, it is the global Libyan community. We've had contributors from US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, UK among others. So far, we had Tibra awardees from US, Canada, and the UK; Spotlighted women from US, Libya, and the UK.
Libyans in Libya can participate and contribute just as much as Libyans outside. It's been hard to attract them, for many reasons: We are very far away and don't have a presence in Libya, not everyone there is connected to the internet or have a reliable connection. Another reason, is that Tibra is a new idea to Libyans and it will take time for it to grow and prosper. Hope that answers your question. Among the women we featured from inside Libya is Ms. Ibtisam Bin Amer, who recently ranked number 28 on Forbes' list of 50 most powerful Arab businesswomen. See the following links:
Forbes Arabia to unveil list of 50 most powerful Arab businesswomen
The list
Hi Hanu,
Libyans sure get around! I was in the Phillipines 7 or 8 different times in the 1980s, and Ms Bin Amer was a student there at the same time!Not that I would have ever met her, as I was on military bases or out in the jungle most of the time. Reading that just took me by surprise for some reason. I wouldn't have expected a Libyan to be in the PI during Marcos's reign. I only saw a couple of American civilians the whole time I was there. It wasn't exactly a tourist destination back then :)
Must have been very interesting for her. The Phillipine Islands are probably my favorite country. I just wish thinsg were going a bit better for them.
Khadijateri :) you are welcome my dear . I mean it.
Libyanwarrior :) I don't know about being the greatest, but yes Libyan women are multitalented if you get the chance to be acquainted with them ..
Gatorbait :) thank you my friend, I don't think I reached that standard yet but I'm working on it !
Programmer_Craig he he he since I'm not planning on fessing up => guess there goes the award, seriously , a dear friend did want to nominate me but I asked him not to lol. Oh and you would be surprised at where else Libyans go ;)
NBA, I'm glad Hanu explained to you about the Libyan community ..as for your vote suggestion ..hmmmm let me see , we want a dating link, a voting link ...what else ;) ?
Alank :), I found the site back in 2003 while searching about Ghadames, then I forgot it, then Hanu sent me a link about a year ago I think, but only now I manage to write about it..so better late than never.
Hanu :) Thank you for popping by and explaining about your work even more. You are filling a much needed gap in our society .I personally have met Mrs Ben Amer and think she is great !
Hahaha, Highlander, this time it was you not me bringing back the good old dating topic :-). Maybe we should do it like this: everybody votes for a brainy Libyan and a date with a beautiful Libyan is then arranged for a randomly picked person among the voters LOL. (I guess the brainy ones are too smart to go for this kind of dating tactics.)
Off topic (Highlander especially because of your recent post on the Palestinian-Israeli basketball game), anyone here read Susan Nathan's The Other Side of Israel? It's a book written by a British-born Jewish woman (Nathan) who moves to Israel and finally settles in an Arab town as its only Jewish resident. This is perhaps the most interesting book on the whole conflict I've read and thoroughly critical towards Israeli politics/policy against the Arab minority in the whole of the country, not only what's happening in the occupied territories. If you manage to find this somewhere, buy or borrow it! I don't mean I share all the points of view in the book but it's highly recommended anyway.
I've written before that this whole conflict gets too much attention but this book is a rare fresh perspective.
NBA
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