First it is important to know how the government works for gender equality, in this case, Lebanon has one of the most vibrant women’s movements in the Arab region. Lebanese women gained their right to vote in 1952, and since then, Lebanese women have made strides in advancing the women’s empowerment agenda. Lebanon’s ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1997 stimulated an increase in awareness of women’s rights within Lebanese society, followed by the establishment of the National Committee for Lebanese Women Affairs under the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in 1998. Today, enrollment rates for girls and boys are equal. In primary schools, the percentage of women who can read and write is 83% , page 39.
In 2016, the Office of the Minister of State for Women Affairs was established to support the advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment in Lebanon, which was replaced by the government formed in 2019 by the Ministry of State for Women and Youth Economic Empowerment Affairs.
Lebanese women enjoy more rights and freedom compared to women elsewhere in the Arab world. Women in Lebanon can wear more liberal clothes and move with relative ease in certain parts of the country, unlike in other countries in the region. Lebanese women enjoy equal civil rights with men. However, due to the large number of officially recognized religions in Lebanon, Lebanese family affairs are governed by no less than 15 personal laws .
The Lebanese constitution promulgated in 1926 and amended does not contain any text that discriminates against women. Rather, it consecrates women’s equality.
All citizens are before the law without discrimination, and we can see this in many articles that determine the personal lives of individuals and the general:
But the most important thing remains, at the constitutional level, and what was included in the preamble to the constitution that was added to it according to the Constitutional Law No. 18 of 9/21/1990 and which was mentioned in Paragraph B of them verbatim:
“Lebanon is Arab in identity and belonging, and it is a founding and active member of the Arab League and abides by its charters, as it is a founding and active member of the United Nations Organization and abides by its charters and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The state embodies these principles in all fields and fields without exception”.
The IUL encourages applications by women in subjects where they are underrepresented. The main illustration of this women’s empowerment goal is the designation of a female president for the leadership of IUL (Prof. Dina el Maoula). Women earn the majority of undergraduate degrees in many Arab countries and make up a growing proportion of teachers at the primary and secondary levels of education in many Arab countries. But they are often missing in the upper ranks of higher-education leadership as shown in the following Figure. Women lead fewer than 7 percent of Arab higher-education institutions, according to a detailed survey conducted by Al-Fanar Media and InfoTimes, an independent data analysis company.
Mohammed el-Ghazali, the dean of the faculty of education at Mohammed V University at Agdal, agrees that more female academic leaders would have a positive influence on girls’ educat. “The presence of a woman in a high-level scientific position would give girls a living role model that would motivate them to learn, to be diligent and to raise the ceiling of their dreams to high levels of leadership,” he said. He continues to say that “Women university presidents could also create a safer working environment for the rest of women, whether they were professors, administrators or students, in a way that would raise their productivity”.
Al-Fanar Media’s study looked at the leaders of 746 higher-education institutions in 22 Arab countries as listed by the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a global resource that provides information on higher education institutions, regulations and accreditation. Out of 702 academic institutions where Al-Fanar Media researchers could verify the leader’s identity, only 48 universities or higher-education institutes are led by women.
Additionally, this female president is assigned the deanship of one of the biggest and most operative faculties at IUL which is the Faculty of Law. In this context, it is worthy to mention that in Lebanon and even in the arab world, the law domain is known as a male-dominated domain by both convention and numbers. Under the female leader deanship, the number of female students has obviously increased in the law faculty through the years 2014/2015 to 2018/2019 to an extent that the number of female graduates has exceeded that of the males at 2018/2019.
The IUL leader is represented by a powerful female who has and is still ferociously defending the women’s rights and striving for promoting their roles and competencies inside and outside IUL. Form her presence and position in many organizations and associations, she demands the procurement of women’s rights and seeks the female’s presence in various fields. Moreover, she insists on the representation of IUL, by female professors, in the committees and organizations to defend the rights and presence of women, strengthen their role and educational development. Furthermore, the female president insists on and urges the participation of IUL females in national and international conferences, seminars, workshops and other programs. This is related to the IUL belief of the importance of the presence of females in such events on one hand, and the role that IUL females can play in defending the women’s right and spotting the light to their educational competencies in these events on the other hand. In this section, we will provide examples and evidences that illustrate this point.
Moreover, the female president with her accumulated experiences, acquired awards, assigned positions reflect by themselves the representation of women in areas where rarely a female can be seen. Her accumulated experiences and commitment to equality between men and women had resonance at the European level, which prompted the French government to award this female leader the Academic Golden Palme d’Or. The represent or of the Minister of National Education and Youth of the French Republic presented the IUL female president this Palm Academy Medal at the French Cultural Center (CCF) in Beirut in an official ceremony, where she had a speech about Prof. El Maoula and concluded her talk by stating that: “There are several reasons that led the French Republic to recognize your distinction: Francophonie, Francophilia, your commitment and commitment to equality between men and women. We appreciate all the determination and distinction that you worked hard to reach. You are definitely an inspiration to a new generation of students. For all these reasons, it is an honor for me, on behalf of the Minister of Education and Higher Education of the French Republic, to present to you the Knight’s Academic Palms Order” .
Under Prof. Maoula’s leadership as a female and as a result of her insisting, the IUL obtained the French institutional accreditation “High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education” (HCERES) for 5 years without any condition or restriction. This accreditation gives an added value for the graduation certificate of the IUL female students’. Moreover, it has also reflected positively on encouraging the students’ enrollment. The president in the Press conference through which she declared that IUL has obtained the HCERES for 5 years without any condition or restriction .
The leadership roles that Prof. El Maoula has been assigned, in addition to her leadership of IUL, illustrates clearly the empowering of the women’s role in the subjects where they are underrepresented. Moreover, this female president has and is still working for defending the women’s rights inside IUL as its leader and outside IUL from the leadership positions that she has occupied. In addition to these leadership positions, she has been assigned various roles in many associations. These authority positions and roles of the female president had provided the IUL with more power and influence to defend the women’s rights and raise their voices nationally and internationally.
The roles that Prof. El-Moula was assigned and through which she is defending and demanding fiercely the women’s rights, empowerment and equality are as follows:
Protocols of collaborations
The IUL body represented by its female president opened the door for the women’s participation and for empowering their role in the subjects where they are underrepresented through establishing many collaborations with the national, regional and international universities and academies, with governmental and non-governmental organizations, with the French Consulate in Beirut and with the AUF. The mentioned organizations and institutions are, by their turn, incorporated in the women’s empowerment strategy and have policies that serve this aim within their organizations. These collaborations are in aim of creating new opportunities for the female instructors as well as female students on the level of education, internship, research, education, and skills enhancement. These collaborations are also dedicated to encourage requests from women in matters in which they are underrepresented in Lebanon as engineering and technology, sciences, law and business fields, provided by the Lebanese Central Administration of Statistics show.
Percentage distribution of registered students in higher Education by Sex.
These collaborations also had an effect on improving the number of female students’ enrolment number and graduating female students with higher competencies, relations, communication and technical skills that increases and enhances their opportunities in job finding and employment. IUL has activated and accelerated the females’ research activities with the cooperation and the relationships established with many universities and establishments in aim of the exchanging of the academic and research staff. These collaborations are as follows:
Economics and Business Administration number of registered female and males are equal, and the number of female graduates has largely exceeded that of male at 2018/2019 to reach twice that of males.
Number of female students and graduates have increased at engineering faculty, but it is still lower than that of males. This is already reflected by figure 34 and 35, that shows that in Lebanon the engineering domain is the least domain attended by female and it was and is still known as male-dominated field. For this reason and according to these facts and statistics, the IUL is strongly encouraging female students to attend the engineering faculty and lot of support is provided for the engineering female instructors and students as it will be shown throughout this section.
The Letters and Human Sciences is strongly dominated by the female students and graduates.
Nursing and Health Sciences number of registered female students and graduates has mostly increased through the past years. During all the studied years, the number of female students and graduates has largely exceeded that of males due to the continuous efforts by IUL to encourage females for engaging in this faculty. It is also worthy to mention that this faculty’s board includes females occupying 5 senior positions out of 7.
Sciences number of female students and graduates has largely exceeded that of males due to the continuous efforts by IUL to encourage females for engaging in this faculty. Tourism number of female students and graduates has largely exceeded that of males.
Collaborations with Universities and academies
Cooperation agreement with “Le Mans” university 2019
This agreement is intended to establish, facilitate and intensify the women scientific and educational programs as well as to develop cooperation between the IUL and “Le Mans” University in the common specialties between the two establishments (sciences and techniques, engineering science, law, economics and management) in which females are underrepresented in Lebanon. Its aim is to provide an official framework for the transactions between the IUL and “Le Mans” in order to ensure the continuity of cooperative actions carried out jointly, and to contribute to the educational and scientific influence of the two partners. The technical knowledge and skills between FEMALE academics, researchers, technicians and students of both parties will best serve the common scientific interests of each institution. The two contracting establishments deploy their cooperation efforts along the FELAME research co-operation projects, training projects, student mobility programs, education and training.
Cooperation agreement with Nice University 2017
This agreement is based on the intersection of Nice university and IUL of the necessity of female empowering. Consequently, this agreement seeks to promote and encourage the cooperation between the two universities and the direct exchanges between members of their teaching staff and their Training and Research Center especially the female ones, within the framework of the provisions of this Framework Agreement.
The areas of collaboration involve :
Cooperation agreement with Limoge University
Limoge is also another University which has several initiative projects and progrms to better integrate the gender dimension in the university and promote equality between women and men in the University of Limoges, on the staff side, and on the student side.
In order to facilitate and encourage cooperation and direct exchanges between members of their teaching staff and their Training and Research Centers within the scope of the provisions of this Framework Agreement, the IUL has carried out this Agreement with Limoge University under the umbrella of its efforts to promote equality and better education of women .
The areas of collaboration involve:
The Syrian private university 2018
The IUL and Syrian University held a cooperation agreement to jointly carry out activities aimed at developing the academic, scientific and cultural projects for the benefit of students and administrators in the two institutions to strengthen the ties of cooperation between them. The two parties shall work on cooperation in the following areas:
Cooperation agreement with Abu Dhabi university 2018
The Abu Dhabi university has, by its turn, many initiatives for supporting women and providing them with all the necessary means to be creative and successful as leaders.
This agreement covers cooperation between the IUL and Abu Dhabi University and aims to promote ties between both institutions through the exchange of students, training programs, and exchange of expertise especially females. Additionally, the two parties support each other to encourage training for their students and facilitate exchange of information and networking. The parties have agreed to enter this MOU in order to provide students with more credit transfer options, enhanced learning resources and social programs. They have agreed to work together on projects that shall include but not limited to:
Cooperation agreement with University of Islamic Denominations 2017
The University of Religions and Denominations, the first of its kind in Iran, is an offshoot of the Islamic Seminary that recognizes other religions and denominations, interacts and conducts dialogues with their followers by relying on the commonalities. The University emphasizes the research and training of specialists in order to establish human solidarity, strengthen peace, alleviate human suffering, disseminate spirituality and morality, and intelligently introduce Islam based on the teachings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s Progeny. Therefore, it has many programs and courses that are related to woman’s right and dignity in the Islamic and other religions and it is supportive for females’ rights. It has a faculty named “Faculty of Women’s Studies” where course related to Women’s Studies in Islam and Iran are delivered.
The IUL and the Islamic Denominations University held an agreement to jointly carry out activities, where the objectives and areas of this cooperation are:
Holding joint courses and workshops
Cooperation agreement with Al-Mustaqbal University college 2018
Al-Mustaqbal University College welcome students from any religions and welcome women on equal terms with man. It also carries various researches and studies related to women and their issues and health as a paper entitled “A survey study for aborted women toward cytomegalovirus and toxoplasma in Babylon City”
The IUL and Al-Mustaqbal University College held a cooperation agreement to jointly carry out activities aimed at developing the academic, scientific and cultural projects for the benefit of students and administrators (including females) in the two institutions to strengthen the ties of cooperation between them. The two parties shall work on cooperation in the following areas:
The ITU_ARCC keeps in its conferences agenda a session for “Women in Cybersecurity”, which discusses the gender gap in Cybersecurity, recognizes achievements and accolades that women have earned in cybersecurity, Explor reasons why women are very essential for cybersecurity and creates a new environment that helps in increasing the level of woman participation in the cybersecurity world. Its 2020 plan includes Women Empowerment in Cybersecurity and Developing digital literacy and e-inclusion schemes for under-served communities, including women and girls. It also conducts Cybersecurity & Social Media Awareness for some departments related to females as the department of Women Affairs, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Accordingly, and from the same point of focus, the IUL and the ITU-ARCC have developed a cooperation protocol to allow research and development cooperation in the field of cyber security and computer emergency between the IUL and the ITU-ARCC (mainly females). It also aims to collaborate, in their common interest, on a variety of research and development events, such as training and seminars, exchange experts and researches, exchange of information and technical expertise, and to contribute to the regional cybersecurity imitative in the Arab region especially females. It provides a framework and assurance that the research and capacity building process at both organizations would be enhanced.
Cooperation agreement with Iraqian Al-Thakawat Foundation and Lebanese international academy for training and development (LIA) 2019
The LIA aims for activating the role of women in society, to become a productive and influential entity of positive change. The ′′ Let’s Be the Finest′′ initiative of the Women’s Academy has been launched at the Lebanon Academy for Training and Development. The initiative will therefore be to encourage and support women to participate actively in society in the midst of successive crises (social status, economic status, health status). They aim to make a societal change within this initiative not only in the life sphere, but a change affecting the relationships of the social species in a neighborhood. Women become actors and take leadership roles in society. LIA has also organized with the Agwan International Academy for Training and Development in Jordan, the 6th consecutive year to raise women awareness about breast cancer and Prevention.
The two parties shall work on cooperation in the following areas:
Cooperation agreement with CLICKS
Dr. Narimane Hadj-Hamou is the female Founder and CEO of the Center for Learning Innovations and Customized Knowledge Solutions (CLICKS). She has been awarded under the education category at the recent Arab Women Awards ceremony which took place on the evening of the 10th of December, 2016. In her talk in this ceremony, she stated that: “I am truly honored to be considered for this prestigious award that aims at creating awareness about women achievements in a diversified range of areas including education”. Moreover, she ranked among the 200 most powerful Arab women in 2014 by Forbes magazine.
CLICKs and IUL are both leaded by females struggling for women to achieve successes and shine in the domains which are male-dominated. Consequently, an agreement between IUL and CLICKs, were developed, in aim to develop a mutually beneficial partnership with IUL in regards to supporting the growth and development of the university, which reflects positively on its female staff and students. Moreover, it aims to support the growth and development of the IUL’s strategic priorities and in-line with the core areas of expertise of the center through the provision of capacity building opportunities and various consultancy and R&D activities. Furthermore, this agreement is to encourage the transfer of best practices and ‘know-how” to the IUL staff, especially the females .
The areas of cooperation may include but not limited to:
Collaborations with non-governmental organizations
Cooperation agreement with Explorance company
The objective of the agreement between IUL and Knowledge E Company DMCC (Dubai based company) is that the latter will facilitate the end-to-end delivery of a 5-day training program including IUL female staff. This program aims to support improved research output and impact at the IUL and through its females. Knowledge E will provide several services to ensure end-to-end delivery of the agreed upon capacity building training for IUL .
Some of these services are:
Cooperation agreement with French Institute of Lebanon: 2019
This protocol of agreement states that the French Institute of Lebanon is authorized by the IUL, to position its agent within IUL, where she will occupy an office to have the opportunity to receive the public wishing to learn about the activities of the institute and to organize French language courses for all audiences in the premises of IUL. Additionally, the French Institute will be authorized to mention IUL in the advertising documents relating to the French language course and to install a label mentioning the partnership between institute and IUL and bearing their respective logos .
Cooperation agreement with AUF 2017
This protocol of agreement states that the establishments that can host an Information Access Point (PAI) are the establishments of the AUF, according to the site established by its associative council.
The AUF and the IUL in this protocol agree to renew the partnership signed on 12/10/202 concerning the establishment of a PAI with IUL. This agreement cancels and replaces the agreement previously signed. The public of IUL who are authorized to use the services of the access point to the information is made up primarily of regularly registered students, teachers, researchers, and librarians.
Cooperation agreement with AUF 2019
Within the framework of its “digital innovation” project and its A-NEUF program (digital workshops of the francophone university space), the AUF supports university projects emphasizing the reinforcement of skills in ICT especially females.
The contribution of the IUL involves the costs of organizing training sessions: equipment, computer rooms, internet connection and other charges, reproduction of course materials that will be given to trainees. The support provided by the AUF concerns only the expenses relating to the setting up of the mission of the trainers (fees, insurance, transport ticket, etc.)
Cooperation agreement with National association of science and research
Since the National association of science and research is a pioneering association in the field of sponsoring and developing technological sciences and innovation among young people, it annually organizes a science match and an international exhibition of inventions and sponsors the participation of Lebanese inventors, and the IUL aims to advance scientific and technological research and innovation among young people and works to urge the development of academic and research relations with universities and research centers, an agreement has been concluded where the National association of science and research is committed to the following:
Collaboration with ZIEICT technology company
Cooperation agreement with CNRS to support the scientific research project
The National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) has many programs and initiatives to promote and encourage women scientists. Some of them include, “Les Elles de la Recherche” conference organized by the CNRS, jointly with the Dynamic Actions for Women in Research and Knowledge, DAWREK’n and the French National Center for Scientific Research. During the opening ceremony, the director general of CNRS, Mouin Hamzeh, stressed the importance of promoting women in research and their growing role in enhancing research and innovation in Lebanon. CNRS launched the “National Observatory for the Leadership and Empowerment of Women in Research” (CNRS-L) funded by UNESCO Participation, DAWReK’n aims to support Lebanese female researchers in their efforts towards empowerment in the scientific environment, and this in all disciplines of research and innovation (basic sciences and engineering, medical sciences, environmental sciences and agriculture, human and social sciences …). The acronym stands for the Arabic word «دوركُ-نَّ» that can mean both « it’s your role » and « it’s your turn » .
This cooperation between IUL and CNRS aims to support the scientific research projects of the IUL academic staff, especially females, as a part of their efoorsts for women’s empowering in the research areas which are male-dominated (engineering, sciences, etc..) as follows:
Collaboration with the French embassy in Lebanon: 2019
The French Embassy in Lebanon and the Francophone University Agency for the Orient, AUF supports the female in various domains and fields. They have supported “Les Elles de la Recherche” conference organized by the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), jointly with the Dynamic Actions for Women in Research and Knowledge, DAWREK’n and the French National Center for Scientific Research. During the opening ceremony, the representative of the French Ambassador, director of the French Institute in Beirut, Veronique Olanyon, underlined the need to support the rights of women in general and strengthen their role in sciences. The conference sessions covered several topics, namely: initiatives aimed to achieve gender equality in the country, reasons and motives for promoting the status of women in scientific research, drawbacks slowing down female researchers to attain academic promotion and fair institutional policies towards achieving equality in the field of science and research. At the end of the conference, researchers presented personal testimonies of their scientific career and how they faced challenges to achieve success in academic research .
In the aim of the development of the scientific research in Lebanon and to strengthen Franco-Lebanese cooperation, through the mechanisms of the SAFAR program launched by the French embassy in Lebanon to aid the mobility of doctoral students and young Lebanese researchers in research establishments in France, the IUL held an agreement with the French Embassy in Lebanon for granting scholarships and scientific residency to the doctoral students and researchers of the IUL in the institutions at France. This framework agreement formalizes the intention of the parties to develop, while respecting a mutual and common interest, a general framework for the establishment of doctoral scholarships and high-level scientific studies (SSHN), the beneficiaries of which are doctoral students and/or Lebanese researchers who wish to carry out scientific stays in France. The scholarships are confined by the IUL and the French Embassy in Lebanon, where the funding alternates between the two parties and covers the doctoral student for a maximum duration of 3 university years (one renewable year for twice at most) and researches for 1-6 months or 2 weeks-1 month.
Collaborations with governmental organizations
Collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Trade
In partnership with UNDP, the Ministry of Economy and Trade has held an initiation roundtable to launch a series of similar events on the topic of Women Entrepreneurship in the country. One event has aimed at mapping challenges facing women entrepreneurs in the Lebanese economy as well as tracking existing initiatives created by various stakeholders, and coming up with recommendations to improve the business environment for women entrepreneurs. Another event, and in partnership with UNDP, the Ministry of Economy and Trade has held a roundtable to tackle the legal barriers in the ecosystem preventing women from developing their businesses. The objective of the roundtable was to discuss ways to improve the ecosystem for Women Entrepreneurship more specifically in terms of legal barriers that were identified in the previous roundtable event, with the aim of finding tangible solutions and coining recommendations and suggestions.
In this context, the IUL held an agreement with the Ministry of Economy and Trade to cooperate in lectures, specialized meetings and workshops according to an organizational framework set in coordination by them.
The two parties will cooperate in the following points of the agreement are:
The two teams organize and hold joint specialized scientific conferences (including females) in coordination between them
Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the LIRA Club at the university under the supervision of the College of Engineering
The Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements (LIRA) programme, launched by the Ministry of Industry, is one of the programs that link academia and research with industries involved in research and development purposes.
Based on the objectives of the LIRA program to help female students’ empowerment on the industrial projects level, the IUL conducted a cooperation agreement with this program. The motivation behind this agreement is that the two teams have the desire and aim to support university research projects including female students’ projects that bear industrial returns with high added value, and they wish to develop such projects in the college and elevate them to promising industrial projects and to successful industrial and economic emerging companies. The Figure shows the IUL president at the Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements (LIRA) Awards Ceremony.
These agreements aim at activating the role of engineering faculty students, especially females, in the effective and broad participation in the LIRA program. This will allow the female students to take advantage of opportunities to launch entrepreneurship and from the financial support provided by the program to the projects of the preparation stage for membership of the Engineers Association and master’s projects of joint industrial orientation with industrialists as well as applied research projects at the doctoral level that bear industrial returns with high added value
The two teams agreed upon establishing the LIRA Club at the university for students (including females) at IUL. The internal system of the student club states that:
As for the collet, it plays the role of custodian of the grants provided by the program to the projects implemented by the professors and students ((including females)
A contract of cooperation and coordination with Lebanese General Security
In a ceremony held at the Internal Security Forces (ISF) Academy on September 26, the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) awarded 35 officers of the General Security (GS) and the ISF certificates to commemorate their completion of a five-week intensive training program on gender-based violence. The program imparted practical knowledge on how to deal with gender-based violence in Lebanon and was developed by a committee that included members of both the ISF and General Security, as well as experts in the field of gender equality .
This is a cooperation agreement between the General Security and IUL to cooperate with each other in terms of registering General Security students in all faculties, the stages of the master’s degree, and the doctorate in accordance with the provisions of this memorandum
The main points of this agreement are:
A contract of cooperation with Lebanese Army Forces (LAF)
The ministerial resolution number 376 was issued on 08/09/1989 and contained applied provisions related to the enrollment of Lebanese women in the LAF in compliance with women rights in equality as well as the Defense Law which gives all Lebanese citizen the right to vote. Then the resolution was followed with a service memorandum issued by the LAF Command where the enrollment rules of Lebanese women was approved from 1 January 1990.
Accordingly, and in aim of emphasizing the women’s role in different domains, the IUL has established a cooperation agreement with the LAF. The aim of agreement is to include facilities for the military and their families who wish to complete their education at the Islamic University in Lebanon including female militaries, training programs, joint scientific projects, exchange of experiences and research in areas that serve the military institution and activities at national events .
Where the university opens its institutions to the students of the army forces in the field of training, studies and projects related to graduation projects and activities and Lebanese army also provides facilities for university students in the same framework (including females).
Many other collaborations are established between IUL and other organizations in order to facilitate the women access scheme through the facilities and offerings provided by these agreements for the IUL students. IUL signed agreements and held meetings with many Lebanese, Arab and foreign prime ministers, ministers, ambassadors and other political personalities and cultural counselors of many countries .
Collaboration Programs:
In the context of enabling access schemes, the IUL has integrated with several programs also as:
TLQAA+ program
This is an Evaluation Program for transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications
Its Objectives are:
The Erasmus Program (EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) is a European Union (EU) student exchange program established in 1987. Erasmus+, or Erasmus Plus, is the new program combining all the EU’s current schemes for education, training, youth and sport.
For over thirty years, the EU has funded the Erasmus programme, which has enabled over three million students from all walks of life to expand their horizons through study and training. The programme has also become a cornerstone of equal opportunity, with many of its projects directly invested in building a society that celebrates gender equality. Many Erasmus+ projects are dedicated empowering women to lead the way.
The Erasmus + program is concretely divided into major activities:
It is also worthy to mention that the IUL Erasmus+ office coordinator is an IUL female instructor.
Females’ roles and participation via IUL in areas where they are underrepresented:
The IUL supports women in individual and group research activities and support these researches financially during the research progress and after its publication acceptance including the registration, the flight and accommodation fees (in case of participation in abroad conferences). In addition to empowering women on the research and scientific levels and for supporting women to access the various fields as males, the IUL has supported and helped females to access, participate and play leadership and representative roles in various domains inside and outside IUL for empowering IUL females in order to be able by their turn to support females outside IUL and defend their presence and roles in areas that are dominated by males. These roles include consultative roles, female representatives of IUL, organizers for events that support the females and children in the country.
Female instructors as researcher
A large number of female instructors and students were supported and funded by IUL to publish papers in international conferences and journals in several domains that we named above (engineering, nursing, economical studies, law ….). Moreover, the research collaborations established with other aboard universities especially in France have opened the door for this aim.
Additionally, IUL give essential roles for females to take leading roles in the conferences organized u IUL or outside IUL. Some of these roles include reviewing papers and acting as session’s chairs and co-chairs in the conferences and members of organizing committees.
Females as committee members
Females as IUL represents
Females as events’ organizers
Some seminars are even organized and prepared for by female instructors within the IUL related to environment. Other seminar was related to women’s role in society entitled “The Role of Women in Society”. It was part of the “Business Ethics and Social Responsibility” course, December 2017. The symposium included a presentation of documentary films that students represented and filmed. The films included topics related to educated, entrepreneurial, divorced, working and mother women .
Another initiative involves the female instructors organizing entertainment festivals and exhibitions at the IUL, some of them has social objectives as that organized and held at the IUL, in cooperation with the social welfare institutions in Lebanon, the Islamic Orphanage House – Human Capabilities Development Complex. It included an exhibition of educational means to support the education and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities under the title “Incorporating is a Right of My Rights. One another entertaining initiative in 2018, was surprising the students in the “Public Relations” course during the partial exam by placing a motivational message for each student in his name with the type of chocolate he preferred on the exam table before entering the hall. This activity was covered in the media on more than 12 news and social websites .
Females as members in national and international organizations
They are active members that Claiming women’s rights many Lebanese orders as the Order of Engineers, Order of Nurses, Order of Physicians, Beirut Bar Association and other orders. Others are assigned the role of “Representative of the Lebanese Nursing Faculties in the scientific Society of Arab Nursing Faculties” .
Additionally, as members of national and international institutions as IEEE, they work on empowering women in engineering fields through their participating in the IEEE Women in Engineering. For the sake of this aim, the IUL president supremely encourages and supports IUL females to the participation in the seminars, workshops and even the elections in these institutions to provide empowerment for females where they are underrepresented. One example is the supporting and encouragement of the president for the nomination of an IUL female instructor to senior positions in the IEEE Women in Engineering.
Furthermore, many female employees, instructors and students are integrated within social, entertaining and cultural activities and clubs especially those that support females. They are members and even heads of various types of associations of charitable, cultural, and academic objectives as AMICALE where IUL females participated in collecting aids for those affected by the Beirut Port bombing.
IUL Females as other societies’ female supporters
Under the spot of empowering females, the IUL instructors are directed for the participation in seminars related directly to empowering women. One example is “Girls Got IT” which is a joint initiative bringing together five active Lebanese NGOs: The Lebanese League for Women in Business (LLWB), Arab Women in Computing (ArabWIC), Women in Technology (WIT), Women in Engineering (WIE) and Digital Opportunity trust (DOT) together. Girls Got IT is held under the sponsorship of the UNICEF and GIL (Generation of Innovative Leaders). “Girls Got IT” aims to break the cultural stereotypes that surround women in STEAM subjects by exposing young females to essential technology skills, allowing them to meet inspiring role models and learn more about the various success stories from their country and the world.
Female instructors attend seminars for support female researches as a seminar entitled “Les ELLES de la Recherche” organized by the National Observatory for the leadership and Empowerment of Women in Research (Dawrek’n). Dawrek’n is funded by UNESCO Participation Program for 2018-2019, it aims to support Lebanese female researchers in their efforts towards empowerment in the scientific environment, and this in all disciplines of research and innovation (basic sciences and engineering, medical sciences, environmental sciences and agriculture, human and social sciences …). IUL females also conduct keynotes and present women supportive visons in other seminars organized by (Dawrek’n) as in “Dardacha Talks” and other events that are related to women in research. “Dardacha Talks” is a new format for research storytelling with a Lebanese twist and during which Lebanese female scientists from all disciplines and universities will take the challenge to popularize their research .
IUL Female Students participations and roles
In addition to its plan or empowering women in the society, the IUL empowerment policy is also dedicated to empower the female students. This starts for the mentoring of the school female students at the IUL open day. This open day is organized every year by IUL for all the school students during which these students get introduced to the university. The IUL staff and students provide mentoring by giving overview about the different faculties and the different majors in these faculties and their job opportunities.
Moreover, the IUL female students are oriented and encouraged to achieve successes and present their skills nationally and internationally as well as empowering their personalities and communication skills (it is worth to mention that the female students undergo a communication skills course during their study at IUL). In this context, the IUL supports and orients the female students for participation in national and international competitions, events and trainings.
A female student was assigned the role of Hult Prize Campus Director at IUL during 2017-2018 .
Additionally, she was assigned the role of Organizing the First Programming Competition at IUL at 2019 for preparing the IUL students to compete in the LCPC between all the Lebanese university.
The following Table shows some of the projects accomplished by female students, the competitions’ names and the acquired rewards. These projects are funded by IUL and accomplished at its laboratories using the equipment’s of these laboratories, supervised and guided by the IUL instructors.
Project title |
Competition and year |
Award |
Portable patient monitoring system (Salamati) |
International invention fair of middle east Kuwait 2018-2019 |
Silver medal Gold medal (Portugal inventor association) |
Portable patient monitoring system (Salamati) |
Falling walls lab by CNRS and German 2019 |
2nd place + innovation tour in Germany |
Salamati |
YLP5 by UNDP and INJAZ completion 2019 |
Most innovative solution award |
Salamati |
Doha oasis of innovation representing Lebanon 2019 |
Gold medal |
Human airbag |
BAU SIRACUS conference 2018 |
|
Salamati |
Invention vs corona contest by IFIA (international federation of inventor association Geneva) 2020 |
Gold medal |
Salamati |
YLP Incubator by UNDP Lebanon 2020 |
Chosen to be in the incubator and accelerator of 2019-2020 |
Portable patient monitoring system
|
DEEL by AUF France embassy 2018 |
Finalists |
Le Mot d’Or, business French competition (Evidence48) |
Annual competition open to students |
1 IUL Translation student participated in the national final of the competition |
MT180 (my thesis in 180 secondes) |
Annual competition organized by AUF |
1 law thesis student participated in the national final of the competition |
Moreover, the female students have gained Regional Francophone Literary Choice Award, Choix Goncourt de l’Orient, Interuniversity mediation competition, Student-entrepreneur competition, and Le Mot d’Or competition organized by AUF .
Here find some of the female students’ participations, prizes, projects and certificates .
Another participation was at NYUAD Annual International Hackathon for Social Good in The Arab World where the IUL female ranked in the third place. Another participation was in the Technology at the Service of Municipalities competition, where this competition aimed to develop a prototype to facilitate the municipalities’ work .
In addition to the prizes, the results of the supporting the IUL females was accomplished by the distinction of these females by achieving patents in some projects as those shown in Table.
Project title |
Type |
Year |
Portable patient monitoring system |
Patent |
2018-2019 |
Portable patient monitoring system |
Prototype 1 |
2018-2019 |
Salamati |
Prototype 2 |
2019-2020 |
Participation in the Inter University Program on International Criminal Law and procedures, where the participants visited the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) from 1 to 5 September 2019 as part of a three-day study visit to The Hague. The visit enabled the students who have attended the Inter-University Program on International Criminal Law and Procedure (IUP-ICLP) to see first-hand some of the institutions about which they had been studying.
Female students play various roles as are Members in IEEE student, IEEE Nanotechnology Council, IEEE Women in Engineering Chapter, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology, LOYAC, Awaited Millenials. Addtionally, they play a vital role as volunteers in Ties AUBMC, CCCL, SAIN NGO, Champs Fund: Hicham Al-Hage Program for Young Hearts & Athletes Health, Remy Rebeiz for Young Hearts Foundation, CSRN: Covid-19 Students Response Network, the 19th International Arab Conference of information Technology, Cancer Awareness Village, National Association Of Science and Research, Beirut AI.
In addition to the vitality of IUL female instructors in seminars participations, the students as well have several participations. Some examples are attending workshops and seminars on “Public Speaking and presentation skills” and “Beirut Breast Cancer Conference” organized by AUB, “Took information about the most recent innovations” organized by First Beirut Mini Maker Faire, “2nd Annual Middle East Neuro-oncology conference” and “2nd Lung Cancer Congress” organized by AUBMC, and many others .
IUL females Sport activities participation
Finally, from the persuasion of the right and capability of female participation in any type of activity as the males, the IUL encourages, founds and funds sports teams for female students and they have several participations and achievements. One of these female teams is a basketball team where a female instructor plays the role of the coach of this team. This team had a participation in the Lebanese Universities Basketball League in 2019.
Another female team is the Ping-Pong team that also has participated in the Lebanese Universities championship of Ping Pong – 2019.
One attractive team that reflects the equity between genders at IUL is the female shooting team. This latter had a participation in the Lebanese Universities Shooting Championship 2018, and a female Student ranked in the fifth place among more than 12 universities.
Another remarkable achievement for the IUL females on the sports level is the participation of a female student in six national and international marathons and achieving the first ranks in most of them.