More Bahraini women are becoming aware of their rights within the family, workplace and community, the kingdom’s oldest women’s group has highlighted.
The Bahrain Young Ladies Association (BYLA) has registered an increase in cases at its counselling centre, pointing to this significant development.
In the last month alone, 38 new cases were received at the Aisha Yateem Family Counselling Centre (AYFCC) – a rise from previous years, according to the association’s chairwoman Nadia AlMaskati.
BYLA has been working closely with the centre since its inception in 2007, providing counselling services to women seeking intervention for mental health issues or in cases of domestic violence.
Set to celebrate its 20th anniversary next year, AYFCC, located in Hamad Town, provides a range of expert services, including marriage, family and social counselling, psychological tests and legal guidance.
“There have been many enquiries at the centre, which has led us to hire more people,” Ms AlMaskati told the GDN during the interview conducted at the group’s premises in Manama.
“We are also training more counsellors to meet the rising demand.
“Additionally, we have been staging regular campaigns to raise awareness about women’s rights and their role in the family and community,” she added.
Among the trainees are several Bahrain University students, supporting the group’s efforts to sensitise young members of the community to women’s issues.
A champion of women’s rights, BYLA organised a meeting last month where some of the members discussed the importance of protecting women’s interests in the matter of shared wealth with their spouse.
“We are still in the initial stages of discussion and hope to gather feedback from the relevant sources. Presently, in case of a dispute between couples, if the property is registered under the husband’s name, the wife will not get anything in case of a divorce. Even if she might have contributed towards building their house, unless she can produce documents to prove it, she cannot claim anything.”
“We see this happening with many families and so it is important to raise awareness about documenting everything. Young couples tend to focus on the positive aspects in the beginning of their relationship and often do not prepare legal paperwork,” explained the philanthropist.
A longstanding BYLA member, Ms AlMaskati has had a passion for community service since her days as a student in Kuwait.
The former marketing professional began her journey in social work by volunteering at BYLA during the summer break.
Over time, she found her calling with the group and has since been a member, serving as the chairwoman and committee member for past terms.
Having taken over at the helm once again this year, the 67-year-old highlighted that they intend to build on the significant progress made by the previous boards.
“Our breadwinner initiative was launched (in 2009) to provide widows and single mothers with a means of livelihood. Lately, we have been in discussions as to how we can include these women in the mainstream,” she said, talking about some of the ongoing campaigns.
The breadwinner programme supports small business owners, including those who are the sole income generators for their families.
Many of them are widowed and have children to look after.
The platform also provides them with an additional source of income from collecting recyclable material, which is then sold to recycling companies.
“Many of these women were affected during the Covid pandemic, which is why we are working with the relevant authorities to grant them social insurance, which will bring more stability to their income and operations,” Ms AlMaskati revealed.
Empowering Bahraini women, advocating for their rights and encouraging them to take up active roles in the community have been at the heart of BYLA since its inception in 1955.
The society, which celebrated its 70th anniversary last year, was founded by a group of highly educated Bahraini women, led by the late Aisha Yateem, wife of the late prominent Bahraini businessman Hussain Yateem.
Working closely with other local women’s groups, BYLA has brought about many positive changes, including Bahraini women’s rights to vote and contest municipality and parliamentary elections and relaxed breastfeeding timings for working mothers.
“We are continuing our work with other women’s societies as part of Bahrain Women’s Union to grant Bahraini women the right to pass on their nationality to their children in the event of a divorce if the father is a foreign national,” Ms AlMaskati noted.
The association is making strides in the field of education as well with its Al Nahda kindergarten in Riffa.
Some of the group’s earliest programmes included literacy classes for adults where volunteers went into villages to teach older people especially those who could not complete their education.
Eventually, the Education Ministry took over the project but BYLA continued to play a key role for many years, conducting evening classes for women at the society’s premises.
Pushing for holistic education, BYLA launched the family and nutritional awareness programmes, enlightening women on health and hygiene, gaps between each pregnancy, a wholesome diet and more.
“All our initiatives are based on and guided by on-the-ground research. The reports are collated by professionals, who collect data firsthand,” she said.
For instance, the society developed the idea of offering family counselling services based on a study about the ‘status of women in the Bahraini family’, which covered 450 families.
Another field study between 2011 and 2016, comprising a sample of 370 primary female breadwinners across Bahrain, spurred the association to launch its popular breadwinner programme.
Presently, the society has been working towards digitising these findings and reports, as well as official documents and photographs over the years.
A documentary bringing alive the society’s journey will also be released alongside a revamped website.
Additionally, there are plans to make the social media accounts more active and possibly bilingual for wider reach.
“We are working on documenting our Nasaej project for heritage embroidery, which was established in 2003,” added Ms AlMaskati, acknowledging the society’s goal to build on the foundation laid in the past but with a steady gaze on the future.
As part of that same vision, BYLA is welcoming a new crop of ‘women leaders’ who will take on the responsibility of the historic organisation.
“We have had some new, young members join us and are looking for more people who can be truly committed to community service,” she added.
melissa@gdnmedia.bh
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