International Women’s Day: Equality through entrepreneurship

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, which is dedicated to celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women across the globe. Last month, in Lebanon, women were not so celebrated. Lebanese Olympic skier, Jackie Chamoun, underwent scrutiny when footage of her posing topless for an Austrian calendar in 2011 leaked onto the internet, with Lebanon’s Minister of Youth and Sports going so far as to call for an investigation. In response, a massive campaign dubbed ‘stripforjackie’ turned the young woman into a social media sensation as hundreds of people began doing exactly what the campaign title implies: taking ‘selfies’ wearing almost nothing in their support of Jackie’s right to pose in whatever way she chooses. Also in February, two women, Manal Assi and Christelle Abou Shakra, were allegedly brutally killed by their husbands in two separate incidents in Lebanon. Both had suffered years of abuse at the hands of their