Baghdad Section Diversity & Inclusion Committee Celebrates International Women's Day

TWA_2021_07_IWD_Iraq.jpg
Members of the SPE Baghdad Section D&I Committee.

For a first time for the section, the SPE Baghdad Section Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Committee celebrated the International Women's Day (IWD) by promoting the technical and cultural achievements of Iraqi women, making a call to action for accelerating gender parity, and raising awareness about women's equality. The event aimed to

  • Motivate and inspire young women by pushing them to be creative in their fields, especially within the oil and gas industry
  • Create an opportunity for young women to network and build relationships with several inspiring women
  • Spotlight the most prominent activities of young professionals by celebrating their achievements despite the difficult circumstances the country is going through

The IWD webinar took place 8 March, under the international campaign theme “Choose To Challenge.”

An impressive number of Iraqi women working for national and international oil companies participated in the event by sharing their success stories along with inspirational pictures to encourage the younger audience to be challengers and try their best to generate a positive change in their lives, communities, and the industry.

During the event, four inspiring Iraqi women from different professional and cultural backgrounds participated as keynote speakers. On the technical side, Arwa A. Mawlod, a subject matter expert in fluids at ADNOC, UAE, and Marwah Yaqoob, a petroleum engineer at BP Iraq, shared their success stories. Aligned with the spirit of the D&I committee, two young female musicians, Tuqa AlWael, a cello player and lecturer at the University of Baghdad and member of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra; and Sally Mohammed, a guitar player, participated in a hybrid format that allowed them to share their stories and offer a web-concert for the audience.

The speakers talked about the challenges faced during their technical and artistic journeys, how they overcame them, their achievements, and the career transformation from juniors to experts in their respective fields.

Mawlod talked about the importance of supporting women and motivating them for creativity. As an example, she shared the time when she won the Best Digital Project Award in 2020 at ADNOC with the support of her team. Yaqoob talked about chasing her dreams and passion in civil engineering in addition to petroleum engineering, and how she used to reconcile the two disciplines and invest her spare time in planning civil works.

The webinar concluded with traditional music and clips from the Iraqi symphony.

[The article was sourced by TWA Content Creator Baraa H. Salman.]