From the Editors: UAE making giant strides in closing gender-based pay disparity

UAE MAKING GIANT STRIDES IN CLOSING GENDER-BASED PAY DISPARITY: Today, the UAE joins countries worldwide in celebrating International Equal Pay Day. The UAE has taken giant strides in closing the pay gap between men and women over the last three years. According to the World Bank’s 2021 ‘Women, Business and the Law (WBL)’ report, the UAE has topped the Middle East and North Africa rankings due to several legislative reforms related to women’s participation in the economy over the last three years. The fact that the country is ranked 18th globally and holds the first position regionally in United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2020 is a strong vindication of the stance adopted by the UAE in ensuring that there is no gender-based pay disparity in the country. [COMMENT BY: Sanjib Kumar Das, Assistant Editor]

KILLING OF CIVILIANS HALLMARK OF US WARS: From the beginning, there seemed to be something wrong with the US drone strike on August 29 in Kabul. Ten people were obliterated, mostly from the same family, including seven little children. The media was sceptical from the beginning, especially considering that the driver of the targeted car was a longtime employee at an US humanitarian organisation. After saying for days that he was a Daesh extremist, the US has finally admitted the strike was ‘a tragic mistake’. So often in America’s non-stop wars in the greater Middle East, civilians have been cut down due to bad decisions based on unacceptably poor intelligence. Given all this, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the US intel agencies failed to predict just how soon their Afghan government allies would collapse in the face of the Taliban insurgency. [COMMENT BY: Omar Shariff, International Editor]

BRAZIL LEGEND PELE READMITTED TO INTENSIVE CARE AFTER SURGERY: Brazil football legend Pele has been readmitted to an intensive care unit at a hospital in Sao Paulo following an apparent deterioration of his health just days after successful surgery to remove a tumour in his colon. The 80-year-old, who is Brazil's all-time leading scorer with 77 goals in 92 games, had left the Albert Einstein hospital on Tuesday and sent a message to fans on Instagram saying the he was ready for "90 minutes, plus extra time" but he reentered ICU due to acid reflux last night. Doctors said the three-time World Cup winner is stable and recovering but his health has been a source of concern to family and fans lately while his public appearances had already been cut before the COVID 19 pandemic. The entire world of sport wishes him a speedy recovery. [COMMENT BY: Imran Malik, Assistant Editor]

BOLLYWOOD STARS SAY NO TO PREGNANT PAUSE: There was a time when Bollywood actresses’ kept a low-profile while pregnant, but there’s now a new breed of female talents who are proudly flaunting their baby bump and are openly talking about their challenged they faced during their labour and childbirth. On September 18, actress Dia Mirza wrote bravely about her son, born four months premature, and how they all fought together to bring him home healthy. She spoke about how their challenging times at the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and normalized the struggles of new parents and the helplessness they feel. Another actress Neha Dhupia recently spoke about how she lost out on work during pregnancy by calling out Bollywood filmmakers and their prejudice towards pregnant women. And then, there’s of course Bollywood royalty Kareena Kapoor Khan who even wrote a book about being proudly pregnant and working throughout her pregnancy. These women are leading by example as they begin to embrace motherhood, pregnancy glow and blues, with endearing openness. Here’s more power to them. [COMMENT BY: Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Assistant Editor Features]