Prerna
A week where women venture further into space, sailing, and content. Here’s how this week fared for women via Top Stories Concerning Women.
1. UAE’s First Female Astronaut
UAE has unveiled its first female astronaut, Miss Noura al-Matroushi, along with Mr. Muhammed al-Mulla as the next batch of the Mohammed Bin Rashid (MBR) Space Centre astronaut program. Miss Noura was born in 1993 and serves as an engineer at the Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Co. The two astronauts have been selected among a group of over 4000 applicants in UAE. The middle-eastern country is enthusiastically venturing into space with some ambitious projects and will send the selected duo to NASA’s Johnson Space Center for training. The UAE through its “Mars 2117 Project” is also aiming to set up a human colony on Mars by 2117.
2. Wikipedia’s Plan to Increase Women Workforce
In a move to address gender parity, Wikimedia Foundation – the NGO that operates Wikipedia, has pledged to undertake several projects in India aimed at increasing the women workforce. With the help of its project ‘Rewrite’, Wikipedia is planning to change the way women are represented on its platform. According to Wikipedia, less than 20% of editors are women and only 18% of the biographies on English Wikipedia are about women. They are planning to change this scenario with the help of this initiative.
3. First Indian Women Sailor to Qualify For the Olympics
Sailing through the waves, Nethra Kumanan has anchored her qualification for the Olympics as the first female sailor from India. On top of that, she achieved her dreams by borrowing a boat from her teammate for the competition. She training under the guidance of the Hungarian coach, Tamas Eszes. Along with sailing, Nethra is also well versed with Bharatnatyam, Basketball, Cycling, and Tennis. Her coach Eszes praised Nethra and said she is hard-working and determined. “Nethra joined our team, Sailing Academy Gran Canaria in 2019, since then we organize her training programs and help her to find the best ways to support her performance.”Definitely, she is hard-working, determined, persistent, and has great talent,” the Hungarian added. She achieved her first Olympics ticket by excelling in the Laser Radial race at the Mussanah Open Championship in Oman – an Asian and African qualifying event.
