TUNIS // Tunisian rights activists said yesterday that they were taking legal action against a visiting Egyptian Muslim preacher for inciting hatred and advocating polygamy and female circumcision.
Wagdy Ghoneim, an imam known for his anti-semitic sermons, was invited to Tunisia by Islamist organisations but his presence has angered some groups.
"We are in the process of filing a complaint ... against those who are using mosques to political ends," Bochra Belhaj Hmida, a lawyer, said.
"There's an attack on Tunisia's sovereignty and there is no justification for using mosques to spread hateful and seditious ideology," she said.
In a letter addressed to the authorities, the civil society group, Kolna Tounes, said the preacher's tour should be cut short.
"He has incited to hatred and violence, notably against other religions. He has advocated polygamy despite it being banned under [Tunisia's] personal status code," the group said.
"He has also abetted undermining women's physical integrity by advocating female circumcision," the letter stated.
Mr Ghoneim was invited by four little known Islamist organisations.
He was cheered by thousands at a sports venue in Tunis after he arrived on Saturday and has also delivered fiery sermons at mosques in the city of Sousse and in Mehdia, about 200 kilometres south of the capital.
"Tunisia was the first country to have its revolution and, God willing, it will be the first to implement Sharia," Mr Ghoneim told the religious radio station Zitouna yesterday.
Mr Ghoneim served as a preacher in California between 2001 and 2005 before being forced to leave, officially because he had overstayed his visa.
He has since been living mainly in Yemen and Qatar and is on a British home office list of people banned from entering the UK, for allegedly encouraging acts of terrorism.
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Anxiety and work stress major factors
Anxiety, work stress and social isolation are all factors in the recogised rise in mental health problems.
A study UAE Ministry of Health researchers published in the summer also cited struggles with weight and illnesses as major contributors.
Its authors analysed a dozen separate UAE studies between 2007 and 2017. Prevalence was often higher in university students, women and in people on low incomes.
One showed 28 per cent of female students at a Dubai university reported symptoms linked to depression. Another in Al Ain found 22.2 per cent of students had depressive symptoms - five times the global average.
It said the country has made strides to address mental health problems but said: “Our review highlights the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms and depression, which may long have been overlooked."
Prof Samir Al Adawi, of the department of behavioural medicine at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, who was not involved in the study but is a recognised expert in the Gulf, said how mental health is discussed varies significantly between cultures and nationalities.
“The problem we have in the Gulf is the cross-cultural differences and how people articulate emotional distress," said Prof Al Adawi.
“Someone will say that I have physical complaints rather than emotional complaints. This is the major problem with any discussion around depression."
Daniel Bardsley
Transgender report
Combating coronavirus
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National editorial: pandemic requires urgent action from world leaders
Nick March: the coronavirus dark cloud may have a silver lining
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How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
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England squad for the first Test Cook, Stoneman, Westley, Root (captain), Malan, Stokes, Bairstow, Moeen, Roland-Jones, Broad, Anderson, Woakes, Crane
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2nd Test Aug 25-29, Headingley
3rd Test Sep 7-11, Lord's
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.