- Waheedullah Hashimi, senior Taliban official
Opinion | Page 7
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areAfghan"Fear"—HowWomenNavigating the Abysmal Reality
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Pandemic Food Stamp benefits issued to qualifying families in Indiana, U.S. under Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Jeanie Lindsay, WFYIsee Covid-19 Page 2
Veiled students attend a Taliban rally at Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul. The BBC, "Taliban announce new rules for female students."
Taliban takeover of Afghanistan results in significant retreat of Afghan women's rights front as wartime violence persists Boris Johnson’s place at 10 Downing Street questioned by disgruntled Conservatives
COVID-19 Sparks Food Insecurity I
By Angela Yumin Lee '25 STUDENT WRITER see Middle East Page 5
N EARLY 2020, the novel coro navirus (covid-19) began to spread across the world, and one of the consequences was an economic downturn that ended years of decreasing rates of food insecurity. People who have been impacted by the pandemic the most were at risk of food insecuri ty even before covid-19, and they have faced greater hardships since then. The World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that “272 million people are already or are at risk of becoming acutely food-insecure.” This is especially concerning, as ¶
Artless NORTH LONDON COLLEGIATE SCHOOL JEJU, EST. 2011 | VOLUME I | JEJU, SOUTH KOREA Covid-19 | Page 2-3 Novel coronavirus may cause food shortages in regions hardhit by the pandemic Middle East | Page 5
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By Chloe Eunseo Lee '25 STUDENT WRITER
“Men and women cannot work together. That is clear. They are not allowed to come to our offices and work in our ministries.”
FGHANISTAN, A LANdLockEd country in south-central Asia, holds geographical significance as an important trad ing route that connects Southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East. The Afghanistan war, the longest war in U.S. his tory, is an ongoing war following the invasion of Afghanistan by the US forces in 2001. The Taliban is a conservative religious and ¶
While President Biden asked after the Uvalde shooting, “when are we going to stand up to the gun lobby”, in 2020 alone the NRA spent $250 million, and officially $3 million for lobbying—but that is only the political donations to lawmakers, ignoring other funds which are virtually impossible to track. The NRA defends gun rights religiously, arguing that more guns make the country saf er, while, ludicrously, there have been 246 mass shootings yet this yearTherealone.are other elements to the Uvalde shooting which showcase
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of ARTLESS
N M AY 24 , 2022, a mass shooting in Robb Ele mentary School brought death to nineteen students and two teachers, wounding seventeen other people. The shooter, an 18 year old male, was shot by a mem ber of the United States Border Patrol. After the mass shooting in Sandy Hook elementary and Vir ginia Tech, the Uvalde shooting was another devastating shock to the public about the lenient and lacking gun control legislations in America, provoking further controversy over whether usage of guns should have harsher legis lation, or whether people’s rights in the Second Amendment—the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed— should have priority. The driving force behind the voice for gun rights is, without doubt, the heavy political lob bying from organisations such as the NRA, the National Rifle Association, which claims to con sist of members over five million.
By Regis Seungwon Yang ‘24
The NecessaryControlWhyShootingUvaldeandGunis
2 | North London Collegiate School Jeju | Artless ¶an estimated 2 billion people in the world did not have regular access to safe, nutri tious and sufficient food in 2019. Hunger was already trending up ward even before the pandemic, which worsened the existing ef fects from extreme climate events, conflict between countries, and other economic issues. The two major factors that influenced this the most were unemployment and poverty. The slowing global economy has caused widespread job losses, collapsing incomes and failing remittances. Evaporating employment has led to severe loss of income. Nearly all governments in the region have responded with a range of social protection meas ures, which includes unemploy ment benefits, provision of food in kind or through vouchers, wage subsidies, and waiver or post ponement of utility bills. In order to prevent this from getting worse, the governments of many countries and committees are working hard to achieve the best solution for growing food-in security. For instance, the U.S. government offers food assistance to low income families through the Supplemental Nutrition As sistance Program (SNAP). More over, on an international level, the World Bank Group worked with governments and interna tional partners to closely monitor domestic food and agricultural supply chains, track how the loss of employment and income is impacting people’s ability to buy food, and ensure that food sys tems continue to function despite COVID-19 challenges. The pandemic is not yet over, and the future remains insubstan tial for people who have experi enced uncertain access to enough food for their families. It is likely that it will take time for food inse curity levels to recover. After the Great Recession, it took nearly ten years, until 2018, for food in security to return to pre-recession levels, and even then, 37 million people were still at risk of hun ger. While it may be likely that economic conditions will improve more quickly this time around, it will take continued support and public-private partnership across the government, the private sec tor, and the charitable food sys tem to achieve our vision of the world where no one is hungry.
O
The Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, sold under the brand name COMIR NATY, is an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by the German bio technology company BioNTech in collaboration with American company Pfizer. It is the first COVID 19 vaccine to be authorized by a regulatory authority for emergency use, having been cleared by the United Kingdom in December 2020, and the first cleared for regular use. On 23 August 2021, the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine became the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for those aged sixteen years and older. 2 shots are recommended. Pharmaceutical Technology, "New Zealand approves use of Pfizer-BioNtech’s Covid-19 vaccine" Covid-19
Artless | North London Collegiate School Jeju | 3 the United States’ worst aspects of bigotry and incompetence. After the intial hours of the mass shoot ing, inaccurate claims that the shooter was transgender spread like wildfire across the internet, even boosted by politicians such as Republican congressman Paul Gosar through his later deleted tweet— It’s a transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos—. Images of trans women completely irrelevant to the shoot ing were shared, leading those women to come under wrongful persecution. These baseless accu sations from political influencers linking trans people to crime and violence, and the fact that many people believed in these kinds of misinformation without doubt may indicate the prejudice rooted in America’s Furthermore,subconscious.therehasalso been heavy criticism of police response to the shooting, as it has been re vealed that officers engaged the shooter more than an hour after the initial encounter of gunfire. Law enforcement training dic tates that officers are expected to breach the barricaded rooms and go into active-shooter situations immediately. This standard police practice was clearly not followed. As Democratic senator Roland Gutierrez accounts, “these mis takes may have led to the passing away of these children as well.”. In addition to the late police re sponse, from the beginning, pro visions against possible shooters were almost non-existent. There were no armed guards inside the school, the door that Ramos en tered through was unlocked, and the shooter was not confronted by anybody even as he began firing at the school building. As footage and witnesses emerge to evidene the police’s inaction, there has been growing disconcert with the incompetence of the officers to dutifully handle active-shooting. The tragedy that befell Robb Elementary School should not be repeated. However, statistics betray that gun violence and mass shootings will almost absolute ly happen again. Even as there has been a growing, resounding public voice that there should be heavier restrictions and legisla tions against gun ownership, the NRA held its 151st annual meet ing only three days after the Uval de shooting, merely a four-hours drive from Robb Elementary. As the data from Centres for Disease Control and Prevention shows, guns were the leading cause of death for US children and teen agers in 2020, the New England Journal Medicine writing poign antly : “We continue to fail to pro tect our youth from a preventable cause of death.” Works Cited 1 news/2022/05/29/criticism-pohttps://www.politico.com/ ing-00035859lice-response-uvalde-shoot 2 world-us-canada-611929753news/61607042https://www.bbc.com/https://www.bbc.com/news/
“Families of kids wounded in Uvalde school shooting sue suspected gunman’s estate”, Veronica Cardenas, Retuers FILE, ABC News Covid-19
By Eunice Yoonseo Park '26
Flowers, toys, and other objects are seen at a memorial for the victims of the deadliest mass school shooting to happen in the U.S. in nearly a decade.
ARTLESS STUDENT WRITER
andDistributionVaccinePatents
Co VI d -19 IS co NSI d ERE d to be one of the most wide-reaching pandemics ever in history. It has impacted the world so much in different ways. As it has been nearly two years since the outbreak of the pandemic, vaccines have been made and are being distributed throughout the world. Major vac cine companies include Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, etc. How ever, these companies are private companies that make profit by selling vaccines, their product. As a result, these companies all have patented their vaccines. These vaccines made by private companies are quite costly, and developing countries are unable to afford large amounts of vaccines for the citizens of their country. In the beginning of the year 2021, developed countries have secured over 3.7 billion doses of vaccines. These doses account for 51% of targeted manufacturing capacity in 2021, and almost all of the pub licly declared capacity this year. This has led to significant short age in supply and doses availa ble for purchase. Therefore, the developing countries had to rely on WHO not-for-profit initiatives to purchase vaccines on their be half, which is so far only sufficient enough to provide a small portion of the population with full treat ment.This brought up the argument that suspending patents would in crease the availability of the sup
IP waiver protests for the vaccine continue. Molly Blackall, The Guardian Covid-19
4 | North London Collegiate School Jeju | Artless U.S. President Joe Bid en spoke out in favor of South Africa's proposed waiver of IP laws over COVID vaccines, making the formulae patent-free and accessible without charge. His team came under fire from pharma ceutical giants, who have condemned the U.S. gov ernment's decision and launched campaigns in favor of IP maintenance. Protesters are rallying on the National Mall in support of global access to Covid-19 vaccines on May 5, 2021, in Washing ton, D.C. Drew Angerer, Getty Images, and Politico, Doug Palmer vation and benefit the society. It is highly likely that if the patents for the covid-19 vaccine are tempo rarily suspended, it would lower the incentive to innovate. However, in the aspect of the covid-19 pandemic, the debate has focussed on some additional factors to the current situation. Though the companies have in vested a lot in vaccine research, the fact that many companies received funding from the govern ment and nonprofit organizations was pointed out. This provides a reason why the patent should be relaxed, with the increase of pro duction and the decrease of the price. But since the vaccines are facing a huge global demand, even when the patent is relaxed, there still might be a large shortage in supply. The most reasonable solu tion to this problem seems like developed countries vaccinating their people as quickly as possible and sharing release capacity to the developing countries. Works Cited https://www.fron tier-economics.com/uk/en/ news-and-articles/articles/articleprotected-in-a-pandemic/i8200-should-vaccines-be-patentplies. Developing countries argue that there must be a temporary suspension in intellectual proper ty rights related to Covid-19. They say protecting vaccines and treat ments with patents concentrates them in hands of developed coun tries, leaving out the developing countries that have struggled so far to gain access to vaccines and treatments. If the patents are suspended, it would allow for large amounts of manufacturing in countries like Brazil and India, therefore reducing the possibility of shortage in vaccine supplies. On the other hand, vaccine companies—the pharmaceutical companies—are opposed to the proposal made by the develop ing countries. They state that it would have a harmful effect on innovation. Patents are for legally enforcing ownership of a process or technology,allowing the patent holder to exclusively innovate their patented thing. Innovations like vaccines require an enormous amount of research efforts. Re search costs money, and without enough budget, they may not be able to innovate the vaccines to the best of the companies abil ity. If the company had enough research budget it could become even more successful in the inno
(Qur’an,
By Chandler Geumbee Ahn '25 ARTLESS STUDENT WRITER
Iranian Government to Play Wingman to its Bachelors
Women have been living under Taliban rules, their fear exacer bated by the fact that the Taliban have not been clear about their position on women's rights. In some provinces, women are even being told not to come to work or not to leave their homes without a male relative. Safe houses for female human rights defenders, including activists and journalists, are at full capacity. The situation towards women’s rights has been austere, but women continue to fight and demand equality against the aloof reality. During protests in Herat ear lier this year, three people were killed. The Taliban were firing guns in the air to disperse crowds. Despite the brutal response of the Taliban, Afghan women are not flinching away from their threats. Jia, mother of four children, says her family is ready to protest. “We need to demand our rights to wards the Taliban, not just for us, but for our next generation, our children,” she said. “We know the Taliban will find us and might tar get us. But we don’t have a choice, We have to continue.” Works Cited 1 tion/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/https://www.amnesty.org/en/loca afghanistan/report-afghanistan/ 2 asia-58491747https://www.bbc.com/news/worldweight, and parents’ occupation and marital status shortly fol lowed. Conventional questions about hobbies, likes, and favorite films were conspicuously absent. Unlike distinctly “whiter” dating platforms such as eHarmony or Match.com, both of which have a 77% Caucasian user demographic, participants could not view other users’ profiles or photos of the potential fathers and mothers of their children (Diffen, 2013). Only web administrators could access the dossiers, matching “compat ible” couples based on the piece meal data that had been harvested from the user. Six years after the inception of tebyan.net, Hamdam comes with an array of new features. The frumpiness of a website is swapped for the streamlined con venience of an app. All candidates are required to verify themselves using government ID, and are then put through a mandatory “psychology evaluation”. After be ing found basically passable by the extensive vetting process, finally the profile is appended to the pool of other single, verified, and in terested Iranians. When a match is made, allegedly by an artificial intelligence, the app “introduc es the families together with the presence of service consultants” (Agence France-Presse, 2021). Whether this means the families and counselors are present at the initial meeting is unclear, as is Hamdam’s source of revenue—the website cryptically declares that registration is free due to its “in dependent revenue model” with out further explanation.
Artless | North London Collegiate School Jeju | 5 ¶political group that seized power in Afghanistan in the 1990’s. This government has imposed its extreme Islam beliefs on the entire country, perpetrat ing acts against countless human rights through its own citizens and turning a blind eye to the suf fering of its people. Taliban is the party that supported and protect ed al-Qaida and his armed forces from the United States, triggering the start of war to some extent.
Little is known about Hamdam’s treatment of women, as the app caters solely to a self-proclaimed audience of “bachelors seeking permanent marriage and a single spouse”. As the app’s purpose is to facilitate a marriage within the parameters of traditional Islam ideals, however, it is difficult to imagine that users—especially women—are allowed the same liberty that, for example, Tinder, with its left- and right-swaps, af IT IS A truth universally ac knowledged, that an Irani an man in possession of a cell phone, must be in want of a wife. Hamdam, Iran’s govern ment-sanctioned dating app, is geared towards helping Iranian bachelors locate a compatible (fe male) life partner in accordance with Islamic relationship values (Teh, 2021). Though online dat ing services are popular in Iran, Hamdam—meaning companion in Farsi—is the only app of its kind that is legal in the nation (BBC,Iran’s2021).government is straining no new muscles by bankrolling yet another project within the niche market of Iranian online dating. In 2015, the Islamic Development Organisation launched a dating website under the url hamsan. tebyan.net. Operations of the site were supervised by the Iranian Supreme Leader, who sought to “promote an Islamic lifestyle” by endorsing the platform (Hatam, 2015). Users were asked to enter basic details, such as height and
During the current progressing Afghanistan war, discrimination and violence toward women have created gender-based adverse circumstances against them. Vi olence against women remained chronically under-reported, with them often fearing reprisals and lacking confidence in the authori ties if they came forward.
Middle East
“You shall encourage those of you who are single to get married.” 24:32)
5 “The U.S. Recession and the Birth Rate.” PRB, July 8, 2009. https:// www.prb.org/resources/the-u-s-re cession-and-the-birth-rate/. 6 “Iran Launches Matchmaking App as Fertility Rates Fall.” Reu ters. Thomson Reuters, July 21, 2021. world/middle-east/iran-launchhttps://www.reuters.com/ 7ty-rates-fall-2021-07-20/.es-matchmaking-app-fertiliTeh,Cheryl.“IranWantstoBoost Marriage Rates with a State-Approved Dating App That Mandates All Its Users Take a Psychology Test.” In sider. Insider, July 14, 2021. www.insider.com/iran-releases-state-https:// psychology-tests-2021-7.sanctioned-dating-app-users-takeRecently wed Iranian couple pose in front of a dress shop. The Times of Israel Middle East
There is rarely one specific cause that birth rate declines can be pinned to, but one likely culprit is the current economic crisis in Iran. Food prices skyrocketed by 66% in 2021 compared to 2020, and historically, depressions have acted as major deterrents to childbirth. The U.S. birth rate, for example, reached an all-time low in 1936, when the total fertil ity rate (TFR) fell to 2.1 children per woman in the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 (PRB, 2009).Another problem that Iranian government officials label “the Western threat” is young people’s growing aversion to arranged marriage. Western-style dating, where individuals “shop” and select their own life partners, has become increasingly popular among Iranian youths in recent years. And while the decreasing popularity of arranged marriages may not directly result in a birth rate decline, a culture which sub scribes to such a practice is more likely to pressure its people into a mindset which regards children as a necessity as opposed to a culture which treats marriage, and by ex tension children, as a choice. The decline of birth rates in Iran is a complex social issue: on the one hand spelling trouble for an aging population, and on the other representative of a liberal paradigm shift. Hamdam may have married them, but the lon gevity of those marriages depend on larger factors. Iran’s govern ment would do well to recognize that the “Westernization” of its young people is perhaps telling of a deeper Iranian problem that has far greater implications for society than the rebelliousness of a gener ation of adolescents. Works Cited 1 Hatam, Nassim. “Iran: Internet Dating Website Launched by State.” BBC News. BBC, May 28, middle-east-32833363.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-2015.
2 “Iran Unveils State-Approved Dat ing App to Promote Marriage.” BBC News. BBC, July 13, 2021. www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-https:// 3east-57818758.“Match.com vs Eharmony.” Diffen. Accessed November 19, 2021. https:// www.diffen.com/difference/Match. com_vs_eHarmony.
6 | North London Collegiate School Jeju | Artless fords its Hamdam’sclientele.role in facilitating the matchmaking process does not stop when the pair meet, fall in love (or deem each other ade quate—cup half full, cup half emp ty), and grit their teeth through the filial duty of procuring the pa rental stamp of approval. It does not stop at the stag and hen dos, nor does it stop when the groom is permitted to bed the bride. Hamdam only withdraws from a couple’s life after the fourth year of the union, when the govern ment-mandated counselor stops checking up on the progress of the marriage. Until then, Hamdam’s presence laps steadily at the con tours of a couple it hand-holds, surreptitiously prodding a new Iranian couple onto the track of a successfully “Islamic” marriage.
Komeil Khojahsteh, head of the Institute that supervises Ham dam, said that he hoped the app would create healthy families at a time when family values are under threat by the “Devil” and Iran's enemies (BBC, 2021). The Devil’s interest in Iranian families is debatable, but statistics do prove that Khojahsteh’s thin ly-veiled desperation has its rea sons. Iran’s birth rate dropped by 25% over the past four years, and if the decline continues unchal lenged, Iran’s population could become the oldest in the world in two decades. Hamdam may be the government’s latest effort to turn the trend on its head, but it is by no means the only: contraceptives have been gradually rolled back from the market since 2011, and parliament has passed provisions to provide financial incentives for childbirth and marriage, including loans and handouts to young mar ried couples with several children (Reuters, 2021).
4 “Iranian Media Report an Un expected Large Drop in Number of Births.” Iran International. Iran International, November 5, 2021. en/20211105962613.https://www.iranintl.com/
Artless | North London Collegiate School Jeju | 7
who had a low margin resigned from her post six months after the vote—Theresa May in late 2018. His options are limited; his tar nished reputation will mean push ing through legislation is difficult, compounded by the number of Tories who have turned against his premiership which exceeds the 75 strong majority of the House of Commons. While the two leaders of the par tisan grapple for governance, it’s safe to say that the tide has turned away from Johnson—however, it is also unclear whether the oppo sition can provide the British pub lic with an answer to the rising economic challenges, or even step further than the moderatism both conservatives and liberals stub bornly persist on.
This photo of Boris Johnson appeared in an article with the following descrip tion: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing a rebellion from his own MPs". SkyNews, "No confidence votes: What are they, could Boris Johnson face one and how would a leadership challenge work?"
Boris Johnson’s inability to com bat these problems effectively and efficiently are the primary rea sons that the vote of confidence was issued, and why the much of the British public \ are revelling in the possibility of a new leader who could introduce a new di rection for the country. Although Johnson, who survived the vote of confidence, is free from further challenges of the same calibre for 12 months, there has been prece dence in which a prime minister Keir Starmer, leader of the La bour Party, readily seizes the opportunity to oppose Johnson, claiming he was “utterly unfit for the great office he holds”. When the close margin of the vote was revealed, he even went so far as to say the result marked the “be ginning of the end” of Johnson’s term as Prime Minister. However, it must also be noted that before the Partygate scandals were re leased, the local elections of 2021 had been another defeat for the Labour Party following their loss of 2019, even relenting to the Conservative party the North-East of England, which was once La bour Party’s heartland. Therefore, it can be said that the Labour Par ty’s victory in the local elections of 2022 cannot necessarily be attrib uted to Starmer’s sound leader ship, but rather Johnson’s failure to live up to the expectations he had proposed while running for office.
Boris Johnson’s Confidence Vote (and the future leadership of Britain) Opinion
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of ARTLESS
AS THE L oc AL elections of the United Kingdom took place on May 5 2022, it was proven that the general Brit ish public was disgruntled with the failing leadership of Boris Johnson—spurred by the leaking of his illegitimate partying during the covid lockdown, flagrantly breaking the rules his own gov ernment had imposed. Across Great Britain, Conservatives lost 487 seats in comparison to 2017, while the Labour party gained 108 seats—Keir Starmer’s first victory from the electorate. And on June 7, Johnson’s government came under even harsher scrutiny as he faced a vote of confidence set off by the members of his own par ty. Even though he survived, the sheer number of 148 conservative MPs that voted for his removal thoroughly signifies his jolted sta tus as the Prime Minister. As mentioned above, the fore most reason behind the fall of his reputation comes from detailed allegations of inebriated parties and gatherings during the strict lockdown period—the ”Partygate” scandal. However, the public’s discontent stems from further elaborate bases, such as the eco nomic crisis which threatens the livelihood of most of Britain’s working-class population and crippling job vacancies which are reaching new records every month. Due to the Russian inva sion of Ukraine, remnants of the pandemic and the lasting effects of Brexit, Britain is in a real pickle at the moment. Inflation hit 7.8% in the 12 months to April, expect ed to top even the inflation rate in the United States with more than 10% later this year. In the period from January to March 2022, the number of job vacancies was larg er than the number of unemploy ment for the first time in history, reaching a further record high of 4.3 vacancies per every 100 jobs.
By Regis Seungwon Yang '24
