Hayat Al-Omari: A Tunisian researcher is among the six most influential women in the world

Mohamed Ali Latifi - Sidi Bouzid

Holding an album of photos that tells a history of Arab and international crowns and honors, Hayat Al-Omari, 39, sits on a wooden chair behind her small office, and she counts dozens of gold medals she won in international competitions, for her career and political success.

Al-Omari is a young Tunisian woman from the city of Al-Raqab, one of the centers of local government in the governorate of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, which witnessed the first sparks of the December 2011 revolution because of the decades-old marginalization.

Wide fame
In recognition of the beautifulness of her eyes, she required Al-Omari to accompany her parents when the former Tunisian President, Moncef Marzouki invited her to honor her in the Carthage Palace in February 2013 with the Medal of the Republic, and that they be tagged, which was achieved by the president who sent them a special presidential car carrying them to the presidential palace.

Hayat Al-Omari says to Al-Jazeera Net that her discovery of a way to value the soil was her most prominent invention, which opened the doors of the world wide open to her, after her repeated attempts, especially since Tunisia was importing an expensive material called "active flint", to remove fluorine from the phosphorous acid, while the Tunisian soil in the Al-Houd region, mining (in the south of the country) is rich in this substance.

With a smile that does not depart from her young face, Al-Omari also confirms that after discovering a method to extract this material from the heavily accumulated dust in the southern region of Tunisia, the Tunisian Chemical Complex Company reaped profits of about 12 billion in 2008, and immediately stopped importing this material.

new invention
Its inventions and steel determination did not stop there, as it also invented the new method for pricing plant wastes, and extracted pure phosphorous from impurities, as it can be used in many other sectors such as feed, dentistry and soft drinks.

Al-Omari did not rest to search for a solution to the problem of the vast fields that began to lose their fertility in the city of necks and their original habitat, or as you like to call it "California Tunisia", to discover later a way to remove the chlorine and phosphorous materials from phosphoric acid, thanks to the use of some of the herbs that cured and dried them, then I crushed it and turned it into a sticky substance that can absorb chlorine and phosphorus.

All these inventions say Al-Omari, as she conjures up her history studded with crowns and gold medals, for Al-Jazeera Net, that she lies behind the secret of her success and her professional beam, stressing that Tunisian women who occupy advanced global ranks are smart and capable, but they do not have the position they deserve.

Absence of support
In addition to her scientific interests, Al-Omari entered the battlefield of political life, where she was elected to a second parliamentary session on the Renaissance movement, as she assures Al Jazeera Net that two agreements have been concluded with an Italian organization and another with Kuwait to find solutions for unemployed engineers, indicating that she will work from her parliamentary position to develop research Scientific.

Her speech continued with sorrow and bitterness, "The Tunisian researcher does not find the state sufficient encouragement to continue his research and devote himself to scientific research, as he lacks the simplest possibilities, so today it is right that the importance of giving more importance to science and scientific research, such as Western countries, is necessary."

It adds that the emigration of Tunisian engineers and talents abroad in search of employment opportunities is worthy of a more comprehensive review of the state's policies that do not give much value to these competencies.

valuable prizes
The choice of the life of Al-Omari is not among the six most influential women in the Arab world during the Arab Engineers Conference in Kuwait early this month, the first honor. Those golden fingers were previously chosen by the Arab Women's Council affiliated with the university in a list of 100 most influential women in the Arab world during 2017 And 2018.

Al-Omari, after years of work and perseverance, won many prizes and medals in international competitions, including two gold medals at the World Olympiad of Inventors in 2013, which was organized in Tunisia, and more than 100 inventors from 10 countries participated.

Also, in March, she won the gold medal for the same competition in the 2014 edition in France, as well as the gold medal for the International Salon of Innovation and Creativity in France, the first time in 90 years that an Arab or African received this award.

The dreaming eyes of Al-Omari say that she will not sleep long nights until the bleeding of the brain drain that is pulling their way to Europe is stopped, and new blood is pumped by giving them the capabilities, so that its consuming people turn into a great maker-people.