Yemeni women’s achievements highlighted [Archives:2006/947/Local News]
Nashwan Dammaj
IBB, May 16 ) The General Secretariat of Arab Women Union (AWU) held a symposium on two themes: “Yemen's Unity: One of the Revolution's Achievements Reached by the Political Leadership's Will” and “Women's Arab Unity: a Goal Sought by Yemeni Women via Goodwill” on Tuesday.
The event, coinciding with the marking of the 16th anniversary of national unity, was held at Al-Rabadi Hall at Ibb University. In attendance were Ibb's governor, Brig. Ali Al-Umaisi; Dr. Ahmad Shujaaddin, rector of Ibb University; Ms. Ramzia Al-Iryani, chairwoman of Yemeni Women's Union (YWU) and the secretary-general of AWU.
Chairwoman of the YWU's Ibb branch, Sameera Al-Bahili, delivered a welcoming speech wherein she described the achievements realized by Yemeni women under the national unity.
“Institutional and educational works have to be given more precedence over party activities and all political parties and organizations must work together to serve the nation and overcome any difficulties or barriers posed to Yemeni women,” Al-Bahili said.
In his speech Dr. Ahmad Shujaaddin confirmed that Yemen's reunification functioned as a distinguishing and historic move toward an improved life for Yemeni women. He noted that the reunification movement defended women as it likewise defended the achievements of the Yemeni Revolution.
“Women's political participation is of great importance in Yemen, particularly after the parliamentary elections in 2003,” Shujaaddin continued. “The past years has seen great development in Yemeni woman's life, mainly in the democratic work.”
He noted: “women's participation in parliamentary and local elections has increased from 18 percent in 1993 to 27 percent in 1997 and up to 43 percent of the total number of voters in the 2003 parliamentary elections.”
Ramzia Al-Iryani stated that democracy and human rights are key demands worldwide and that these two demands can only be fulfilled after overcoming archaic social concepts, revitalizing the economy, enforcing the rule of law, raising popular awareness, and the recognition of women rights in real-life situations.
Al-Iryani urged Yemeni women to push political parties to reach a consensus on granting female candidates closed constituencies to enable them to compete with each other on a fair playing field.
In his speech, Brig. Ali Al-Umaisi stressed that: “We have to pride ourselves for what has been achieved by Yemeni women, particularly as the AWU Secretary-General is a Yemeni lady.” He indicated Yemeni women have reached commendable achievements, compared to situations in neighboring countries where women are only allowed to vote in elections but not to stand as candidates.
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