Symposium on women participation during 2009 parliament [Archives:2003/639/Community]

The symposium on the woman political participation within ( Woman and 2009 parliament in Yemen ) campaign concluded two weeks ago in Aden.
The campaign, organized by Woman's Forum for Research and Training, will continue during the six years dividing this parliament and the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2009.
Four working papers discussed in the symposium:
1-''Parties keep woman at distance her right to political life'' by Dr Mohammed al-Saqqaf.
2- “Woman's rights and opposition crisis'' by lawyer Ali Haitham al- Gharib .
3.''Male dominance on Yemen's parliament'' by Dr Sameer al-Shamiry.
4- '' The sole seat in the 2003 parliament'' by lawyer Nadhera al-Sharghabi.
Participants in the symposium reviewed personal experiences of the female candidates in the 2003 parliamentary elections. Radhia Shamsir member of the YSP politburo and independent candidate in (22) constituency emphasized that she had faced many difficulties during the latest elections, the most important of them were the despotic decisions taken against her by the party she is affiliate of when it refused to nominate her just for her being a woman. And during the electoral campaign she came under all forms of violence and abusive immoral words and harassment on telephone, personal terror and tearing of her photos.
Dr Mohammed al-Saqqaf affirmed in his working paper that the woman experience in the last parliamentary elections must be taken into account, and be benefited from in the coming local councils elections .
Suad al-Qadasi ,chairwoman of the Woman's Forum for Research and Training (WFRT) said '' I feel disappointed of the 2003 election results and affirming that the reasons behind the woman's setback in the past elections are many and among them are the public view of the woman as being inferior to men, absence of political parties' support for and her being used as a voter not a candidate. Added to that is the non-existence of a serious political will for supporting woman's political participation.
In a statement to YT Al-Qadasi said that woman's setback in 2003 elections was a reason behind the WFRT adoption of the activity of ''Woman campaign and 2009 parliament'' which aims at exerting efforts by civil society organisations, woman organizations, parties and the intellectuals and decision makers for having a real and active participation of woman in 2009 parliamentary elections aimed at increasing the number of woman seat by 5%.
The recommendations adopted by the symposium were:
1.Establishment of a strong woman movement adopted by WFRT, civil society organisations, the intellectuals and political parties under the name of ''Woman Democratic League'' whose aim is supporting women to enter parliament.
2- Holding training and awareness program for women in remote areas.
3-Establishing a fund to support the woman candidate, whether she is partisan or independent.

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