Views of some of the participants of the WNC Conference [Archives:2005/824/Community]
By Fahmia al-Futaih
For the Yemen Times
While attending the sessions regarding the WNC's Conference on Women's Day, we interviewed some of the participants to seek their opinion about what is going on.
Mr. Mohammed AL-Sabrri, Researcher, commented generally on the discussions “on this occasions the issues of discussions are not ordered due to priorities that may help to focus on the discussion. The issues and cases are tackled today, there are more than organizations to work on.
All discuss the same issues and go in the same circle. I think if we continue discussing in this way, the goal will not be to come up with solutions; however, we take these issues only to hold workshops only. The topics of today are not new. Many have already discussed many times. We must be logical and rational. We have to find the solutions for these problems not just talk about them in every workshop and any occasion. For example the reasons of the early marriage is illiteracy. If we concentrate our efforts to have a pressure on the ministry of education to do tangible efforts to eradicate the illiteracy and do its best. Poverty is also a big problem and one of early marriage causes. If we focus on education and poverty seriously and truly, we can cure such problems. Woman political participation is not a problem. It is a result that a man himself cannot have his political rights. If all the equal opportunities are found, not only the woman can get her rights but also marginal classes as well. So we have a defect in ordering the priorities.”
Gamila Ali Rajaa, one of the participants working in the media talked about her impressions on the event by saying: “Dedicating a day for woman to honor and celebrate is important and essential to show her role and rights. This day it is important to me as it is the day for woman to get her right in having a number of leading posts. It is pretty symbolic day that should be converted in a phenomenon to celebrate of the capable woman. The woman has successfully engaged into various fields such as in education. However, she couldn't conquer the political field and her steps still stumble.
Ms. Dagmar Diebels a Filmmaker from Germany was attending this event. She expressed her views about this event: “This is the first time to see such a small crowd of woman. I thought I would meet many more women here on this occasion. In Germany there are a lot of women's demonstrations. However, I have met very interesting women who talked about interesting issues. I think it is just the beginning of women's movements in Yemen. I think that the quota system is very important to enable women and help them reach to high positions.”
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