Womens rights:  Paper versus reality [Archives:2002/24/Culture]

BY MAYASA MOHAMMED JAWAD
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
TAIZ BUREAU
Many symposiums and workshops on women have been organized in Yemen with the view of highlighting the problems they are encountering.
The new generation should recognize the prime role of women in society, as we need to plant new seeds regarding the value of empowering and respecting women.
A symposium, on this context, was held May 7-8 on Women between the local laws, and the democratic reality. The symposium was jointly held by the Women Forum for Research & Training – Taiz branch and the Canadian Program for Developing Local Efforts, Hudeidah.
Amongst the participants at the symposium were Ali Saleh Abdullah, deputy minister of Social Affairs and a host of other government officials as well as human rights activists and representatives of political parties.
During the symposium many working papers were presented principally focusing on problems facing women in Yemen and how they can be solved.
The issue of women prisoners was highlighted in the first day of the symposium as well as the status of women in relation to human rights and freedoms.
In his paper the International Declaration of Human Rights and the two international conventions on human rights, Dr. Abdulahaq al-Maghrebi, shed light on this issue from different perspectives, more specifically rights and freedoms as well as how to protect women under the established political systems, and how to apply them in conformity with local laws. He also spoke about the nature of the Human Rights Declaration and how the related international conventions can affect what is in practice here.
Amal Mugam, Secretary-General of the Tihama Association for Development dealt in her paper with the issue of obstacles encountering women. Amal stated that this issue has two dimensions: the first, a social one while the second a cultural one. The latter is reflected in the high illiteracy rates plus the legal unawareness of the majority of women. She added that services provided to women is generally lacking.
Legal obstacles is ascribable to the lack of legal awareness coupled with womens limited presence at political parties and the top governments posts. She pointed out to the negative impact of the traditional view towards women restricting its duties to household affairs. Considerable resources should be earmarked to raising women level in addition to outlining a national plan for girl education, specifically in rural Yemen.
Abdulwali al-Qubati and Afrah al-Sakr presented a working paper which attracted the admiration of all participants. The paper discussed the reality of womens prisons in Hudeidah, which lack qualified staff and equipment needed for rehabilitating female inmates. They called for taking into account the special demands of female prisoners in general.
On the second day of the symposium Isra al-Qirshi, a lawyer, presented a working paper on discrimination against women, stressing the key role of the agreement to prevent discrimination against women.
This agreement should be compared with the local legislation granting women many rights, she said, pointing out that womens rights are making progress, though they are still violated in different ways.
Suad al-Qadasi, chairwomen of the Womens Forum for Research & Training, said, the symposiums program came as a component of an extensive program to change views towards discrimination against women.
She made it clear that in this man-dominated society, which prefers male over female babies, things seem difficult to change easily.
Suad al-Qadasi called for sticking to and protecting basic human freedoms in accordance with established international and local standards.
The last working paper focused on the role of universitys activities in pushing girls to practical life. Presenter of the paper, Dr. Abdulah al-Hanadoh, highlighted the key obstacles facing university activities, and called for more work towards linking the education process with family and society. University education shouldnt only be associated with jobs, he recommended.
Since the objective of this symposium is to improve the status of women in Yemen in all fields, as well as to solve problems facing them, organizers say they hope it will achieve what it was organized for.

——
[archive-e:24-v:2002-y:2002-d:2002-06-10-p:./2002/iss24/culture.htm]