Yemen Participates in 1st Arab Woman Summit [Archives:2000/47/Front Page]

An official Yemeni delegation has taken part in the first Arab Woman Summit held Saturday in Cairo.
Fathiah Buhran, head of the delegation asserted in her address to the opening meeting the courageous call adopted by President Saleh to have effective resolutions and clear-cut stands against Israel, calling the International community to carry out international legitimacy resolutions and Middle East peace agreements.
She indicated participation of Yemeni women in all spheres of life marking their presence in labor forces of the society as by 20%.
She highlighted measures and programs being carried out now to integrate women in development so as to develop Yemeni womens conditions and enhance their participation in the development of the society.
Worth mentioning is that while preparing for the Yemeni delegation, some heated debates were witnessed over the nominees for the delegation. Jamilah Ali Rajaa, cultural and media chairwoman in Cairo, has interfered to choose the delegation. Some qualified women were ignored and Fathiah Bahran was nominated the head of the delegation instead of Rashidah al-Hamdani, chairwoman of the Women National Committee affiliated to the Cabinet.
Some sources interested in issues of Yemeni women indicated that Yemens speech at the summit was not up to the standard in comparison with other speeches presented by other Arab delegations.
Egyptian first lady Susan Mubarak proposed Saturday at the first ever Arab Women Summit to hold Arab women meetings regularly to review problems and issues pertaining to women.
Addressing the opening session of the summit, Susan also said this conference was convened at decisive historical moments the Arab nation was going through and to answer the challenges of these moments and the expectation of unifying the Arab world. She said that realizing Arab solidarity is our way to confront risks threatening our Arab nation and to come into reality our dream of a better tomorrow for women in every Arab country.
We raise our voice in protest against the blatant injustice befalling the struggling Palestinian people and against the violations perpetrated against women and children in Palestine, she added.
Susan also said that the three-day gathering was meant to upgrade Arab women so that they would be more capable of soundly contributing to the development of their societies.
The summit was attended by a total of 400 Arab female dignitaries, including nine first ladies and representatives from all strata of life in the Arab countries.

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