Women in the Arab world…
Back in December I read briefly about the release of the fourth Arab Human Development Report 2005 focusing on the rise of women in the Arab world and though not surprised by its grim findings, I felt extremely disappointed…the truth is almost always painful. Despite this and this the overall picture is very bleak and it seems that we have a long way to go before we can be fully ‘developed’ as nations.
“In the Foreword to the report, launched in Yemen on December 7, 2006 Saudi prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz, the President of the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations and a Saudi prince, made an attempt to disassociate religion from the adverse conditions and, often, the abuses, discrimination, and maltreatment suffered by women in the Arab world. Prince Talal writes:
“Religion has no connection with any of the mistaken practices that are carried out against women. Our societies, however, give precedence to custom over true worship and provide foundations for assumptions that have no grounding either in the Holy Koran or in the authenticated practices and sayings of the Prophet (the Hadith).”
The accumulated impact of the three previous reports, combined with pressures from the outside, particularly from the United States, has escalated the demand for reforms in the Arab countries-reforms that “go beyond window dressing,” meaning reforms that address the major problems from which Arab countries suffer: “political repression, marginalization, and absence of the basic components of good governance.” [source]
The report says that Arab nations must build on the progress they have made in empowering women to live healthy and productive lives, and address the cultural, social, economic, and political factors that impede women from reaching their full potential.
I searched for Arab leaders’ reaction to this report, but maybe because it was released a bit over a month ago it still has not prompted a response by the leaders of the Arab nations..I did find this interesting read (Rima Khalaf drops a bomb) that dates back to 2002!
Though said back in 2002 about that year’s report, the following stand for this year’s: “The Arab development report hangs out the Arabs’ dirty washing before the world and offers a wealth of information that mars the image of the Arabs in the world, but unfortunately the information is correct.”
