Yemen: Women increase their political participation

The Minister of Local Administration, Abdul-Qader Hilal, revealed the Ministry’s plan to appoint five women as deputies and assistant deputy governors in Sana’a, Aden, Ibb, Taiz and Hudeidah, in a workshop held on Wednesday.

“The national strategy of the local authority doesn’t distinguish between men and women. It deals with all as Yemeni citizens who try to achieve comprehensive development,” he said.

Hilal also emphasized the importance of the workshop in increasing Yemeni women’s political participation. “Taking women as partners in local governance and listening to their viewpoints is strong evidence on the awareness of the political leadership over the woman’s important role in developing this society.”

“The Ministry recently decided to pay more attention to women by making them participate in the elections as candidates for the governor’s position. There were not any bonds to prevent any woman from participating in these elections. Instead, the laws were very clear in giving women all rights to share in such elections,” the Minister of Local Administration said.

The Equal Chances-Women in Development project, funded by the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) is also supporting the Yemeni government to deal with this issue, drafting laws and executive orders together with the Ministry of Local Administration.

“The project has been working to prepare, train and qualify the female officials to work as one team. We have been also working to comprehensively improve women economically, politically, and socially to be able to participate in making decisions,” said Abdul-Was’e al-Saqqaf, a representative of the GTZ. “Such thing could be done through a strategic partnership to exchange the experiences and abilities with the Ministry of the Local Administration.”

According to Dr. Khadija Radman, Deputy Minister for Women’s Affairs, the workshop was conducted to clarify the roles of the women’s units in the different ministries within the decentralized system, to improve the coordination and cooperation between these units in the different ministries.

-- Yemen Observer