Yemen: Empowering women in political participation

By: Shuaib Al-Mosawa For the Yemen Times

SANA'A, Nov. 21 — One hundred and sixty six female political activists from around the republic have been chosen for empowerment training for women in the political domain. The training was launched last week in a public event organized by the Supreme Commission for Election and Referendum (SCER) and funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the European Commission. The training is a component of a wider program to last until 2010 to support women's political participation with a special focus on the electoral process, especially the upcoming parliamentary elections in April 2009.

The International Federation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is also a key player in this program which is considered to be the first of its kind because it directs women's participation as candidates in the parliamentary elections with full support of the official organizations such as the elections’ commission and the GPC ruling party. In fact, the GPC had already spread banners across the main cities advocating for women's empowerment and their political rights.

Khaled Abdulwahab Al-Sharif, Chairman of the SCER, said that political illiteracy, the influence of social and cultural practices, and the novelty of the democratic experience are the main obstacles preventing women from obtaining their political rights. Al-Sharif pointed out that, despite the increased number of registered women in the voters records in 2006 compared to 1993, the individual achievements of women are declining and in need of more popular campaigning programs, such as a media strategy for the political empowerment of women.

The campaign will be formulated in a way that the media’s message reaches the public directly and is accepted by them. There will be strong emphasis on religion to support women's rights and to correct some of the traditional concepts that hinder women's political participation. The campaign plans to include a number of television, radio and print media interviews with respectable religious scholars in Yemen and in the Arab world who will vouch for women's political participation and clarify the position of Islam in this regard.

The media campaign will also target men and women in younger age groups, such as high school and university students, because youth are the potential change makers and future participants in the electoral process.

Moreover, according to the strategy's concept paper, there will be educational sessions on the laws and regulations that promote women's participation in the elections, as an example of the political participation of women in general.

Director of the SCER general department for women affairs Dr. Elham Abdulwahab explained that, in addition to the official and non-official media, there will be large mobile screens in the main streets presenting short documentaries and drama sketches to promote women's political participation.

Al-Sharif hoped that government institutions, political parties, and civil society organizations would have a responsibility to enhance women’s political participation in order for them to reach a reasonable percentage in both the parliament and local councils.

Pratibha Mehta, UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator, said, "It is indeed very commendable that SCER in Yemen has a separate department focusing on women's participation, something that many countries don’t have".

Mehta regretted that over the past three elections, there had been a decline in the number of successful women contesting in the elections, but stressed the importance of creating programs such as the ones organized by the commission’s women’s department to build the capacity of women to contest and participate in the next elections.

Michael Dorsaw, Charge d'Affaires of the European Union, said, "Actually, if gender were not such a big problem in Yemen, we would not be here today. Facts talk by themselves. Yemen has the worst gender indicators in the world. This must change; we must give a voice to 50 percent of the population."

He added that the EU had observed the local councils elections in 2006 and produced recommendations to enhance women’s participation in the election process. He described the fact of having only one elected women in Parliament as shocking, adding "this should change not for [women], but for Yemen."

He also said that they should kick off the process in the next days and weeks, and further stressed the importance of education, calling on political parties and civil society organizations to enhance the current situation of women.

IFES manager Peter Williams commented on the issue: "The parties have dialogued over the women's quota but no action is being made to make it happen". He pointed out that the international community is supporting Yemeni women because Yemeni men who are in position to do something about women's rights have do not do anything.

He added, "The parties like to talk about women’s rights because they think their words will look good, [but] words without actions are empty". He concluded his speech by exhorting those who have the power to take action: "Stop talking and do something constructive to make all your fine words a reality for Yemeni women."

Mehta recommended married women seek family support to actively participate in the electoral process, and stated that financial support could be a major obstacle to women’s running in the election. Mr. Williams, agreed with Mehta on the funding issue, commenting, "The political parties are given campaign funding but those who control the money are men; women do not receive any support like this.”