Women in the Arab world face violence in the home, in the community, in institutions and as a result of armed conflicts, according to activist leaders who met in Tunis this week to strategise.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 11/12/09
Women's rights activists this week drafted a strategy to prevent violence against women in the Arab world that promotes legislative and awareness-raising campaigns, training, and wider dissemination of data and research.
The strategy was drawn up by participants in a Tunis workshop aimed at sharing experiences in the field of fighting violence against Arab women. The three-day event kicked off on December 6th and was organized by the Arab Women Organization (AWO).
"The strategy ... stress[es] the need to protect women from violence and to prevent it through laws, legislation, awareness, training, dissemination of the women's rights culture, the culture of non-violence, and provision of national data, research and statistics on the phenomenon," AWO member and secretary-general of Jordan's National Council for Family Affairs, Haifa Abu Ghazala, said on Tuesday at the event.
Participants examined a range of themes and ways to prevent violence against Arab women. They also shared experiences and experiments in the field of strategies, policies, programs and methods of intervention on the national level.
Experts at the event said that Arab women suffer from four forms of violence: domestic violence, community violence, institutional violence and violence in armed conflicts.
According to AWO Secretary-General Waduda Badran, the forms of violence against women in Arab countries "differ according to environments, regions, social classes, and cultural and age categories. As a result, the confrontation mechanisms also vary."
Badran added that the Arab world's current situation "requires ... comprehensive strategies that include short, medium and long-term measures based on an in-depth and comprehensive vision of the nature of societies and nature of women's standing therein".
For her part, the head of Morocco's Department of Women, Family and Children's Affairs, Saida Idrissi, said that Tunisia's presidency of the AWO would "give renewed momentum to joint Arab action through supporting and activating the commitments of Arab countries, foremost among which is the drafting of an Arab strategy for combating violence against women".
"The main aim of this workshop is to share experiences and experiments, and to draft a unified Arab strategy with guidance from several successful experiences, such as those of Tunisia and Morocco, especially in the field of activating women's participation in public and political life," added Idrissi.
At the close of the workshop, participants issued a statement urging AWO "member states to issue periodic national reports on the reality of violence against women, and to draft an Arab pilot law in the field of protecting women from violence".
Hajeera Ait Ahmed, a women's affairs official in Algeria, said in a speech during the workshop that her country in 1979 "ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which constituted a main reference point for reviewing some laws, especially the Family Law, Nationality Law, Prisons Organization and Social Re-Integration of Prisoners Law, Health Protection and Promotion Law, and the Labour and Social Security Law".
Ahmed said the review also prompted a 2008 constitutional amendment that encourages women's political participation through a quota system for representation.
"Civil society has to communicate with all women, without any discrimination, because this shouldn't be restricted to the salons of intellectuals," the head of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, Nehad Abul Qumsan, said in a statement to Magharebia. "They have to go to female workers and farmers."
Mohammed Zuabi, director of the Family Protection Department in Jordan, said the workshop "shows each country how advanced it is in the field of fighting violence against women, as compared to other countries".
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 11/12/09
Women's rights activists this week drafted a strategy to prevent violence against women in the Arab world that promotes legislative and awareness-raising campaigns, training, and wider dissemination of data and research.
The strategy was drawn up by participants in a Tunis workshop aimed at sharing experiences in the field of fighting violence against Arab women. The three-day event kicked off on December 6th and was organized by the Arab Women Organization (AWO).
"The strategy ... stress[es] the need to protect women from violence and to prevent it through laws, legislation, awareness, training, dissemination of the women's rights culture, the culture of non-violence, and provision of national data, research and statistics on the phenomenon," AWO member and secretary-general of Jordan's National Council for Family Affairs, Haifa Abu Ghazala, said on Tuesday at the event.
Participants examined a range of themes and ways to prevent violence against Arab women. They also shared experiences and experiments in the field of strategies, policies, programs and methods of intervention on the national level.
Experts at the event said that Arab women suffer from four forms of violence: domestic violence, community violence, institutional violence and violence in armed conflicts.
According to AWO Secretary-General Waduda Badran, the forms of violence against women in Arab countries "differ according to environments, regions, social classes, and cultural and age categories. As a result, the confrontation mechanisms also vary."
Badran added that the Arab world's current situation "requires ... comprehensive strategies that include short, medium and long-term measures based on an in-depth and comprehensive vision of the nature of societies and nature of women's standing therein".
For her part, the head of Morocco's Department of Women, Family and Children's Affairs, Saida Idrissi, said that Tunisia's presidency of the AWO would "give renewed momentum to joint Arab action through supporting and activating the commitments of Arab countries, foremost among which is the drafting of an Arab strategy for combating violence against women".
"The main aim of this workshop is to share experiences and experiments, and to draft a unified Arab strategy with guidance from several successful experiences, such as those of Tunisia and Morocco, especially in the field of activating women's participation in public and political life," added Idrissi.
At the close of the workshop, participants issued a statement urging AWO "member states to issue periodic national reports on the reality of violence against women, and to draft an Arab pilot law in the field of protecting women from violence".
Hajeera Ait Ahmed, a women's affairs official in Algeria, said in a speech during the workshop that her country in 1979 "ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which constituted a main reference point for reviewing some laws, especially the Family Law, Nationality Law, Prisons Organization and Social Re-Integration of Prisoners Law, Health Protection and Promotion Law, and the Labour and Social Security Law".
Ahmed said the review also prompted a 2008 constitutional amendment that encourages women's political participation through a quota system for representation.
"Civil society has to communicate with all women, without any discrimination, because this shouldn't be restricted to the salons of intellectuals," the head of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, Nehad Abul Qumsan, said in a statement to Magharebia. "They have to go to female workers and farmers."
Mohammed Zuabi, director of the Family Protection Department in Jordan, said the workshop "shows each country how advanced it is in the field of fighting violence against women, as compared to other countries".
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