Women's Plight Holds Back Overall Arab 'Renaissance'

'An Arab renaissance cannot be accomplished without the rise of women in Arab countries,' the 'Arab Human Development Report 2006' said. 'Directly and indirectly, it concerns the well-being of the entire Arab world.' The UN Development Program's report, which was compiled by Arab experts and academics, said countries in the region must give women more access to the 'tools' of development, such as education and health care, and consider positive discrimination.

In many nations, women's exclusion is enshrined in laws that specifically restrict their activities, even though the constitutions of most Arab states would provide a basis to eliminate bias, according to the report. 'The business of writing the law, applying the law and interpreting the law is governed above all by a male-oriented culture,' the report entitled 'Towards the rise of women in the Arab world' said. "¦" [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

In a separate piece, AFP notes that ""¦ [a]bout 1,000 people were surveyed in each of four countries -- Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco -- for the annual report which focused on inequalities facing women in Arab nations. Ninety-eight percent of those surveyed agreed that girls should have the same right to education as boys all the way through to university.

That result was particularly interesting given that the UN report showed that Arab nations as a whole have the world's lowest rates of girls enrolled in secondary school. Ninety one percent said women should also have an equal right to work and 78 percent overall said they should have the same working conditions. There was an even higher level of support -- over 91 percent -- for allowing women to have property, and to own and manage economic projects. The vast majority -- 95 percent -- said a woman should be allowed to choose her husband and all countries overwhelmingly condemned -- 97 percent -- physical or mental abuse of women. "¦" [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Reuters notes that "[t]he report painted a grim picture of both political and family life for women in at least some Arab countries, where it said the proportion of women representatives in parliament was the lowest in the world, at under 10 percent. Women have been appointed as ministers in most Arab countries "¦ the report said. But when women were included in government, they were often appointed 'as window dressing for ruling regimes.' The report complained that women in decision-making positions tended to be sidelined, and biases in labor practices meant that women's earnings were lower than men's, particularly in the private sector. 'The rise of Arab women must go beyond a merely symbolic makeover that permits a few distinguished Arab women to ascend to positions of leadership in state institutions,' the report said, adding it needed to extend to 'broad masses' of women. "¦" [Reuters/Factiva]

French daily Les Echos further notes that ""¦ [t]he situation is only slowly improving in the field of health, as the maternal mortality rate is on average 270 deaths for every 100,000 live births, twenty times greater than in the Western world. In addition, violence toward women are still frequent, although officially denied, notably with respect to murders 'of honor' or genital mutilation, which is imposed upon 90 percent of girls in certain countries in the region performed in the name of an ancient fear of female sexuality. "¦" [Les Echos (France)/Factiva]

By World Bank