JEDDAH, 23 February 2005 — Reflections on and reactions to the sixth annual Jeddah Economic Forum, which wrapped up its activities on Monday, expose a subtle contrast between perceptions and reality especially concerning women’s role and participation. There was no big-name Arab woman speaker such as last year’s Lubna Al-Olayan, CEO of Al-Olayan Group, and Queen Rania of Jordan, especially after Egypt First Lady Suzan Mubarak failed to confirm speaking at the forum.
This might have been a factor in the low turnout of women at this year’s forum compared to last year. However, considering that the forum’s theme was “Capacity Building of Human Resources”, the female speakers were an impressive group who gave valuable input on the subject. But it was a lost opportunity for many women who did not hear them. With such interesting sessions on entrepreneurship, small and medium businesses, economic gender issues and preserving identity, it was truly a missed opportunity.
Some of the women who did not attend the forum complained of the high fee ($750), the tight security measures, and the mishaps at the first-day of registration that made them change their mind. One of the few Saudi businesswomen who did attend told Arab News that unfortunately many Saudi women complain about being marginalized, not treated fairly, and hindered in their business dealings but when given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet world personalities, learn from other’s experiences, communicate and build networks, they fall short.
One of the many academic who did attend said that these kinds of events are our chance to present women the way we want them to be seen, as intelligent, independent and an integral part of society and its development. However, there is a fundamental problem with these expectations and that is women were strictly forbidden to mingle and interact with the men and the foreign women delegates sitting on the other side of the partition at the main conference hall.
A businesswoman wondered why there were no arrangements made for small groups of women to meet with the foreign delegates away from the prying eyes and ears of the media. After all, it was an infamous picture that appeared on the front page of a local newspaper last year that caused an uproar about the forum regarding women mixing freely with men without their head covered. While some considered the publishing of that picture as irresponsible journalism others called it freedom of the press. However, the media clearly felt the repercussions of that act in accessing the women’s section this year. A frustrated foreign female journalist was almost in tears at being denied access to the male delegates and the male section in general, but to be fair, several press conferences were held for male and female journalists to attend, however, not all the speakers agreed to hold a press conference.
Even the notion that there were no opportunities for businesswomen to meet and interact with their male colleagues and foreign delegates is not completely accurate because there were plenty of such opportunities at the common areas of the conference halls and where the women knew they were expected to cover their hair. The media too could access delegates and participants but it needed a little extra effort on their part. As one businesswoman said we are still new to this whole thing but we are learning and there is always room for improvement.
Interestingly enough, even though it was obvious that not many women attended the forum, giving the impression that women’s role was limited compared to last year, it was not obvious that in fact women were more involved this year in organizing the forum, selecting the speakers and setting the program.
Speaking of organizing, there were complaints about last minute changes in the program. The organizers said that this was due to circumstances that were beyond their control. However, a participant was furious that she missed the session of Minister of Labor Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi because a local newspaper reported the day before that he would not be attending. On the other hand, many people came to the third day of the forum to attend the session in which Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa was to speak, but were greatly disappointed when they found out it was canceled. Although Moussa did participate in the session with former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the day before.
A more serious complaint by the attendants and some speakers is the scheduling of breakout sessions held at the same time. This is a great idea when there is a packed program with interesting topics and speakers to fit in three days, as was the case with the forum. But besides forcing people to choose what session to attend even if they were interested in all three taking place at the same time, it created a bias toward certain topics or speakers at the expense of others, thus in one room you might not find an empty seat while in the one next to it there is barely anyone attending.