JEDDAH, 12 February 2006 — Women empowerment is a must if Arab countries are to reach substantial growth.
That what the key speakers emphasized yesterday at a session at the 7th Jeddah Economic Forum entitled “UN Arab Human Development Report: Facing Reality and Acting Constructively.”
Thuraya Arrayed, planning adviser for Saudi Aramco, said during her keynote address that when one is talking about the Arab development, one must keep in mind that the case is different from one region to the other, whether it’s North Africa, the Gulf region, or other regions. She warned about he increasing number of the unemployed youth in the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries.
She said that Saudi Arabia has the highest population growth, expected to grow from 18 million to 24 million by 2020. Arrayed said young Saudis are not productive members of society. Instead, they depend on their families who need to double their incomes to support this growing number of unproductive citizens.
To overcome the problem that families will face in the near future, women must work to increase the family income. The cultural perception dominant is that women do not to work after completing their education. That has to change, she said.
“Women in the workplace is not a luxury anymore. It’s a must,” said Arrayed. “We have to increase the earnings to maintain the usual lifestyle we are accustomed to.”
Regarding the challenges of increasing the participation of Saudi women in the workplace, Arrayed first stressed the need for academic curriculums for women to focus on fulfilling needs in the job market. There is also a lack of on-the-job training.
“The private sector has to set up training centers to fill that gap,” she said.
Also, to ease society anticipation of women working along with men, certain rules and regulations must be set to protect women safety.
Arrayed added that the Saudi society need an intensive enlightenment period that starts at an early age and focuses on the equality in terms of women working.
“In our curriculums from an early age our children learn that girls sweep the floor and boys work outside,” she said. “That must change.”
She said that they should also be educated about their roles and potentials, stressing that empowering women at work must start in our educational system.
“By educating both girls and boys of how to look at women as major partner, we’ll cross a very important stage,” said Arrayed, estimating that it would take at least 12 years to see any substantial changes.
Tunisian speaker Saida Agrebi, president of the Tunisian Mother’s Association, stressed the need for so-called “development assistance”, meaning that the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and the media must work to push the development wheels forward.
She explained that at the UN Millennium Fund meeting in New York, eight goals were set with a target date of 2015. The first priority was fighting poverty, and then followed by promoting education, gender equality, health and a clean environment.
Agrebi highlighted the experience of Tunisian women.
“We are proud that Tunisian women have reached high levels of education and participation in the workforce. Tunisian law enforces and protects women’s role in society,” she said.
Agrebi said that the percentage of Tunisian women in universities has reached 52 percent, and women representation in politics is 27 percent.
“There aren’t any close doors for Tunisian women in the workplace,” said Agrebi.
