JEDDAH, 13 February 2006 — The first session of day two of the Seventh Jeddah Economic Forum began with a focus on women. Cherie Booth, or as she is more commonly known as Cherie Blair, a lawyer and Queen Council, spoke about human rights and women development.
“Women’s rights is a key to solving social problems,” emphasized Booth.
Consistent with the forum’s theme of honoring identity and celebrating common grounds, she said that these rights are not a Western concept that is being forced on other cultures as some think. Instead, she said, these rights are shared by all religions, including Islam, which has given women a special status. She spoke highly of the recent meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Makkah and the declaration made putting reform and development as a priority and its inclusion of women in that plan.
She began by saying that she is speaking as a lawyer, not as a representative of any organization or country. She also left immediately after giving her speech without allowing anyone the chance to ask her for elaborations, for example on women’s rights in Iraq after the invasion of American and British troops. Nevertheless, she gave an overarching history and perspective of the concept of human rights and how it came about in the form of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. It was an informative presentation but hardly added a depth to the issue of women’s plight in the world, whether in the underdeveloped countries or in the impoverished inner cities (in the case of the US) and marginalized urban suburbs (in the case of Europe) of the developed Western world. She reiterated that women everywhere are not getting their equal share of wages, healthcare or education.
“Equality does not mean everyone has to be the same, but that everyone is given equal chance,” said Booth.
Poverty has a woman’s face, as has been said before. Booth explains that this is due to women’s lack of access, resources and opportunities. Women also suffer more than men from abuse, illiteracy and diseases, such as HIV. Her point is that no society can develop without empowering everyone.
As for the workplace, to increase the number of women and their contribution, “we have to enable a better a balance between career and family responsibility,” she said.
Political representation is another issue for women. She praised the steps made by women in the Gulf — the first Kuwaiti women in Parliament, women minister in the United Arab Emirates and the women elected to the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry — as examples. But women still have a long way to go, not just in the Middle East, but also in England where they make only 18 percent of the representatives in the House of Commons — a lower percentage than in Iraq and Rwanda, according to Booth.
Societies evolve and their needs and definitions of rights change, said Booth, as such people’s right changed from being free of tyranny to the right for personal development and duties toward their society. Wrapping up her speech and going back to the main issue, she said that everyone should work together to establish a common dialogue while preserving our collective diversity.
