AMMAN, 8 November 2007 — The two-day Arab Woman Conference ended Amman yesterday. The forum entitled “Future Horizons” extensively discussed Arab woman’s status in relation to the development and progress of Arab countries, and the means and tools to enhance her progress in order to aid her in her way to serve her family, society and the country as best as possible.
Addressing the conference, Prince Hassan bin Talal, chairman of the forum, said “reforms should start with us and by us, and should not be dictated by an outside power... I am full of hope, that in the field of science as well as other fields, we should consider in the first place on a basic, essential value, that is the human ‘dignity’.” He welcomed the participation and support of Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim Al Nahayan, Qatar’s minister of foreign affairs and chairman of the Cabinet.
The agenda of the conference, according to Dr. Hassan Nafaa’, secretary-general of the forum, had three major aspects: First, the controversies of the Arab world, and the core of it is the controversy of the nationalization and the necessary action to enable the nationals to enjoy full nationalist rights.
Secondly, the controversies of Arab-Arab relations, and the core of it is the Arab fulfillment controversy for which there is a great need to explore new methods, programs and horizons to springboard a full and complete progress acts that moves ahead and never retreats. Thirdly, the controversies with the “other” and what is needed to build bridges of dialogue with international think tanks to enhance the efforts to establish a global fair and just system.
The conference is part of the “Arab Thought Forum”, first such intellectual agenda. It believes in, Nafaa’ said, “treating the Arab women’s issues from the perspective of nationalization as a whole, and not the gender. It also believes that freeing the woman starts by freeing Arab countries from occupation, dictatorships, corruption and all forms of oppression.”
Many researchers and activists from different countries participated in the conference to help activate deep interaction in transforming experiences in a better way. The first session was dominated by shedding critical light on an international report of “the Arab Human Development” published in 2005 analyzing the Arab women’s status in the Arab world.
The report stated clearly that in order to achieve progress in the societies, there has to be a major change in the role and status of women, as equality between men and women, circulate around the computability ideology in exploiting human abilities. The session was aimed at bringing out the result it came up with.
