RIGHTS-UAE: Women Partly to Blame for Slow Change
By Peyman Pejman

DUBAI, Mar 27 (IPS) - Sitting in her small art-deco office, wearing a traditional head-to-toe black garb and a headscarf, Najla al Awadhi might, at first glance, fit the traditional stereotype image of a conservative Muslim, Arab woman, content to be ruled in a male-dominated society.

But the neatly-arranged black hair showing from underneath her loosely-worn headscarf and her meticulously groomed face are tell-tale signs of a complex character in a complicated story of how much - or how little - women in this region have advanced over the years.

Al Awadhi, in a move still uncommon in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), left her family behind after high school to get her bachelor's degree in history in the United States.

Earlier this year, and five years after her return to Dubai, she was appointed by UAE rulers to serve, along with eight other women, in the country's first elected 40-member federal advisory board (equivalent of a parliament).

That followed the limited elections UAE held last year in which selected voters chose half of the 40 members of the board. While many female candidates contested, only one was elected. The rulers then dedicated eight of the remaining 20 seats to women.

The women's appointments sent the exuberant national media into high gear and, for days, government-run newspapers were filled with articles, interviews and commentaries on the UAE's success in empowering women.

"If you look at the history of women's (empowerment), it took the United States 100 years to give women the right to vote. This country (UAE) is 36 years old and we have sent women to the parliament," said al Awadhi, deputy editor of the government-owned Dubai Television channel.

"This is a huge, huge step and, if anything, we can be a model that others (in the Gulf) can emulate. Women's advancement is a national issue and we have a leadership that understands that and wants them to have their rights," she added.

But many argue that the picture is far from rosy, either in the UAE or in the other Middle East countries.

"What we have here (UAE) is state-sanctioned feminism. Since the government does not allow non-governmental organisations or grass root organisations, any type of activism or agitation on the part of women is almost impossible," said Leila De Vriese, a political science professor at Zayed University in Dubai.

"In some countries like Bahrain, there is an open articulation of what women's needs and demands are, while countries like Saudi Arabia would be at the bottom of the scale," she told IPS.

Opinions are divided as to why women in the Middle East have still not acquired many of the social and political rights taken for granted in the West. One common complaint is that older generation men, running governments across the region, are behind public opinion in their respective countries.

"Our polls have shown that on many subjects - from women's right to divorce to whether wearing the veil should be voluntary - people are a lot more advanced than their governments and legislatures," says Azza Karam, senior policy advisor at the United Nations Development Programme's Regional Bureau for Arab States.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi - and to a lesser extent the other emirates that form the UAE, Sharjah, Fujaira, Ras al Khaimah, Ajman and Umm al-Quwain - are considered exceptions in the Middle East, possibly because their leaders are perceived as more liberal and westernised than the populace.

"We have this problem here in the sense that the top leaders might be ambitious but when they send (guidelines) to the executive branch, they are all males, ineffective, and inexperienced in dealing with actual situations regarding women," said Hatoon al Fassi, the well-known Saudi Arabian women's rights activist.

"In Saudi Arabia we are at the bottom of the society. When it comes to legal status, we are second class citizens. We are treated as minors from the time we are born to the day we die," al Fassi said over telephone.

But many say women themselves are to blame.

"The most rigid people preventing change have been the women themselves," said Princess Reem Al Faisal, grand daughter of Saudi Arabia's late King Faisal and a critic of her government when it comes to women's rights.

"They are the ones who don't want to change. Women are the ones who rule the house and through the house they can have massive influence on the society. But I don't see them imposing the power they have. These things about letting women drive and all that, that's good but these are results of something not an end to themselves," said al Faisal, an internationally recognised photojournalist.

Some like al Awadhi say getting women elected, or even appointed, to federal positions is a good starting point because they could then use their influence to change the system from within.

Most Gulf and Middle East countries, including the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, have appointed women to cabinet positions.

Prof. De Vriese says history disagrees with al Awadhi's assumption. ‘'History shows that when women are elected, they become more conservative because either they want to hold on to their seats or they don't want to be seen as brazen feminists or they are not educated and experienced enough and they come under the sway of their conservative male counterparts.'' (END/2007)

RIGHTS-UAE: Women Partly to Blame for Slow Change - IPS ipsnews.net