Saturday, Nov 15, 2008

Gulf News

Sana'a: Among 130 countries, Yemen has come the last for the third consecutive year in gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2008, which was released earlier this week.

Yemen continues to occupy the last position in the region as well as in the overall rankings, being the only country in the world to have closed less than 50 per cent of its gender gap, the report said.

However, it made gains on economic participation, educational attainment and political empowerment this year, the report says.

Ramzia Al Eryani, chairwoman of the Yemen Women's Union and the Secretary-General of Arab Women's Union, attributed such a gap to a high rate of illiteracy among women in addition to traditions and customs that encourage inferior position to women.

"The gap between men and women is still very wide for a number of reasons, chief among them being illiteracy, traditionally inferior role in society and economic dependence," Al Eryani told Gulf News.

On the gap between men and women in the economic participation and available opportunity, Yemen holds the last position among the countries.

"The economic participation of women is still very weak. Women are not economically independent. In the rural areas and in some cities, women work more than men but they don't receive their financial rights," Al Eryani said.

In terms of exposure to education and political empowerment, Yemen ranked 129 achieving a little improvement. For political empowerment of women, Al Eryani criticised the report which said Yemen ranked only 129th.

"Yemen has made great efforts in field of political empowerment of women compared to some Gulf countries. So, it is unjust to say that Yemen has not done anything," Al Eryani said.

There are women representatives in parliament, in local councils and in political parties. However, there is still a huge gap between men and women in the political participation because of illiteracy. The percentage of illiteracy among women is high with about 60 per cent, while illiteracy among men is estimated at 30 per cent, she said.

Yemen remained in the last position; in 2006 and 2007 reports, and ranked the last in gender equality.

Most Middle East and North Africa region countries continue to perform far below the global average; countries such as Tunisia, Jordan, Algeria, Oman, Egypt, Morocco and Yemen have all shown improvements in scores.

On the other hand, some Gulf countries have deteriorated.

© Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.

 

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