31 October 2010
GAMMARTH, Oct. 29, 2010 (TAP) - The first session of the 3rd congress of the Arab Women Organisation was held on Thursday afternoon in Tunis, under chairmanship of Dr. Bochra Kanghani, member of the AWO executive council and Syria's delegate, on the following theme: «women and the education and cultural dimensions of comprehensive development ».

Dr. Kanghani said that the achievements carried out so far in matters of promoting Arab women's conditions remain beyond expectations as long as Arab women are not actively participating in the process of sustainable development.

The cultural dimension and the problems of education systems, she affirmed, represent major handicaps for Arab women's creative capacities and participation in the process of development in Arab societies.

Dr. Amine Zaoui of Algeria presented for his part a working document in which he stressed that there can be no sustainable development without coherent and well defined education, cultural and teaching programmes.

Any process of development that excludes women, he said, is doomed to failure.

He highlighted the role of women in the sectors of education and sustainable development, and especially the feminisation of the sector of education in the Arab world as well as the increasing number of women in the sector of health and services.

He called for modernising the education system to enable young girls to become a creative force in the job and production market.

Dr. Mohsen Essalmi of Oman said, in his address, that the access to education has become within the reach of both girls and boys in most Arab countries, which means there is no gender disparity in this field.

He stressed the need for Arab states to work out well defined strategies of development in order to further promote women's conditions and enable them to contribute to sustainable development, saying that it is necessary to establish a new religious speech based on enlightened thought likely to contribute to fight against the illiteracy of girls and women.

Dr. Ali Hawat of Libya said in turn that it is necessary to get rid of discrimination between men and women and favour a climate of freedom and justice.

He added that Arab women had managed since the last two decades of last century, according to several regional and international authorities, to record gains and success notably in matters of education and culture.

He then reviewed the difficulties still impeding an effective participation of women in development and the great challenges still facing them, including in the first place the stereotyped picture of women which is still alive in Arab mind-sets that regard women as unable to assume responsibilities, not to mention women's fight for freedom to recover their right to full citizenship.

Participants in this first session hailed the opening address of first lady Leila Ben Ali, president of the AWO, saying it represents a road map for the promotion of women's conditions and participation in public life and development.

They said that women's conditions are different from one Arab country to the other and stressed the need to change the stereotyped image of women in education programmes, insisting on the important role devolving upon the media and the civil society in this regard.

© Agence Tunis Afrique Presse 2010