BEIRUT: Minister of State for Womens Affairs Jean Ogasapian Wednesday launched his ministrys plan to empower women and enhance their participation in the 2018 parliamentary election. In Lebanon, only 3.1 percent of MPs are women, despite the fact that the country is a signatory of the Beijing Declaration a result of the 1995 United Nations World Conference on Women, which set a target quota of 30 percent of decision-making positions to be held by women.

Ogasapians plan, launched during a conference at Beiruts Kempinski Hotel, includes measures designed to train women to run for elections, and media campaigns to raise awareness regarding the importance of womens involvement in politics.

The conference, titled Fostering the Role of Political Parties to Promote Womens Representation in the Upcoming Parliamentary Elections 2018, invited a representative from six major political parties as well as international officials to discuss women in politics.

I encourage all political parties to recruit women party candidates and to place them high on their ballot lists, EU Ambassador Christina Lassen said.

Gender equality contributes to more inclusive, balanced and representative societies, Lassen added.

The representatives defended their respective political parties, each arguing that their party believed in gender equality and endorsed women running for Parliament. They all expressed hope that at least one female candidate would appear on their partys electoral list, but gave no specific candidates who have been announced.

Manal Saeed, representing the Progressive Socialist Party, urged voters to boycott any list that didnt include at least one female candidate, although she did not confirm that the PSP list would include a woman.

Lebanese Forces Secretary-General Chantal Sarkis said her party was currently conducting studies to predict which candidate stood the best chances. Were running for Parliament to win and not lose a seat, so we want candidates with the potential to win, Sarkis said.

We dont want to add [womens] names just to say we did. We dont want decorative women, she said.

This idea that a focus on boosting female participation would result in token women surfaced in other comments. Rima Fakhry, representing Hezbollah, gave a similar argument. Hezbollah is not against women in politics, she said, before adding that she felt there were cultural, intellectual and ideological factors that could block a womans path to success.

In rural areas, [womens backgrounds] play an even bigger role, and this needs to be taken into consideration, she said.

Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat said women would have a higher chance of becoming a candidate and winning a seat if they had more experience in politics. He urged women to get more involved in their political parties to gain the necessary knowledge.

A gender quota [in the electoral law] would help bring women into politics, Fatfat said.

The new electoral law, ratified in 2017, did not include a gender quota although some parties had lobbied for its inclusion.

Amal movement representative Ali Rahal placed some of the blame on women voters. Women are presenting their candidacies but are not elected by women voters. Why? he asked. However, Rahal said that the current mentality should change and that a gender quota would provide a roadmap to this shift. It is positive discrimination and [is] present in other countries to ensure gender equality, he said.

Free Patriotic Movement MP Simon Abi Ramia said women need to insert themselves into politics. Women such as MP Bahia Hariri and Nayla Tueni ... are connected to a male political leader, he said, without saying if he thought they would have entered politics otherwise.

Ramias comments caused a stir. Saeed hit back, saying these women were successful in their own right. Why dont we hold men who are not successful accountable? she asked.

Sarkis agreed that accountability frequently does not go both ways.

People ask me how I can take care of my home and work something that is never asked of men, she said.

A woman in the audience, who didnt introduce herself, argued that women needed to embody a plethora of characteristics to be a possible candidate. Why dont you hold men to the same standard? You only talk about competence when it comes to women, she said.

In the closing remarks, UNDP Country Director Celine Moyroud and Special Representative of the Regional Director of U.N. Women Begona Lasagabaster took the stage to discuss the U.N.s role in increasing womens participation in Lebanese politics. Someone once said, do you think a football coach trains with half of his team, Lasagabaster said, suggesting that the absence of women in politics means only half of the team is playing.

U.N. Women and UNDP are hoping to shift the calculus in womens favor by training viable female candidates for elections and the political environment while giving them support, Lasagabaster later told The Daily Star.

Studies show that when women are in decision-making positions, the country makes better decisions. And women can cross party lines more easily than men, making bipartisan agreements easier to manage, she said. Getting women in politics is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do, Moyroud said.

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