The preparatory committee of the Bahrain Women's Union is suing the government over the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs' "refusal to grant it a licence," a leading activist said yesterday.
The case went before the court on Saturday but was postponed to November upon request of the government's lawyer, Mona Fadhl told Gulf News.
"The ministry has been stalling us for more than a year. They are making conditions that are hard to meet, including changing the name of the union," said Mona, who is an official at the Bahrain Women's Renaissance Society, one of 13 women groups that make the preparatory committee charged with setting up the union.
The ministry wants to change the name from the women's union to the union of women's society. The committee says that would radically change the union's identity.
"We are proposing a union to which all Bahraini women can belong. But they want to restrict the membership to the existing women groups," she said.
The disagreement led to the ministry's refusal to issue the licence. "They are to force us to be something that we are not" she added.
The ministry also asked the committee to change some of the proposed union's programmes.
At the court Saturday, the ministry's lawyer "asked for more time to study the case," Mona said. Another hearing is set for November 6.
The Bahrain Women's Union (BWU) would be the second independent women's organisation in the Gulf region, after the Kuwaiti version, according to Mariam Al Ruwai'e.
Bahrain currently has a state-sponsored Supreme Council for Women, which is chaired by Shaikha Sabika Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad.
Gulf News
