Pages
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 5
(9 of 22 pages)
But there is a structure that would enable you to present your requirements and
your needs and your demands. You can use it as a structure. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Kuber Sharna: Kuber Sharna, Nepal. Not available due to technical difficulties.
Chair: Can I turn to the gentleman at the end of the table.
Speaker: Thank you, Madam Chairperson. My name is Mohammed Elmatwalkil (ph). I'm a professor in the University
of Sanar, the Political Science Department.
Talking of participation involves talking of two issues, first of all, participation in decision making and participation
in presenting ideas and viewpoints. I think that we do have the same problem with women, we men, when it comes
to the process or the participation in presenting our ideas, but when it comes to the decision making, we both
do not take part in the decision making. If we want to be fair, speaking of Yemen, the legislation has granted
women lots of rights. The women now can have access to education to the highest level she wants and she can work
without any barriers or without any obstacles. The woman can take part in the nomination for elections and in the
election process itself, including electing herself for the post of president of their public.
But the problem facing women in Yemen are similar to those in the United States of America. For example, we know
that in the United States of America, the women were participating in the election for 200 years, but up until
now, we haven't heard of a woman president of the United States or elected vice president as a woman. So compared
to Bangladesh, for example, where women are deprived of most of their rights, but we can see that they can occupy
higher positions in the government, so it's not an example to be taken.
What I want to say is that the problem is in the women themselves, because in most countries you can see that the
women are the enemies of themselves. Dr. Raufa Hassan for example said that many -- that funds were spent between
women, so we know that she differentiates between women and the political parties. How can she have such a thinking,
because we know that the woman should be part and parcel of the political parties, otherwise she wouldn't have
a role. She cannot work independently or single handedly. She is part of the society and she has to work accordingly.
The Yemeni society is capable of accepting the woman, because in our history, before Islam, Yemen was ruled by
a woman and after Islam, Yemen was ruled by a woman again. So we know that we have a tradition of having women
as presidents and as queens, so it doesn't mean that we cannot accept women. But we know that she has a right to
take part in the decision making process if she wants.
Chair: Thank you very much. As you just pointed out, that women have only had the vote in the United States
since I think 1920, so I would like to think they had been participating in the elections for 200 years, but it's
not quite that long. A gentleman from Guyana and this gentleman here. Now, there are more hands up. It's easier
if I could just sort of represent two at a time. If you can just indicate who else? Okay.
Speaker: Yes, thank you, Madam Chairperson. My name is Ageman (ph), I'm from Guyana. I work with the Civil
Society Organization. First, I think that our presenters have done a good job exposing their experiences from their
various countries. But I want to pick on a few points and see how that relates to the situation in Guyana.
For instance, on the issue of participation, we heard that access to information is critical. We know that information,
just like knowledge, is power and what we see is that quite often governments are willing to give information,
because by giving information they tend to empower the people to be able to confront their own ill doing, so to
speak.
|
[ Discussion Board ] [ Forum Home ] [ NDI Home ] |