Shiite cleric, Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, said yesterday that women were and shall remain the first to take action on the development and advancement of their community. Fadlallah, who was speaking during an Iftar by Al Mabarrat Charity Association at Sayidat Khadija al Kubra premises, drew attention to the countless contributions by women, within family and in society. “We need women, their efforts and their crucial role, especially in the reality we live up with, where corruption and perversion prevail, and where the rate of crime and violence are high and social maladies abound,” Fadlallah said. He made clear that the act of abusing or demeaning women does not stop at the direct repercussions on battered women, but that ill-treatment is passed on to society affecting its efficacy and jeopardizing its future which is essentially built on women. “It is a momentous crime,” he said. Fadlallah maintained that the community weakens when it marginalizes women preventing them from participating in development or political affairs, while restricting their job to social feats. “They do not have a significant presence in the Parliament, the Cabinet or in municipalities, or even inside parties or associations, to talk about their rights,” Fadlallah lamented, adding, that “even if they find a role, it would be secondary to men’s.” The minimal presence of women is not attributed to a gap in their aptitudes or potentials, but rather to unwanted conventional traditions we seek to discard or to prejudiced legislations we ought to change, the Shiite scholar stated. He stressed the need to stand with women every step of the way to achieve their just rights, on the religious, legal and political levels. (Al Diyar, June 6, 2017)
