Civil organisations urge political parties to support women’s participation in public life

For some time now, the concern of civil society associations has been focused on the issue of participation of women at all levels of public life. In this framework, a number of events were held last week emphasizing the role of political parties in supporting women’s involvement, particularly after the latest municipal elections have demonstrated the political factions relinquishing of that role. Maharat Foundation and Hivos International organized a workshop to launch a study prepared by the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) entitled, ‘the presence of women in the electoral  media and municipalities 2016’. The study which was funded jointly by the European Union and Hivos, indicated that politicians and officials and administrators involved with organizing and management of the elections file are the least concerned about the participation of women in public life. It pressed the need to “reconsider the stereotypical images of men and women”, with emphasis on the role of the media in the emancipation of women to this effect. While Zeina Helu, LADE secretary general, drew attention to a persistent decline in women’s political participation in 2016, civil activist Ali Slim, outlined the findings of the study. He pointed out that women in Lebanon only occupy 3.1% of the total parliamentary seats, while women voters make up 51% of the total number of voters. Similarly, Lubnaniyoon association held a meeting on Friday in the presence of representative of political parties in order to plan for a women’s revolution on all the Lebanese territories. The aim of the uprising is to introduce a fair women’s representation quota in the electoral laws. Participants warned to boycott upcoming elections in case the government did not respond to this demand. In the same vein, a delegation of the ‘Women in the Parliament’ alliance, led by Taline Taurikyan, Rima Dinnawi from YWCA and Randa Yassir director of Smart Center, visited last Saturday Zafer Nasser, the general secretary of the Social Progressive Party (PSP) to discuss the ‘Parties Nominate Women’ (project coordinated in the name of the alliance by YWCA). Nasser underlined the PSP’s support and cooperation to the end of promoting women’s political role. (Al Mustaqbal, L’Orient Le Jour, October 22 and 24, 2016)