A gathering of activists under the auspices of the Canadian embassy to support women’s political participation || Newspapers (Arabic)

The Canadian Embassy, represented by Nicole Maillard, organized last week a gathering attended by women activists form political parties, civil society organizations and members of municipal councils  to support women drive to integrate political life and to familiarize women with their rights as enshrined in the Constitution and in international conventions.  The gathering also discussed how to hold candidates accountable for their political platforms and the extent to which these platforms include women’s concerns.  The seminar also discussed the content of a guidebook entitled “you can” which was distributed to participants as well as the issue of women’s political quota.
The general secretary of the Marada movement, Mirna Zakharia, shared the position of her party on the issue of women’s quota noting that there are 19 countries worldwide where women’s representation exceeds 30% and 60 countries where it reaches 20% whilst 120 countries have less than 20%.  She also dwelled on the reasons behind the poor representation of Lebanese women in politics, namely cultural obstacles, the confessional system and low women’s participation and their poor support to women candidates.

Source: Al-Anwar, Al-Mustaqbal 26 February 2013