Round table on strengthening women’s participation in political life

The National Comittee for the Follow up of Women's Issues CFUWI organised, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a round table discussion at the American University of Beirut entitled ‘The Quota as a tool to strengthen women’s role in political life”.  The president of CFUWI Fahmieh Charafeddine noted that women of Lebanon were not able to fully engage in political life since 1953.  Marguerite Helou, a political science teacher and an expert in electoral issues, gave an overview of women’s political participation in Lebanon from 1953 to 2013 and pointed out to the low level of women’s political participation with women accounting for only 3.13% of parliament and 4.7% of members of municipal councils as well as a quasi absence of women within the leadership of political parties.  Helou also noted that there is only one women in evangelical religious court and none in the other religious family court.  According to Helou, the challenges that women face in political representation are of social, economic and political nature.  According to the expert, the confessional system is not the key obstacle but rather the electoral laws, absence of accountability and of any form of mechanisms within political parties that ensures equality in opportunities. Thus, women are forced to run as independent candidates in an overall political and social environment in which leaders of confessional communities strongly oppose the nomination of women.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Nahar 18, 20 May 2013