70 women may present their candidacy for the upcoming municipal elections in 2016

Women in Front completed yesterday its “Women in Municipalities” project and organized a closing ceremony under the auspices of the Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Nehad el Mashnook, and with the attendance of the US Ambassador to Lebanon, David Hale, in addition to a number of political, diplomatic and media figures as well as civil society activists.  The event included two discussion sessions the first of which focused on challenges that women face in public and political life, and was facilitated by former Minister Ziad Barud, and the President of the IT crimes and copyrights protection bureau, Major Suzanne Haje.  The second session discussed the reasons why women refrain from participating in political life and included the participation of former Minister Ibrahim Hajjar and Nada Zaarour of the Green party.
The Women in Municipalities project which Women in Front started implementing a year ago with funding from MEPI, aimed at encouraging women to participate in public life through mobilizing them to take part in municipality, legislative and trade union elections.  Training workshops were organized for some 70 women from different parts of Lebanon so as to allow them to develop community projects that will be useful to their local communities and that is after they successfully present themselves as candidates for the 2016 municipal elections.  

Source: Al-Diyar 30 September 2014