Workshop in Halba on women’s quota

The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering  in collaboration with Ufuk Akkar Association held last Thursday at Halba’s a seminar on women’s quota in the presence of Akkar community leaders at Halba’s municipal library. The event comes as part of the civil mobilization and advocacy for electoral reform program implemented in partnership with a number of organizations, namely: The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, Samir Kassir Foundation, the Lebanese Transparency Association, the Lebanese Physically Handicapped Union, Maharat Foundation and the Independent Resources and Information Services IRIS. The RWG head, Iman Sayyid, opened the meeting noting the importance of the role of women and the need to strengthen it in all aspects of public life to the end of the advancement of society as a whole. For her part, Nariman Shamaa, coordinator of the above electoral reform program in the North, underlined the need to promote women’s political participation through the ‘quota’ system. The main parts of the meeting focused on defining quota, its patterns and the rationale of its adoption, shedding light on women’s present participation in public affairs and identifying the obstacles while drawing appropriate solutions to this issue. (L’Orient Le Jour, October 21, 2015)