Transformations in women's health in Lebanon and Arab World

The Arab Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology Societies held a conference on March 7 entitled ‘Transformations in Women's Health in Lebanon and the Arab World: Reality and Challenges and the Impact of Policy and Legislations’. The event which was organized in collaboration with the School of Health Sciences, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) tackled problems and presented solutions to the end of promoting the general health of women. During the conference, Dr. Faysal El Kak, president of the Association, pointed out to huge disparities in maternal mortality rates which while posting a decline in some Arab countries, including Lebanon and the GCC states, remained high in some 8 other Arab nations. El Kak warned that the increase in birth rates among refugee women in Lebanon and neighboring countries is higher than the mortalities, particularly those caused by chronic diseases and not childbirth problems. He mentioned the surge by 20% in marriage rates among women aged 18, which sometimes reaches 40% in certain countries, as he said. Dr. El Kak noted that the use of birth control pills is still low, barely reaching 50%. For her part, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Office in Lebanon, Dr. Alissar Radi, considered that over more than half of women suffer from weight gain and other factors, like smoking, diabetes, cholesterol, high blood pressure and lack of mobility. Some of these factors, she explained, contribute to the spread of breast cancer. Likewise, the director of the Arab Institute for Human Rights, Joumana Merhi, said that the right to health and freedom is a fundamental human right, similar to the right to determine the timing of pregnancy and the right to access medical services which is also an essential right for women. (An Nahar, March 22, 2017)