The last of a four-part report warns that discrimination against women is still rife and impeding progress in the Arab world. Gihan Shahine reports Only a handful of people seem to be aware that the fourth and final installment of the Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) was issued last week in far away Yemen, making it difficult for the controversial in-depth study to achieve its primary goal of provoking heated debate on gender inequality in the Arab world. The report, written by an independent group of Arab scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners, has hardly received any attention in the local press. It remains questionable whether that was the result of bad publicity on the part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which launched the report or, perhaps, because gender issues are still considered marginal in patriarchal societies. The fact that the AHDR was not officially launched at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo as was the case with the past three installments, and that hard copies were not readily available for journalists when the report was issued, only reinforces the view that gender issues are usually given a back seat, at least in this part of the world. The report warns that discrimination against women stifles development in the same way that other deficits in freedom and knowledge block progress, issues which were extensively covered in former issues of the AHDR. Chronicling the history of Arab women, the study also focuses on contemporary dynamics and challenges facing women's empowerment on all economic, political and social levels and suggests means by which better gender equality can be achieved. Entitled 'Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World,' the report delineates a plethora of cultural, legal, social, economic and political factors impeding women's equal access to education, healthcare, job opportunities, citizens' rights and political participation. In private life, the report says, cultural patterns of upbringing and discriminatory family and personal-status laws perpetuate inequality and subordination. Foreign occupation and the "war on terror" are major obstacles to development for many Arab citizens, with women enduring "a double portion of suffering under foreign occupation," the report said. Although women constitute more than half the top-scoring pupils in school, the report deplores the fact that fewer than 80 per cent are provided access to secondary education, while half of all women remain illiterate compared to one-third of men, with a few exceptions in countries including Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine where girls outnumber boys in school enrollment. Unequal educational opportunities make women generally less skilled which in turn keeps the percentage of employed Arab women at the world's lowest level -- only one-third of the employment force. In consequence, they usually lead unhealthy lifestyles and are more prone to disease and maternal death. Feminists, like Iman Bebars, noted that women's conditions in Egypt may be even worse when compared to the rest of the world. "Mortality rates are normally higher among women because they are the ones who give birth to children," Bebars said. "Since access to health services is bad for all the poor, women will suffer more because they are among the poorest of the poor." Bebars suggests that illiteracy rates among women are even higher than 50 per cent but noted, "such unequal educational opportunities for girls are the result of socio-economic problems and a bad educational system rather than an issue of discrimination against women. "That education is free has proven a farce. Poor families who cannot afford to give all their children an education prefer to send boys to school on the grounds that girls will ultimately get married while boys are tomorrow's breadwinners," Bebars explained. "But if families have the means to educate all their children, they would send both boys and girls to school." A serious deficit in women's participation in political and public life is what Bebars slams as one obvious aspect of gender discrimination. The report reveals that the involvement of Arab women in public life remains the lowest in the world, as is the case in parliament where women members constitute an average of about 10 per cent. "In all cases... real decisions in the Arab world are, at all levels, in the hands of men," the report said. Bebars deplored the fact that matters are getting worse in Egypt where women now represent only 1.2 per cent of all members of legislative bodies, compared to two per cent in 2000. Women, Bebars explained, are not rich by default and thus do not have the financial means to run as independents or buy ballots in what she described as a corrupt electoral system. "In the meantime, we find parties like the ruling National Democratic Party nominating only six women this year," Bebars scoffed. "It's a real scandal that peasants and workers have a quota in the parliament but women don't. Up till now, the system does not allow a woman to become a judge. The only one we have was appointed by virtue of a presidential decree." On the domestic level, women do not seem to fare much better. The report says Arab women often suffer domestic violence, including so- called "honour killings". It further criticises what the authors call "restrictive" laws to women's personal liberties. In that context, the report highlights personal status laws which, the authors say, give women less status in divorce proceedings and make a husband's or father's approval a prerequisite for any woman seeking to work, travel or borrow from a bank. Whereas the report blames authoritarian regimes for restricting attempts by liberal movements and institutions to empower women and their rights, it further suggests a reform "that will modernise religious interpretation and jurisprudence through the widespread adoption of the enlightened readings [of Qur'anic texts]," a matter likely to provoke controversy and face strong resistance. Bebars said some laws need to be revisited, including those related to women who get divorced later in life when their children are above custody age. They, thus, have no legal right over marital homes. "We call them women without shelter, representing 12 per cent of all the 6,200 divorced women we studied in 12 governorates," Bebars said. "The law undermines a woman's contribution to the household when it gives her no right in the marital relationship. Meanwhile, there have been edicts by former and current muftis that serving a husband and nursing children are not obligatory, and thus a woman's contribution to the home -- actually a contribution to the whole community -- should not be made without a price." On a more optimistic note, the report highlights some recent progress. Most Arab countries, for instance, now have a parliament, a cabinet or local council in which at least one woman participates. The report also contends that in the last five decades, "the internal dynamics of... [Islamic] movements, their relationship to mainstream society and their positions on vital societal issues, on human rights and on good governance and democracy, has undergone significant, progressive change." Women's issues, the report added, are increasingly permeating intellectual and cultural discourse and contemporary media including the Internet and satellite television stations are opening up a new venue of liberation for women. Bebars, however, noted that most of the changes recently occurring in Egypt "remain at the elitist level and have not actually reached the man on the street". The AHDR authors thus suggest "a widespread and effective movement of struggle in Arab civil society," a programme of affirmative action "to expand women's participation in society and dismantle centuries-old discrimination". Achieving compulsory basic education for Arab girls to eliminate female illiteracy by 2015, and enforcing equal employment opportunities for Arab women are among the report's most ambitious goals. "The political leadership must be serious about achieving gender equality," Bebars contended. Changing laws "is very important, but inadequate," Bebars said. "What we need is a social and cultural change. "We [civil society] can claim to have changed the culture of like 20 per cent of the families we work with, but we cannot assume that we can change the culture of a whole society." Which, according to Bebars, should be the strategy of state-owned media.
