Experts are encouraging more women to take on scientific careers. Reem Leila reports The three-day "Arab Women and Science and Technology" forum -- held in Cairo last week -- called on women to play a more active role in scientific research, mandating that they be given more access to technology studies. Mrs Suzanne Mubarak inaugurated the forum on Sunday, calling on Arab universities to demonstrate more commitment to this cause. Mrs Mubarak praised Arab governmental and non- governmental efforts to improve technical and scientific education systems, and to better customise them to the demands and requirements of Arab women, but said that much more still needed to be done. "Balanced and true development can never be achieved without removing gender disparities," Mrs Mubarak said. "Women, along with men, play a very important role in the development of our societies." That exact theme was reiterated often, and by different participants. The advancement of Arab societies, participants from 22 Arab nations said, depended on enabling women to assume their full role in bringing about social and economic development. This advancement would remain elusive, it was unanimously agreed, if Arabs failed to encourage women to take up science, and there would be no sustainable human development without the participation of both women and men in every creative activity, including science and technology. Some experts blamed decades of bias in the Arab world that had prohibited female students and scientists from pursuing research. The first step on the long road to ameliorating that situation, participants said, was for Arab governments and non-governmental organisations to fully assume their responsibility for eradicating female illiteracy, which still stands at an alarming rate of close to 70 per cent. Other speakers harped on the need to improve the overall quality of education in Arab schools, and to make science and technology more appealing to students. "In this regard, attention must be paid to the development of laboratories, so as to encourage empirical education," said Zeinab Bent Al- Nahah, who as Minister of Women's Affairs was at the head of the Mauritanian delegation. Bent Al-Nahah said the time had come for Arab societies to abandon the traditional biased and unfounded connection between male students and scientific studies. Girls are as qualified as boys to study science and pursue scientific research, she said.
