The United Nations Development Fund for Women's (UNIFEM) Progress of Arab Women report was highly critical of women's lot in the Arab world. Magda El-Ghitany shows why The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) recently released its Progress of Arab Women 2004 report which reveals that while Arab countries have taken steps to improve the lot of the Arab world's 140 million women, there still remains much to be done to eradicate "gender imbalance". Progress of Arab Women aims at highlighting the challenges Arab women face. The report provides an indepth picture of the problems faced by Arab women in all sectors -- health, education, environment, family, and employment. The report monitored progress made in securing women's rights in Arab countries, many of which have participated in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The report addressed the current status of Arab women in a "historical, political, ideological, and social context". Divided into four main chapters, the report assesses progress made by Arab governments to enhance women's well-being and welfare; the impact of globalisation on Arab women's economic security; Arab women's social security and their role in the political life of their countries. The report highlighted "the deprivation of basic education" and "knowledge poverty" as key determinants of the deplorable social and economic conditions of Arab women. The report also opposes taking religion or culture as reasons to violate women's rights. Arab countries took part in various international conventions that promote Arab women's rights, such as the CEDAW and the BPFA that are committed to "achieve women's empowerment". While 16 Arab countries "ratified" the CEDAW and 19 Arab states were present in the BPFA, most made reservations on articles relating to the "reproductive health, abortion rights and care, and inheritance". Indeed, inheritance has emerged as a hot topic of debate in many Arab countries -- the vast majority of these states are governed by Sunni Muslim law, which allocates inheritance differently between men and women. This is increasingly seen as a gross injustice by secular forces, but is regarded as a taboo subject by conservatives. The report notes that if a man and a woman have an equal kinship- based inheritance right, the male is entitled to double the share of the female as stipulated in the Holy Quran. "This bias is sometimes justified based on assumed gender roles. Men are perceived as financially responsible for families," the report concedes. But it also stresses that "in practice, however, women often shoulder heavy financial responsibilities." Arab women, the report concludes, are still confronted with various forms of discrimination "regardless of their age, education, or access to the public sphere". As the report states, "women empowerment" faces strong opposition in Arab states because of "the connection between gender relations and established power dynamics, competition over limited resources" and the "deep questions that gender justice raises for cultural and religious values and traditions". The report is structured around four themes -- women's "critical needs, building capabilities, enabling environment, and well-being". Critical needs include "preventable deaths, deprivation of basic needs, and knowledge poverty". Building capabilities involves "education, competitive skills, health, and agency". Enabling environment consists of "legal environment, affirmative action, knowledge and social watch, and friendly environment". Whereas "well-being" involves "satisfaction of potentials, fair burden, fair share, inclusiveness and partnership, and security". Most Arab states made some progress in improving women's living conditions and well-being -- lowering the mortality rates of children under five and about 85 per cent of Arab girls are now enrolled in primary schools. However, there are several areas where women's conditions are deplorable. There is a gender gap with regards to illiteracy rates. Arab women still suffer from diseases and chronic health problems stemming from poor nutrition and health care provision. The report acknowledges the importance of the family in the Arab world as being a "vital institution" and a main source of social security. However, the report notes that the family cannot "provide for the social security needs of women, children, and men if dramatic changes in policies, market and welfare regimes are not introduced." The report points out that women in the Arab world make up less than 28 per cent of the labour force. This makes women financially dependent on men. The report notes that globalisation and the "global economic integration" negatively impacts Arab women. On the brighter side, Arab women have started to play an active role in politics, according to the report. In an unprecedented development, Saudi women took part in the National Dialogue and the Global Economic Forum 2004. In 2003, women constituted 12 per cent of MPs in the Syrian parliament; 11.5 per cent in Tunisia's parliament, 9.7 per cent in the Sudanese parliament and 2.4 per cent in the Egyptian parliament. Mrs Suzanne Mubarak's founding of the Arab Women's Organisation (AWO) was a move designed to strengthen the role of women in the political sphere and in the decision-making process. Progress of sorts on many fronts, but still a tortuously long way to go.
