At last week's Arab Women Organisation's (AWO) executive council meeting, the group's presidency, which rotates annually, transferred from Rowida Al- Maaitah of Jordan to Nora Al-Suwaidi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The council also set forth its 2004-2008 four-year plan. Al-Suwaidi said the group attempted to map out a future in which women can play an active and effective role in overcoming the challenges they face. Increasing women's awareness of the economic, social, political, cultural, and legal issues they face is the plan's top priority. "Arab women should be proactive and innovative, rejecting the traditional victim mentality," Al- Suwaidi said. "Our region needs new modes of thinking if we really want to successfully confront the threats to our societies and cultural identities." Fostering cooperation and exchanging experiences between Arab countries -- via research, seminars, and workshops -- is also part of the plan, as is communicating and cooperating with relevant governmental and non-governmental organisations. The four years plan, stresses on the importance of achieving solidarity of Arab women as a cornerstone for Arab unity to guarantee joint Arab action regarding women. One of the most vital aims of the plan is to help placing women's issues at the forefront of the agenda of the international community as well as the Arab world in order to upgrade women's conditions at all levels and all aspects of life. Al-Suwaidi said the group, "cannot depend on the legitimacy of our issues and assume that the world understands our needs. We must work to deliver our message to the world in a strong confident voice, a message that guarantees Arab women's rights to self-determination, to enable them to build a prosperous and promising future." The plan also deals with enhancing essential health and education services for women. According to AWO director general, Wadouda Badran, this will take place via collecting and disseminating data on these two issues in order to, among other things, strengthen women's awareness of environmental hazards and eradicate female illiteracy. Synchronising women's issues with developmental policies, and Arab governments' plans, is also a priority. Badran believes that, this could be attained by coordinating national and regional efforts related to women's issues, in addition to conducting research on Arab women's topics and their role in society. Promoting the empowerment of women in the media, part of which involves dealing with the negative images of Arab women disseminated by the press and media, is also part of the plan. According to Al-Maaitah, the outgoing head of the executive council, the AWO also plans to continue working towards rectifying all forms of legal discrimination against women, or preventing them from undertaking an active role in the society on the one hand, and alleviating poverty by helping women find jobs and establish their own micro projects, on the other. In short, the plan stresses the importance of utilising all available channels of communication and global technological advancement to help Arab women achieve their goals.
