By Mursi Saad El-Din I have always been a keen supporter of the rights of women. I have written quite a number of articles in Arabic on this issue. Besides, I have followed all relevant UN conferences. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 sexual equality was asserted, then in the first women's conference convened in Mexico City 1975 was declared International Women's year. Furthermore the equality of women was reasserted in 1979 by the Commission on the Abolition of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. That commission became a precious emancipation tool in the North as well as in the South. UN Women's Conferences then took place one after the other: in Copenhagen in 1980, in Nairobi in 1985 and -- the most important meeting -- in Beijing in 1995. The latter was attended by 30,000 participants from 189 countries. The conference adopted the Platform for Action which laid down the steps to be taken to guarantee economic opportunities and security for women, a high quality of education and health care, full political and economic participation and the promotion of human rights. The 20th century certainly witnessed great strides taken by women. At the start of the century the women's struggle was for education. In 1861, a young woman graduated in France, with a baccalaureate, a high school leaving exam, for the first time. In 1900 the first female university was founded in Japan. The same year girls won the right to secondary education in Egypt and the first girls' school opened in Tunisia. Young women benefited from these new educational opportunities not only to become better household managers and education for their children, but also to do something unprecedented: to enter the forbidden spheres of public life, to exercise citizenship and to participate in politics. According to an article in UNESCO's magazine the Courier, throughout the 20th century, women waged a battle on two fronts, by "fighting for their own rights and taking care of the major social and political emancipation movements". "In 1971", goes on the writer "the Russian Bolshevik Alexandria Kallontas became the world's first woman cabinet minister. African American Rosa Parks triggered the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus in 1955." The second objective of the 20th-century pioneers was participation in public life, which centred initially on having the right to vote. The struggle was long and sometimes violent. It was in Scandinavia that women first won the right to vote and to run for elections. It happened in Finland in 1906. It was the First world War that witnessed European women winning the right to vote in 1918 and 1919. The French and Italian women did not win that right until the Second World War. In 1930 the first congress of women from the Near and Middle East convened in Damascus. By that time women's movements were active in Turkey, Egypt and India. Going through women's demands for their rights one cannot but notice that those demands were different from one country to another. But some demands in one country may not be accepted in another. Indeed they may even be opposed. The Courier gives some interesting facts and statistics. There are 20 countries where women hold at least 25% of parliamentary seats -- Sweden is at the top with 42.7% and Namibia at the bottom with 25%. No Arab country is among them. And there are seven women heads of state in Bermuda, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Panama, San Marino and Sri Lanka.
