CAIRO: Omani women gathered on Sunday to celebrate the annual Omani Women's Day with the launch of the Omani Women's Forum, an initiative aimed to improve women's empowerment and access in the gulf country. Sharifah bint Khalfan al-Yahyaeyah, Oman's Social Development Minister, launched the forum, pointing that the “honorable picture of the Omani woman deepens every day to add new pages to the Omani rich history.” She called on society to help buttress efforts to improve the plight of women in the country and give them equal access to jobs and daily activities. Oman is not known for its progressive stance on women, but it has not fallen into what women's rights advocates worldwide have said of its neighbor, Saudi Arabia. “Oman is not Saudi, that is for sure and they have made some nice progress in recent years towards ensuring women have access to education, jobs and overall sanctity as citizens of the country,” Salma Yussif, an Omani women's activist living in London, told Bikya Masr. She believes that only positives can from the conference, as it “creates a forum where women's issues will be discussed.” “Those who follow the Omani bright history will realize that men and women have contributed to the building of the Omani culture which has been and still is known for being balanced and having deeply contributed to the world culture. The Omani woman today feels proud of the achievements made for her under the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said in all fields and domains,” the minister continued in her opening remarks at the celebrations. “Everyone in Oman, both men and women, are equal in rights and obligation and enjoy fair opportunities. The reality confirms this as the progress is made on the hands of male and female citizens,” she added. The forum plans to discuss on Monday three working papers on the image of woman in the society, the change of social roles inside the Omani family and woman's incentives for achievement “means of measuring and development,” said a statement from the Oman government on the forum. Despite the obvious optimism, Freedom House remains pessimistic, saying on its website that Oman has a long way to go before women are on equal footing to men. “One of the major challenges to women's rights advocacy and women's status in Oman is the overall denial of basic civil liberties such as freedom of association and expression,” Freedom House said on the country. Yet, there are positives to take from Oman's attention to women's rights and empowerment in recent years. “Women in Oman have made steady progress over the past decade. There are currently more women than men enrolled in higher education at the university level despite gender-discriminatory practices in the enrollment process,” the report added. BM
