The United Arab Emirates is firmly committed to the enhancement of the status of women and the country's Constitution guarantees equal rights for both men and women. The basic rights of women are enshrined in the Saharjah (Moslem law), and the UAE Women's Federation, headed by H H Sheikha Fatima bent Mubarak, wife of the country's President, H H Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Niehyan, was founded in 1975 and to encourage the country's women to play a full role in society. Among its major activities is the promotion of women's education, with a particular emphasis on adult literacy programme. Female literacy rates now match those of males, while there are now more women at University than men. Women are also providing a growing proportion of the national workforce occupying posts ranging from senior civil servants to engineers and bankers, as well as traditional jobs in teaching and healthcare. Legal rights achieved as a result of lobbying by the Federation include generous maternity leave.
Women in the UAE have had the complete support and commitment of Sheikh Zayed and the UAE Government in their quest to play a full role in the development of the country. The belief that women are entitled to take their place in society is grounded in the UAE Constitution which states that the principles of social justice should apply to all. Under the Constitution women enjoy the same legal status, claim to titles, access to education and the right to practice professions as men. The guarantees enshrined in the Constitution have been incorporated into implementing legislation. However, a legislative framework by itself, although valuable, would not have been sufficient to achieve emancipation. The President’s wife Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, therefore, has worked tirelessly since the establishment of the Federation to implement Sheikh Zayed’s vision of a modern society based on Arab and Islamic traditions, recognizing that it was only by organizing women that real progress could be made.
UAE Women's Federation
Sheikha Fatima founded the first women’s society in the country in 1972, the Abu Dhabi Women's Society. The success of the Abu Dhabi association led to the creation of the Dubai Women's Development Society, the Sharjah Women's Development Society, the Umm al-Mou’meneen Women’s Development Society in Ajman, the Umm al-Qaiwain Development Society and the Ras al-Khaimah Women’s Development Society. These societies were subsequently linked together under the UAE Women's Federation which was established on 28 August 1975, again headed by Sheikha Fatima. To date, the Federation has played a highly significant role in assisting the women of the UAE to realize their full potential.
The UAE Women’s Federation is an autonomous body with its own budget. It has a number of committees to run its activities, such as religious affairs, mother and child care, social affairs, cultural affairs, sports, heritage and the arts. Depending on the geographical size of the emirate, the individual societies may have more than one branch and there are now a total of 31 branches of the six societies, many operating in remote areas of the country. Activities undertaken by the individual branches include, illiteracy eradication, nursery classes, housekeeping, dressmaking and handicraft classes, art classes, child care advice, health education, vocational training projects, job placement programmes, religious education, welfare assistance, family advice, including mediation services, as well as a busy calendar of social, cultural and sporting activities. As part of efforts to revive the country's heritage, an environmental and handicrafts programme was instituted in 1978 at the Women’s Federation in association with the United Nations Development Programme and ministries of health, labour and social affairs.
In April 1998, Sheikh Zayed inaugurated the new premises of the Women's Federation in Abu Dhabi. The three story building, designed in a traditional Islamic style, occupies an area of 8,000 square meters and was built at a total cost of Dh 22 million. Social planning. The priority of the Women’s Federation in the early days was to help women emerge out of seclusion, use their leisure time to become literate, and acquire knowledge about the modern world in order to enable them to raise their family's standard of living. But today's goals are linked to comprehensive social planning in the country with a view to increasing social cohesiveness.
The Federation is involved in the first demographic survey of women and in the implementation of the resolutions issued by the 1995 women's summit in Beijing. The Federation is also engaged in health, education and social campaigns to raise the standard of living of UAE families. Sheikha Fatima has stressed the need to make further efforts to upgrade the standard of humanitarian and social services. She also called for priority to be given to the aged and disabled as part of the Women’s Federation strategy for 1999. The Federation is currently cooperating with the Marriage Fund’s efforts to provide support for the family unit.
International Women's Movement
UAE women have played an active role in the international women’s movement, always taking care to ensure that proper attention is paid to the recognition of the differences between religions, cultures and traditions. The UAE strongly believes that Islam offers guarantees for the position of women that can act as a useful example to the rest of the world. In keeping with this philosophy the UAE Women’s Federation has participated in all of the major international women’s conferences of the last couple of decades, beginning with that held in New Mexico, in 1975, followed by Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985, culminating in Beijing in 1995.
Seminars and Conferences
In addition the Women’s Federation has both participated in and organized numerous local and regional seminars on matters of particular importance to women and the family. The Federation is also a prominent member of the Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Coordination Committee, also chaired by Sheikha Fatima. In line with the Federation’s desire to spearhead the advancement of women, Techno sphere ‘99, a three-day conference to study the impact of science and technology on Arab women, was held at the Women’s Federation building in April 1999. Forty experts from 20 Arab countries participated. Recommendations were made and a draft strategy formulated to expand technological and vocational education for women in the Arab world. This strategy is to be submitted to the UNESCO conference on science and technology in Romania late in 1999.
The UAE also hosted the Arab Women's Week, honoring the Arab family and the Refugee Women Week addressing the problems of refugee women. The latter was organized in collaboration with the UAE Red Crescent Society, of which Sheikha Fatima is honorary chairwoman, and the UNHCR.
Women in Education
Educational opportunities, the real stimulus for emancipation and development, are now open to women at all levels in the UAE. The number of female students registered at UAE schools has increased 14-fold: statistics show that approximately 270,000 female students were registered in the academic year 1996–97 compared with 19,000 in 1972–73. Of the 14,104 students attending local universities in the 1996–97 academic yea r, 11,125 were female and 2,979 we re male. The 1975 census lists 3,005 females with a first university degree or equivalent. By the 1995 census that figure had risen to a staggering 61,496. During the same period 18,564 women graduated from illiteracy eradication centers. Female students are also achieving impressive results in their studies, outstripping their male counter parts at every level. Sheikha Fatima has said that women have no choice but to excel in education to compensate for the years that they had endured without the light of knowledge.
Women in Employment
This avid embrace of educational opportunities has given UAE women a chance to participate in the development of their society alongside men. Today UAE women are making their presence felt in society as civil servants, university professors, teachers, lawyers, engineers, doctors, under secretaries, business women, administrators, media and as members of the police force and the army. Despite the major advances, however, more needs to be done. For example, there remains a need to increase the apparent unwillingness of some well-educated women to take up employment. In 1985 females constituted 9.6 per cent of the labour force, by 1995 this figure had risen only to 11.7 per cent. In part, studies have shown that this is due to custom and tradition while economic prosperity also means that employment is a matter of choice, rather than of necessity. T h e re are also indications that the educational qualifications obtained by many of the UA E ’s women are not always those most in demand in the job market. A significant number of UAE women also cease working after marriage and bearing children, partly because of an insufficiency of childcare centers and partly because of the well-founded belief that maternal care is likely to be more beneficial for their children. Another problem that has been identified is the need for women to take up employment in a wider range of professions. Although barriers have begun to crumble in recent years, there is still a strong emphasis on the health and education sector. Civil Service Commission figures show that in 1996 44.3 per cent of federal government employees were women. In the same period over 65 per cent of teachers were female.
Maternity Leave
To address some of the issues discouraging women from working the Federal National Council approved a law governing maternity leave in February 1999. The FNC revised the text of Article 55 to give women entitlement to three months’ maternity leave with full pay. On motherc a re and childhood issues, the Council has said that a woman would be entitled to five separate periods of maternity leave during her employment. The law stipulates that a woman is also entitled to nine months' leave in total to look after her newborn child, comprising three months with full pay and six months at half pay.
Humanitarian Award
Sheikha Fatima received the Humanitarian Personality of the Year award for 1998 at a glittering function in Dubai. The award was presented by Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum, wife of General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, in the presence of a number of women leaders from the Arab world, including Queen Rania, wife of King Abdullah of Jordan Princess Sarah Al Saud from Saudi Arabia and Sheikha Latifa, wife of Kuwait's Crown Prince. Wives of Their Highnesses Members of the Supreme Council and Rulers of the Emirates we re also present. The ceremony was organized by the Rashid Paediatric Therapy Center (RPTC) under the patronage of Sheikha Hind to confer the award, instituted by the RPTC, on the UAE's First Lady.
Sheikha Fatima had already received the United Nations Shield in 1986 from the UN Population Fund and in December 1997, in recognition of her achievements, she had the unique honor of being presented with simultaneous accolades and awards of recognition by five organizations of the UN system. The ceremony publicly acknowledged Sheikha Fatima’s leadership of the women’s movement for over a quarter of a century and by so doing represented an expression of recognition and commendation from the UN system for the UAE Government and its people.
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