Interview with Ms. Amat Al Aleem Ali Alsoswa on the 2005 Arab Human Development Report

Amat Al Aleem Ali Alsoswa (Yemen) serves as Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Director of its Regional Bureau for Arab States. Ms. Alsoswa is the former Minister for Human Rights in Yemen and former ambassador of Yemen to Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. From 1997 to 1999, she was Undersecretary at Yemen’s Ministry of Information. She directs 500 UNDP staff covering the 17 country offices in the Arab Region, as well as the country office representing the Palestinian territories. As head of UNDP’s Arab States Bureau, she developed the Arab Human Development Report, which was published in the spring of 2006. A strong advocate for democracy and women’s access to ICTs, she led the Yemeni Women’s Union, has worked as a consultant to UNDP and its sister agencies, and has published and lectured widely. Ms. Alsoswa holds a BA in mass communications from Cairo University and an MA in international communications from American University, Washington, DC.

WLP: The report claims conditions for women in Arab countries have not considerably advanced. Who/what systems have failed in these attempts to advance women’s issues?

Ms. Alsoswa: The latest Arab Human Development Report takes on board the realization that Arab women have indeed taken great strides over the last few decades, and yet more effort is needed for the comprehensive and full realization of their rights and human development simultaneously.

Arab women have a legacy of achievements (in social and natural sciences, literary and artistic creativity, social and political activism, business entrepreneurship, and athletics), that should not be forgotten even when noting important remaining challenges at the political (e.g. under-representation in decision-making), social (e.g. less access to education and violence against women), economic (poverty and its impact and the rise of female-headed households), cultural (mindsets and mentalities that still see women as less capable; interpretations of religion that are dogmatic and/or rigid), and legal (inherent bias in some laws and the lobbying for CEDAW) levels.

The Report notes that the obstacles for the advancement of women are varied, and include:

• Low economic participation, with causes that “include but are not confined to” the prevailing male culture, employment and wage discrimination between the sexes, and high reproductive rates.
• Laws hindering women, including those designed for their “protection,” such as personal status and labour legislation, which also restrict women’s freedom by requiring a father’s or a husband’s permission to work, travel or borrow from financial institutions.
• Moreover, the lack of women’s empowerment is an issue not so much about religion as it is religious culture. Religious culture is not based on scripture per se but actually based much more on customs and traditions which are zealously guarded by certain male authorities, and which ingrains and perpetuates a discriminatory perspective and treatment of women.

WLP: Why do you think some countries, such as Morocco, Bahrain and Iraq have had more success in advancing women’s positions in politics?

Ms. Alsoswa: That question is to be disputed. Morocco has certainly had significant success in coming up with a more gender sensitive Personal Status Code (Family Laws), and this is due in large measure to strong support from the top leadership/governmental levels, as well as a concerted civil society-wide struggle that has involved a wide variety of opinion-makers (cultural, as with religious leaders; academic and political figures).

However, to say that Bahrain or Iraq have ‘had more success in advancing women’s positions in politics’ is problematic or inaccurate. The overall political context needs to be taken into account in such descriptions and in Iraq, the presence of women in government is not a new phenomenon but in fact, a tradition. The difference today is that while the constitution grants them relatively better rights than under the Saddam regime, they, together with the entire population, lack the security essential to practice these rights. In Bahrain, women obtained the right to vote very recently – relative to other Arab countries – and have yet to be visible in anything nearing a critical mass, in any political decision-making position.

WLP: How much does conflict in the region hamper women’s development?

Ms. Alsoswa: The Report notes that grievous abuses occurred under foreign occupation where women often bore the brunt of this decline especially since deteriorating humanitarian conditions often also entail the spread of lawlessness and rape, and hardships brought on by the separation of male breadwinners from their families during conflicts or long periods of detention.

Tackling the lack of security and rising violence against women requires confronting reductions in women’s personal liberties by “inculcating an understanding that violence against women in all forms is a degradation of their humanity. It extends to the enactment of laws that criminalise violence against women and the provision by states and civil society of safe sanctuaries for women victims of violence”.

Clearly, ending the conflicts and ensuring that women are included in the negotiations processes and their specific needs and interests secured in post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation, in line with relevant international treaties and norms, are all equally important considerations.

WLP: How do you transform societies in which discrimination against women is so deeply entrenched in the culture?

Ms. Alsoswa: The Report presents a number of recommendations, including:

• The need for specialised scholars, to revive the interpretive traditions in the true spirit of Islam.
• Affording girls and women full opportunities to acquire essential capabilities in health and knowledge on an equal footing with boys and men. This is particularly true in the area of education, and the pivotal importance of reform in Arab education systems guarantee opportunities for girls to acquire knowledge and to utilise it, within and outside the family.
• Enabling girls and women to participate in all types of human activity outside the family on an equal footing with their male counterparts.
• Recognition of the appropriate social value of women’s role in the family as an indispensable contribution to the establishment of a sound social structure capable of supporting a project for the renaissance of the Arab world.

WLP: What are your recommendations for Arab governments in response to this report?

Ms. Alsoswa: In line with the calls in previous Reports for comprehensive, rights-based societal reforms, the rise of Arab women entails:

• Total respect for the rights of citizenship of all Arab women;
• The protection of women’s rights in the area of personal status and family relations;
• Guarantees of total respect for women’s personal rights and freedoms, especially life-long protection from physical and mental abuse; and
• The temporary adoption of the principle of affirmative action in expanding the participation of Arab women to all fields of human activity according to the particular circumstances of each society.

WLP: What are your recommendations for Arab women in civil society in response to this report?

Ms. Alsoswa: The Report notes that Arab civil society needs to organize itself in a concerted and unified fashion, and with conviction, around the advancement of women as both a principle and a cause.

For this to take place, the Report advocates that women and men need to mobilize and work together – and that success stories of women’s advancement are very often examples of such positive collaboration.

Just as it is important for Arab society to realize that the advancement of women is part and parcel of a larger human development process, it is equally important for women to contextualize their struggle in an inclusive and strategic fashion.

WLP: What are your recommendations for Arab women and men in the Diaspora in response to this report?

Ms. Alsoswa: Arab women and men in the Diaspora are important ambassadors for their respective countries and for the region as a whole. The entire Arab human development series has made some reference to the important political, cultural and economic linkages that exist between internal and external factors, and the Arab Diaspora is certainly part of the external dynamic.

The role of the Diaspora is often subsumed under indicators of the region’s ‘brain drain’, or as the means of economic remittance. While these are important developments, there is a larger dynamic where some members of the Diaspora are constructive representatives and ambassadors at a time when Arabs are increasingly coming under negative scrutiny, and stereotypes are rampant.

WLP: Can you talk about the positive aspects the report outlines? Why do you think there have been strides made in education, for example, but not in the political sphere in some Arab countries?

Ms. Alsoswa: Arab women have a legacy of achievements (in social and natural sciences, literary and artistic creativity, social and political activism, business entrepreneurship, and athletics to name but a few).

In addition, they have come a long way in the fields of health (e.g. lower maternal mortality rates and relatively better access to basic health care) and education (higher rates of enrollment and academic achievement).

As to the political sphere, we should note that there are more women involved in politics today, across the region, than has ever been the case in the past 50 years. So gains have been made here.

Clearly, these gains are not sufficient. This has much to do with points mentioned earlier and related to an overall political context which is not conducive to human rights and democratic governance.

WLP: What are some positive women’s initiatives you can point to in the Arab world?

Ms. Alsoswa: The Report contends that even against immense odds, women remain catalysts for reform in Arab countries. Thousands of women have protested and won their right for legislative elections --- with women voters and candidates --- during the past few years in Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Women ministers have been appointed for the first time in several Arab countries – in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Bahrain (where two women have been appointed as Government Ministers) and Kuwait, a month following the granting of full political rights to Kuwaiti women in May 2005. All of these hard one gains in women’s rights were the results of decades of lobbying by generations of women's rights campaigners across the region.

Also:

• A larger, more active and visible civil society within each country and across the region, with better articulated objectives and evolving coherence.
• Increasing social commitment and contribution by the private sector to several development initiatives and causes.
• Increasing commitment on the part of certain governments to women’s concerns and their advancement.
• Larger cadres of highly qualified youth – several of whom (both men and women) are taking increasing initiative as entrepreneurs targeting their countries’.
• Oil wealth in some countries being targeted towards social initiatives and economic development programmes.

WLP: What are some positive women’s initiatives you can point to in the Diaspora?

Ms. Alsoswa: Generally speaking, there is a greater engagement of some members of the Diaspora in the articulation of the region’s needs and in the organisation around the provision of some of these needs through building of cultural, social and economic bridges.

The Arab Diaspora today includes women who have reached key decision making posts in important political, economic and cultural institutions around the world, and who have made a name for themselves in these professions, thereby doing all Arabs proud.

Therefore, the women in the Diaspora are evolving agents of change and the stronger their contributions and imprint, the larger the probability of constructive engagement between the countries they live in today, and the countries they (or their families) originated from.

WLP: As an Arab woman who holds a very respected and high-level position as the Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator of UNDP and Director of its Regional Bureau for Arab States, what advice do you have for Arab women aspiring to reach leadership positions?

Ms. Alsoswa: Getting to the leadership position is no longer the challenge it used to be – with hard work, commitment to clear objectives, and a strong network of contacts, the positions can be attained. What can be more challenging is making a difference in these positions that can touch the many lives of those who depend on us. This is not just a challenge to women, but to all who achieve positions of responsibility.