Jordan Times
Friday, August 20, 2004
Women's NGOs to be connected
electronically by year-end
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — Local women's Nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs) will be connected
electronically by the end of this year thanks to a project initiated by a
women's organisation in June 2004.
“We have established Al Musawah (equality) Centre for Women so that it can be a
place to gather the efforts and expertise of women NGOs,” the project
coordinator, Laila Hamarneh, said.
Hamarneh told The Jordan Times in a recent interview that the plan also includes
establishing an electronic network that would include around 50 local women
NGOs.
“Each NGO that will be part of our network will have its own webpage in Arabic
and English,” Hamarneh explained. The aim of the network, according to Hamarneh,
is to exchange information on women's status and their rights.
The project, funded by the EU, aims to empower women and apply international
conventions related to women, particularly the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women, Hamarneh said.
She added that the project's plan is to issue a monthly electronic bulletin that
would shed the light on a specific problem related to women in Jordan and allow
NGOs to make suggestions and solutions.
One of the issues expected to be tackled on the network is the women's quota,
Hamarneh said.
“We plan to have an extensive discussion about the women's quota, how effective
it was in the current elections and whether we need to look into a new quota
system or not,” Hamarneh said.
Six women were elected to the 14th Parliament via a quota that was introduced by
the government.
However, many women's groups were not content with the quota because it failed
to achieve equality among the women who ran in various governorates.
Other issues to be addressed include laws that discriminate against women and
related social issues.
Senator Laila Sharaf inaugurated the centre in June, which is located at the
Arab Women's Organisation.
“We are currently in the preliminary stages of the project and expect it to be
up and running by the end of the year,” Hamarneh said.