BEIRUT: A women’s training center was launched Friday in Baabda under a national plan to empower women economically, socially and politically.
“The center will organize consecutive sessions to train women in different fields in order to enhance their capabilities and bridge the gaps that still obstruct their path to equal participation with men,” said Dr. Fadia Kiwan, a board member of the National Committee for Lebanese Women.
Kiwan added that such gaps are the result of blatant discrimination against women found in laws and in people’s outdated mindset and social behavior.
The new center, which was established by the commission in collaboration with the Alwaleed Bin Talal Humanitarian Foundation, was inaugurated in a ceremony Friday.
Among the attendees attending the ceremony were former first lady Mona Hrawi, the commission’s vice president Randa Berri, former ministers Leila Solh Hamadeh and Mona Ofeish, and several political, diplomatic and social figures.
First lady Wafaa Sleiman, who heads National Committee for Lebanese Women, called for ending the marginalizing of women, and expressed her support for their active participation in public and political life.
According to Sleiman, the commission had previously launched a national campaign to remove gender-discriminatory provisions of laws related to economic activity, as well as a national campaign to encourage women to run in parliamentary and municipal elections.
The plan involves amending laws in a bid to fulfill all women’s rights as citizens, strengthening women’s opportunities in education, health services, work, and political participation, as well as protecting women from all forms of violence.
At the ceremony, Solh condemned what she called Arab governments’ disregard for the rights of women over the past decades, despite governments’ claims to the contrary.
“When popular uprisings began in some Arab states, we noticed that women were present at the forefront of the uprisings and their cries were urgent because behind them lies years of social repression,” Solh said.
Solh also affirmed that the Alwaleed Bin Talal Humanitarian Foundation would support the commission launching the center and work to establish other centers in Lebanon.
“We have a lot of work that awaits us,” Sleiman said, “especially when we face new obstacles that may cause us to feel bitterness such as the complete absence of women in the new Cabinet.”
Sleiman reasserted the committee’s demand to enact the draft law to outlaw domestic violence and stressed the need to issue a new nationality law which would allow Lebanese women to transfer their nationality to their foreign husbands and children.
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