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The Beginning of a Fruitful Journey |
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Alaa Malhas - AlJazeeraTalk - Beirut
 She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005, and a distinguished practitioner in the field of women’s rights in the Arab world. Haifa Abu Ghazaleh is a woman like many who strives towards gender equality. She is a woman who worked all her life through, in achieving her goals.
Abu Ghazaleh held several prominent positions as a starter such as, the Advisor to the Ministry, and the General Director for Foreign Relations at the Ministry of Education in Jordan. Moving to, the Arab Region Focal Point for the United Nations for the NGO forum on Women in Beijing 1995, where she won the national elections as the President of the General Federation of Jordanian Women in 1993, and last but not least reaching Unifem. Based in Jordan, Abu Ghazaleh is a Regional Programme Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Arab States office. And the work she does to further goals and aspirations is primarily undertaken through her position, a post she held since 1998.
Throughout her work as Regional Programme Director (RPD) at Unifem, Abu Ghazaleh has developed programs and projects in the Arab world, supporting issues such as peace, domestic violence, women’s rights and political participation.
For many female politicians, decision-makers, less-skilled women and students, Abu Ghazaleh has fought to empower them to participate in the economic, social and political activities that affect them.
“The situation for Arab women has improved slightly in all spheres of public and private life,” Abu Ghazaleh commented adding that,
“As a result, Arab women occupy 6.4 per cent of seats in parliament compared to 15.1 per cent in Asia, and 12.3 per cent in the Pacific region.”
Women’s rights have entered the agendas of numerous NGOs and governments, which are slowly introducing legislative changes. In Jordan, for example, an amendment to Article 340 of the penal code was introduced in December 2001. The amendment cancels an exemption from punishment for men who kill female in relations to who are found committing adultery. Abu Ghazaleh too has advocated amending the Jordanian Medical Insurance Laws to better represent the interests of women, and to include children in their medical insurance.
In Lebanon also, the work of the National Commission for Lebanese women as well as NGOs contributed to legislative changes introduced to the labor law and the penal code in 1999 and 2001. Changes in the labor law have included an increase in the period allowed for maternal leave from 40 days to seven weeks, the prohibition of women’s dismissal due to pregnancy, and the granting to female employees of equal benefits and privileges.
Concerning governments in the region taking their legal commitment under the Conviction on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), seventeen Arab countries have signed or ratified it.
“Only most Arab countries don’t go beyond the signature, despite their obligations to ensure the full implementation of CEDAW and the adoption of its articles,” Abu Ghazaleh commented sadly.
Abu Ghazaleh believes in networking as a form of resource mobilization to continue striving towards gender equality.
“I believe in my capabilities and myself,” she said,
“And this pushes me forward to achieve my dreams in protecting and enhancing women’s rights.”
The rights of women in the Arab region are constantly violated. Women are still deprived of exercising their basic rights due to unawareness of these rights or simply because of weak monitoring systems to ensure the realization of their rights, that is what Haifa Abu Ghazaleh based her belief on.
By translating these dreams into realities, Abu Ghazaleh has affected the lives of women, from Jordan, throughout the Arab world, and across the globe. Abu Ghazaleh has ended her journey by leaving Unifem to begin a new one as a Senator to the Jordanian Upper House of Parliament for its fifteenth session on December 2, 2007, and as a General Secretary to the Family council for Family Affairs on December 17, 2007.
Through the beginning of this journey, Abu Ghazaleh will make sure that her future work on issues related to social justice, peace and gender equality would continue to be basis to her dreams and beliefs.
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