By TARIQ KHONJI
Published: 18 September 2006
THE Bahrain Women’s Union is planning to step up its programmes now that its nine-member board has been elected after six years of struggle to get it officially recognised by the government.
Founding member Fatima Rabea said that although it was a long ride, she was glad that the union was established the way that the members wanted it to be.
“Now we will work hard to make up for the lost time, although we have launched some programmes informally, including our political empowerment programme, personal status law campaign, our anti-violence drive against women activities and our campaign to make the government recognise the children of Bahraini women married to foreigners as Bahraini nationals.
By TARIQ KHONJI
Published: 18 September 2006
THE Bahrain Women’s Union is planning to step up its programmes now that its nine-member board has been elected after six years of struggle to get it officially recognised by the government.
Founding member Fatima Rabea said that although it was a long ride, she was glad that the union was established the way that the members wanted it to be.
“Now we will work hard to make up for the lost time, although we have launched some programmes informally, including our political empowerment programme, personal status law campaign, our anti-violence drive against women activities and our campaign to make the government recognise the children of Bahraini women married to foreigners as Bahraini nationals.
“We will continue these programmes, but we expect to be able to accomplish much more now that all stakeholders, including government bodies, will be able to deal with the union as a legal entity,” added Ms Rabea.
Sixteen women stood as candidates, and the nine with enough votes to get seats on the board were Mariam Al Rowaie (80 votes), Ms Rabea (73), Fatima Al Kooheji (70), Feryal Al Sairafi (61), Fareeda Darwish (64), Ibtihaj Al Arrayedh (63), Fowzia Rasheed (54), Marriam Al Shetty (47) and Ghaniya Alaiwi (41).
A total of 107 of the union’s 120 members attended the election on Saturday.
The board will have its own meeting shortly to distribute titles. The union was officially recognised by the Social Development Ministry on August 2, ending six years of legal wrangling.
The ministry had originally wanted the union to insert a clause into its internal bylaws stating that it did not represent all women, but only the societies that are a part of it.
It also didn’t want the union to engage in any kind of political activity, stating that it’s political empowerment programme was against the societies law.
A High Civil Court decision in March found that he government had been acting illegally in withholding the society licence and the ministry decided to recognise the society rather than appeal.
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