Mubarak inaugurates first Arab women conference
Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, Head of the National Council for women, Saturday morning inaugurated the Arab Women Summit, the first of its kind.
The three-day conference is held under Mrs. Mubarak's auspices, with the participation of wives of Arab leaders who started to arrive in the Egyptian capital as of Friday.
Attending also are more than 400 woman leaderships of Arab parliamentarians, national voluntary action societies throughout the Arab world along with a number of researchers of the various Arab universities and research centres.
The conference is organized by the council, the Arab league council and Hariri foundation in Lebanon. It is held under the motto of "challenges of the present and prospects of the future. "
The convocation of the conference comes upon an initiative launched by Egypt's first lady to look into conditions of women in the Arab world.
The summit falls within the context of facing up to world challenges and responsibilities they impose on states and governments in addition to their negative effects on Arab women in general. Achieving this goal requires drawing up a strategy aiming at reactivating Arab women's role in standing up to those challenges.
Mrs. Mubarak stressed that this conference belongs to the decisive historical moments the Arab nation is going through at more than one level, pointing out that this gathering was convened in response to the challenges of these moments and incarnation of our hopes in realizing Arab solidarity.
Such solidarity is our way to confront risks threatening our Arab nation and to express our dream of a better tomorrow for Arab women in each and every Arab state, said Mrs. Mubarak.
We raise our voice in protest against the blatant injustice befalling the struggling Palestinian people and against the violations perpetrated against women and children in Palestine, she added.
This conference is meant to upgrade Arab women so that she would be more capable of soundly contributing to the development of their societies, said Mrs. Mubarak.
She elaborated that "we are looking at the concept of summit in its broad term that stops at no frontiers of official authorities or government posts, but rather surmounts it to all the women intellectual leaderships in our Arab world and the pioneers of political, economic, social and scientific activities therein. " We are aware that our nation has huge efficiencies that need to have their activities coordinated," she added.
Mrs. Mubarak further noted that the Arab women summit is extending an open invitation for each and every Arab woman in field, plant or office to exert efforts and provide a considerate international experience commensurate with their responsibilities and duties in participation in development.
Meantime, Morocco's Princess Lalla Meryem arrived Friday evening in Cairo to attend the first Arab women's summit opening here Saturday. Princess Lalla Meryem is accompanied by a large delegation, including the king's adviser Zoulikha Nasri, to the event organized by the Arab States League and the Egyptian national childhood council. The princess will be attending a fund-raising charity function Saturday night at one of Cairo palaces in solidarity with the Palestinian people with proceeds going to Palestinian women.