In run-up to elections, women campaign for candidature

“Politicians want women as voters only,” said Rasheeda al-Hamdani, chairwoman of the National Women’s Committee, lamenting the decrease in the numbers of women nominated to run in upcoming elections to be held in September. In the 1993 elections, 48 women ran for parliamentary seats. Four years later, the number of female candidates fell to 23. In the last elections, held in 2003, the figure was further reduced to 11, only one of whom won the contest with her respective rival. By contrast, however, the number of women voters increased from 500,000 in 1993 to 1.5 million in 1997. Today, some 4 million women are registered to vote in the forthcoming presidential elections, according to al-Hamdani, who believes that women often fail to be nominated as parliamentary candidates because they lack the support of their respective parties. Al-Hamdani noted that female participation in political parties was largely confined to so-called “women’s sections”, which are segregated from the rest of the party membership. The exception to this rule has been the Communist Party, which has called for a 30 percent parliamentary quota for women. The party has practiced what it preaches, and 30 percent of its own party committee seats have been filled by females. In addition, the party recently elected a woman to the position of assistant secretary-general in a bid to “illustrate its seriousness about female participation in politics”, according to Ali al-Sarari, the party’s media spokesman. As the September polls draws near, women’s rights activists have continued to campaign for a parliamentary quota system. The ruling General Peoples’ Congress (GPC) has met these calls with a promise to nominate female candidates for 10 percent of the seats in parliament and for 15 percent of the seats on local councils. The GPC has also emulated the Communist Party by electing a woman as one of its four vice-presidents. According to head of the GPC’s media committee Tareq al-Shami, the ruling party was “the most genuine in supporting women’s participation in elections and in enforcing the quota system”. While some women’s groups have said that such statements represent little more than attempts at attracting the female vote, Minister of Human Rights Dr Khadeeja al-Haisami rates the participation of women in elections as “good” and “likely to expand further”. “Women aren’t only in parliament and local councils, but also in the Shura Council,” she said. “They act as presidential advisers, ministers, deputy ministers and ambassadors.” Al-Haisami went on to point out that there were currently 46 female officials in the office of the president alone, and at least 14 women general managers. Most importantly, the government has reserved two ministerial portfolios – social affairs and human rights – for women. According to Fatima al-Huraibi, secretary-general of the Al-Tahreer Local Council, Yemeni women were now broadly accepted in national political life. She cited the success of three women who currently occupy the position of secretary-general in three different local councils, including that of the capital, Sana’a. AO/AR/AM