Arab first ladies began arriving Saturday to attend an Arab Women's Summit, which is scheduled to begin Sunday in Cairo, according to reports.
Egyptian First Lady Suzan Mubarak will head the extraordinary two-day summit in which she will announce the creation of the Arab Women’s Organization within the Arab League.
Earlier, the Arab League Council agreed at the ministerial level to establish the organization as a governmental body to enhance cooperation between Arab countries in developing and improving the conditions of women.
A committee chaired by National Women’s Council member Mustafa Al Faki is currently preparing a proposal on the proposed organization, to be presented to the upcoming summit for discussion and endorsement.
“The summit will assert the initiative of the Jordan’s Queen Rania Al Abdullah, who is expected to arrived in Cairo, regarding the establishment of a mechanism within the framework of the Arab Women’s Organization to look after Arab women abroad. This is to enhance the continuity between female Arab expatriates and their homelands,” Egyptian press reports said.
The National Women’s Council secretary general, Farkhanda Hasan, has been quoted as saying that the extraordinary summit came as a result of previous summit resolutions.
“Because the year 2001 is the year of the Arab woman, it has been decided to hold the extraordinary summit meeting in November. The Cairo declaration issued by the first summit headed by Mrs. Mubarak called for the establishment of an executive committee to prepare for the summit through forums that would tackle women’s issues. Within this framework, the women and law forum was held in Bahrain last April, followed by the women and politics forum in Tunisia on June 1, 2001 and the expatriate women’s forum in Amman on September 30, 2001,” added Hasan.
The Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's wife Soha, Laila Ben Ali of Tunisia, Sudan's Fatima Al-Bashir and the consorts of the emir of Bahrain, Sabiqa Al-Khalifa, and the Kuwaiti crown prince, Sheikha Latifa have all arrived in Cairo, AFP reported, citing Egypt’s official news agency (MENA) – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
