WOMEN: NGOs Stress Importance of Women's Work in Arab World

AMMAN, Nov 13 (IPS) - The role of women in assisting Palestine to achieve independence from Israel and to enable the fledging state to function at all was stressed forcibly at an Arab Women's non- governmental organisation (NGO) forum here in Amman.

Princess Basma Bint Talal of Jordan hosted the NGO forum, which acted as a forerunner to the Arab region women's preparatory meeting. The Princess underlined the importance of getting women involved in the decision-making processes in the often conservative male-dominated Arab world.

"We appear to have crossed the era when the Arab world was characterised by division and when our interests seemed to opposed -- when in fact they were not. We should now be imbued with optimism because we have the common aim of working together to improve the status of women in our Arab societies," Princess Basma said.

The three-day preliminary NGO conference took place last week and attracted some 900 delegates from the Arab world. The discussions were organised into 39 workshops by the Coordinating Office for the Arab Region for the Fourth World Conference on Women and the General Federation of Jordanian Women.

The NGO forum also enjoyed the sponsorship of UNIFEM and UNICEF. The recent Arab peace agreement with Israel prompted a number of NGO workshops here dealing specifically with matters such as 'Women and Security', 'Women's Role in Wars' and the 'Impact of Armed Conflicts on Women'.

Palestinian delegate to the three-day forum, Samiha Khalil, said: "We in Palestine know that without the women's struggle in our country and its organisation and resistance to Israel our nation would have been erased from the world map."

Khalil was supported by NGO delegates from Iraq and Lebanon who said that like Palestinian women they had helped to organise and maintain educational structures, assisted women to become food producers and ensured a regular supply of fresh water often under wartime conditions.

"We did not beg the West or even in the most severe circumstances accept food offered by the United States because we believe freedom must be taken and not simply given,"stressed another Arab NGO delegate.

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