First Lady: “Social Cohesion, Peace Linked to Women’s Educational Level”
The First Lady: “Social cohesion and peace are linked to the educational level of women”
The First Lady, Dr Mariem Fadel Dah, has indicated that women have always been a source of inspiration and innovation, culturally, scientifically, and socially and stressed that girls’ education is a strong pillar of economic and social development.
In a speech she delivered Thursday on the occasion of her participation via videoconference in the official launch of an international seminar of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), the First Lady added that the societies where reign peace and harmony are those that have relied on the education of women.
She stressed that family stability, social cohesion, and peace are linked to the educational, social, and economic level of women and to their role in life and in public affairs, as well as to their responsibility in society.
Dr Mariem Fadel Dah explained that less than a third of those graduating from science and technology specialties are girls, which, she said, has a negative impact on the rate of representation of women in decision-making and policy-making spheres and on equal professional opportunities.
The First Lady noted that despite all these data, positive indicators have emerged, concrete progress has been made, and promising prospects are opening up for women, especially in the past decades, before stressing that women have played a decisive role in the fight against the coronavirus and its negative repercussions on health, social, economic, and psychological levels.
She further clarified that this meeting constitutes an opportunity to unify efforts, policies, and provisions to enshrine the concept of “the woman of the future” rather than that of “the future of women”, stressing that the forward-looking vision expected must arise from the woman herself in all her dimensions, her capacities, and her sources of inspiration.
The First Lady called on ISESCO to expand this laudable initiative to celebrate this year the woman with a five-year strategic plan and to work to define objectives in different terms of a global program “for the achievement of which all need to be involved, with the support of international institutions and national organizations”.