Panelists:
On Saturday, Working Women Association (WWA) presented a
topic on working women in rural Sudan. Mainly the speakers were focusing on the
activities of their organization that was established in 1991 with the aim
"to improve vocational and intellectual competence of all working women in both public and private
sectors". It is important to
mention that WWA got an ECOSOC status in 2011; therefore, it was their first
time presenting at CSW. Nevertheless, my overall impression was that their
presentation was censored and controlled by the government.
First, because they were
providing general statements like "we are promoting gender equality, improving
conditions of women, organizing workshops, and seminars"; hence avoiding
concrete information on how and what exactly they are doing and what is the
real situation of working women in rural areas. Secondly, after they finished
their presentation and asked for the comments a lady from Sudan, who introduced
herself as a representative of the Ministry of Finance, took the stage and
talked for about 10 minutes on how Sudan is doing great in improving conditions
for working women. While she was very excited her colleagues from WWA seemed to
be very serious and somehow sad.
Next, when another lady from the auditorium asked the
panelists a question about their budget there was a minute of hesitation among
the presenters, as they started to discuss the question in their own language
with the lady from the Ministry of Finance, and their final answer was very unclear.
To conclude, the main message that was delivered by the WWA and
Sudanese government is that they are doing great in empowering women. However,
I really have a doubt if they represented a "real voice" of
women in rural areas of Sudan.
A lady from Ministry of Finance is making her comments
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