Abulaziz Al-Suwaigh
Some people are hostile towards women and deprive them of their legal rights. They even speak lies about women and try to convince the general public that women are of a lower status and less important than men. Unfortunately, men dominate societies in most Arab countries, something that is obvious to outside observers.
An Egyptian newspaper conducted a survey about this issue and asked many fathers and mothers and their sons and daughters whether girls were like boys. By asking this question, the newspaper sought to find out whether girls could play as effective a role as boys within a family and within society and whether girls are useless. To my surprise, the survey concluded that girls are not as good as boys and are considered useless. Even female respondents who participated in the survey agreed that boys were better and more capable than girls.
In fact, women have the same abilities and capabilities as men. The International Labor Organization (ILO) recently published a report entitled “Women at Work: Trends 2016.” According to the report, women work longer hours than men across all sectors. In countries with high and low income per capita, women do more housework and farming chores than men and are poorly remunerated for their work.
The report concludes that inequality among men and women continues to be seen across all labor sectors. Despite the progress made by women in the field of education over the past two years, women’s employment opportunities have not improved.
There are still countless difficulties facing women who are looking for better jobs. The report called on countries to exert greater effort to guarantee equal treatment of women.
