Empowering women in the UAE

Empowering women in the UAE

Nashwa Hamad (At Home) / 29 July 2013

The UAE has an excellent record in empowering its female citizens

When I hear the phrase, “Empowering women in the UAE”, I cringe. I’m against using this sentence whenever anyone is talking about empowering women in the UAE. I do believe, however, that empowering women in some parts of the world is a must. Before you go ahead and come up with a conclusion as to why am I a double standard person let me explain.
The definition of empowering is to invest with power, especially legal power or official authority. It also means to equip or supply with ability. The main points of women empowerment are gender equality, equal opportunities, nondiscrimination, health, safety, freedom from violence and education.
I get the call for women empowerment where women are unlucky and do not have any opportunity for a fair life. However, here in the UAE it is totally different. When the United Arab Emirates was first established, women were in need for empowerment. The UAE leaders were successful in all aspects when it comes to women. They introduced education to women and made it obligatory. They paid attention to women’s health, and last but not the least encouraged women to get into the workforce and work hand in hand with men for the better of 
our nation.
The success rate of their women empowerment effort is very obvious that it would be almost impossible to lay them all in one article, but to sum up those achievements lets start with education. There is no need to talk about the first 12 years of education since I’ve already established that it is mandatory. In 2011, 70 per cent of federal higher education institutes in the UAE consisted of women. This further proves the stress on the importance of education to female citizens.
The importance and benefits of women joining the workforce is clear and doesn’t require any explanation. In some parts of the world, gender in-equality and ceiling exists. This, however, is not evident in the UAE. Males and females have the exact and same opportunities and pays. The only part of the whole work law that isn’t equal is maternity leave and this is in favour of women.
Women play an important role in the bringing up of the new generations and the future builders of the country. Therefore, being healthy has and always will be important. Health care, including pre and post natal is part of the deal, flexible working hours after birth is also one of the most important advantages women here get. Not only will this give her more time to make sure her kids are healthy but also give her more time to raise them up in a proper way — making them better citizens. I believe that we have passed that era when the call for women empowerment was required, and its time to reap the benefits of what our nation has given us.
The writer is an Emirati