BEIRUT, Jul 6, 2011 (IPS) - Following five months of bitter political wrangling, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati finally announced a new government in mid-June. But while many Lebanese feel relieved over the long overdue appointments, gender equality campaigners despair that there is not a single female among 30 ministers appointed to the new Cabinet. It has further ruffled activist feathers that this glaring omission has failed to elicit the condemnation they are demanding.
"I have to confess I was not expecting the number of women to increase but I was certainly not expecting women to disappear completely," says Lina Abou-Habib, executive director of the Lebanese gender equality organization, the Collective for Research and Training on Development - Action (CRTD- A). She tells IPS the announcement of the new Cabinet line-up was met with "shock and horror" from fellow activists. Yet even after more than two weeks, the absence of women has been almost universally ignored by the local and international media.
For more information, visit IPS
BEIRUT, Jul 6, 2011 (IPS) - Following five months of bitter political wrangling, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati finally announced a new government in mid-June. But while many Lebanese feel relieved over the long overdue appointments, gender equality campaigners despair that there is not a single female among 30 ministers appointed to the new Cabinet. It has further ruffled activist feathers that this glaring omission has failed to elicit the condemnation they are demanding.
"I have to confess I was not expecting the number of women to increase but I was certainly not expecting women to disappear completely," says Lina Abou-Habib, executive director of the Lebanese gender equality organization, the Collective for Research and Training on Development - Action (CRTD- A). She tells IPS the announcement of the new Cabinet line-up was met with "shock and horror" from fellow activists. Yet even after more than two weeks, the absence of women has been almost universally ignored by the local and international media.
For more information, visit IPS