Arab women’s entry into the political arena is not without its difficulties. With the lowest regional average of women Members of Parliament in the world, the Arab world ranks at 3.5% only, according to the statistics from the Inter-Parliamentary Union. As such, Arab women face a number of challenges:

• Economy: Poverty and illiteracy are still features of the majority of women, and as such constitute significant stumbling blocks in their attempts to spread awareness and the necessary opportunities for social and political development;
• Culture: Many mind-sets in the Arab word remain fixed on certain unchanging notions of a ‘woman’s place’, and many of the existing political institutions reflect a male-dominated and male-oriented culture as well;
• Freedom of Association: Laws governing this feature, as well as related organisational concerns within the non-governmental sector, and the necessary networking skills among NGOs and politicians, still constitute stumbling blocks for developments;
• Political Parties: The role played by political parties remains in need of re-evaluation and revamping by the parties themselves. In many instances, some of these political parties perpetuate (and mirror) the same technical and operative difficulties faced by large regimes and bureaucracies. The support of political parties for their women members needs to be systematically strengthened and encouraged.
• The Media: The role the media plays in promoting women politicians is still highly problematic. Mirroring all the prejudices in society is unhelpful for women wishing to further their political careers. To that end, increased networking and training for women politicians with media personnel remains a need.

The paper then goes on to briefly present the mechanisms which enhance women’s legislative presence, looking specifically at aspects such as the need for a ‘critical mass’ in various political institutions generally and in parliament particularly; the arguments for and against quotas (reserved seats); and the impact of different electoral systems operating in the Arab world today.

Bringing in a comparative international dimension, the paper presents a table outlining various mechanisms for women to enhance their legislative performance. These mechanisms revolve around ‘the Rules strategy’ and its three main pillars: learning the rules, using the rules, and changing the rules. The idea being that a number of rules – written and unwritten – govern a great deal of the interaction within and without parliaments. Women MPs are immediately either directly or more subtly confronted with these rules in their every-day job. The need to understand what these rules are therefore, and the need to be able to use them for their own benefit become extremely important tools in the process of making an impact on the parliamentary process. The Table indicates various step-by-step suggestions for women MPs to use – at their discretion – in order to achieve their desired aims.

The final section of this paper looks at the role that international organisations can play – particularly the UN - to promote women’s political participation. A number of suggestions are made relating to the need to
- assist in enhancing democratisation endeavours;
- facilitate access to knowledge/information and technology;
- encourage concerted efforts to collect more gender-segregated data;
- provide training and know-how, promote further necessary research, and last but not least, linking economic and political co-operation with specific remuneration schemes for men and women MPs.

The paper concludes by arguing that Arab women politicians in general, and MPs in particular, need to critically assess the progress they have made thus far, such that they can collate the lessons learned from their experiences, while setting themselves some very clear targets for the future.
Ends.
Azza Karam
Belfast, October 1999.