In collaboration with the Safadi Cultural Center, the Lebanese Council of Women and the Unified Women’s Committees in the North yesterday organized a dialogue talk entitled, ‘Women’s 33% minimum representation by seats and nominations in municipalities’. On the occasion, the president of the Committees, Neemat Kabbara, pressed for more support towards the women’s quota by the various Lebanese political parties and Lebanese citizens who expressed their willingness to vote for women in the recent municipal elections. Recalling, that nearly 44% of women candidates won in the elections, which reinforces chances to increase their number. Kabbara said that the adoption of the quota is a prerequisite for political participation, noting that this transitional step was adopted by most countries. For her part, the president of the Lebanese Council of Women, Maitre Iqbal Dughan, revealed that the Council is currently working to launch its national campaign for the ratification of the women representation quota by not less than 33% of the municipal seats. She stressed the need to focus on the municipal domain, which is considered the first stride, in terms of balanced numbers, achieved by women as far as political participation is concerned. “Should the quota be applied by one third in municipalities, we will have at least three to four thousand women participating in municipal work, hence we would have achieved a lion’s share in the development plan,” Dughan maintained. (NNA, October 8, 2019)
