UAE taps bigger role of women in developing productive society

Vice President of UAE Gender Balance Council Mona Al-Marri met Saturday with the European-UAE Human Rights Working Group to enhance gender equality, the official media office of Dubai reported.

Al-Marri said that UAE's government believes in the power of women and the role that they can play in society.

"Our leadership supports women 100 percent," she said. "They believe a productive society has to utilize the talents and capabilities of women who take up around half of the UAE population."

She recalled the initiatives undertaken by the late UAE's President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan in promoting the development of women.

Without his efforts, she said, women would not have had the opportunities they have today.

Sheikh Zayed is the founding father of the UAE and became its first president on December 2, 1971 when he united seven sheikhdoms after the independence from the United Kingdom which ended the "trucial states" contract with them.

Al-Marri also stressed the role of Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union, in supporting women in education, society and business.

According to the figures conducted by the UAE Ministry of Education, over 70 percent of Emirati nationals in higher education institutions across the country are female.

Al Marri pointed out that the high level of women's participation in society shows those who have chosen the UAE as their home a perspective that is very different to the regional stereotypes portrayed in the media.

Earlier in the month, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has assigned the UAE Gender Balance Council to help address the "Gender Inequality Index", which is issued annually by the United Nations Development Programme.