No no, it’s not a joke, it’s real, and what’s even MORE real is that the Bahraini who is heading the GA is a woman!
The General Assembly elected a champion of women’s rights in Islamic courts as its next president on Thursday, making Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain the third female to lead the 191-nation U.N. body.
Haya, chosen without a recorded vote, takes up the presidency at the opening of the assembly’s 61st session on September 12. She succeeds Jan Eliasson, the Swedish foreign minister.
The one-year presidency rotates by region, with candidates put forward by U.N. regional blocs.
Haya, Bahrain’s first female diplomat and one of the first two Bahraini women to practice law in her country, has used her legal career to advance women’s rights under sharia law in Islamic family courts.
She began her legal practice three decades ago, focusing on diplomacy, international arbitration and dispute resolution as well as the status of women in the Middle East.
She has been an advocate of logical interpretation of Islamic texts as they apply to women in family courts, rather than on historical interpretations deemed as biased and potentially damaging to a woman’s status in such courts.
She heads her own law firm and is the legal adviser to Bahrain’s Royal Court. From 2000 to 2004 she served as Bahrain’s ambassador to France and as its nonresident ambassador to Belgium, Switzerland and Spain and as permanent delegate to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Haya has been closely associated with leading legal organizations globally including the International Bar Association, where she served as vice chairwoman from 1997 to 1999.
Only two women have served as General Assembly president before her, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India, who presided over the assembly’s eighth session in 1953, and Angie Brooks of Liberia, who led its 24th in 1969.
Reuters
Will good news not stop today? I hope not!
Comments
allow me to burst your bubble:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/08/bahrai13531.htm
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/08/bahrai13529.htm
This is really a good piece of news. Despite the UN’s bureaucracy and red tape, I hope that good things will come out of it.
What’s going on with appointing women in Bahrain? There was that judge a couple of days ago and now there’s this UN General Assembly head. Getting the General Assembly presidency has got to be a one off for a tiny country like Bahrain, so its kinda significant that they’ve used it to give it to a woman.
It’d be nice to think that the government doing this encourages people in Bahrain to more generally accept women’s equality – I know that a lot of Bahrainis tend to be very progressive, but it was a bit disappointing last year to see thousands of women taking to the streets to demonstrate against women’s rights. Obviously a long way to go for attitudes to catch up.
It’s great news. I’ll just post the link I posted earlier in the “Woman Judge” thread.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5060710.stm
I am with Anonymous number 2. let’s hope this will be a boost to women’s rights in Bahrain because now she is so visible. Plus, great role model for girls and women to see what possibly could happen with them. As for the women protesting against women’s rights in Bahrain..you gotta think that was staged somehow…
Ingrid
And the list of posts held by Al-Khalifas continutes to grow…
Thanks for the links anon.
This is really something – two major breakthroughs for women in Bahrain (and the Bahraini people as a whole) in less than one week!
Congratulations to Sheikha Haya and the people of Bahrain. It’s so good to see postive, international news for the country
And a message to anonymous. Sure, improvements can be made but we really don’t need a US body telling Bahrain what to do. There are problems in Bahrain but just remeber how the US had apartheid until the 1960’s
I’m in NYC at the moment – and walking in Manama at night is a lot less aggressive than here.
> Congratulations to Sheikha Haya and the people of Bahrain. It’s so good to see postive, international news for the country
May I ask why you decided to prefix her name with that title?
No, Hayder you may not because whatever answer I give you, it won’t be enough
Ok, Nostradamus.
Johnster, HRW is not a “US body”, it is a US-based international human rights group. HRW is one of the very few international groups who were speaking out about human rights in Bahrain when the government of Bahrain was terrorizing its people. When HRW issued its report in 1997 there were many like you who were saying “we don’t need foreigners telling us what to do”.
Johnster. As far as I can see HRW is equally critical of the US.
Bloody ell, I feel like opening at the Oval.
1) Anonymous – you have contracdicted yourselce. HRW is a “body” (ie organisation) and as you point out, it is headquartered in the US. Therefore, it is a US body
2) billT, that’s as may be but it does not validate or invalidate my comment
Next?
ps having a wonderful time in NYC – the MOMA “Party if the Garden” was something else