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18 Mar 2018
18 Mar. 2018 <br />
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Amman - The Jordan Media Institute (JMI) hosted a Knowledge Seminar for the Women as Partners in Progress (WPP) project, which aims at promoting leadership skills of women in the Middle East and North Africa to increase their influence in society and access to decision-making positions. The project focuses on Morocco, Kuwait, and Jordan. The Knowledge Seminar, conducted by by World of Letters, will start by looking at statistics on women, such as labor force, political participation, education and others. Then, it will identify obstacles to women empowerment and explore solutions to these obstacles.<br />
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The Knowledge Seminar brings together 30 women leaders who can make change from all over the Kingdom. Mayyada Abu-Jaber, director of the World of Letters, said that "the project aims at attracting influential women from all areas to conduct an analysis of the data, statistics, and issues related to gender in a number of fields and the status of women and then try to look at the gap of lack of women progress in these fields".<br />
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Dr. Reem Zoubi, academic at Al al-Bayt University who is taking part in the seminar, said that "the seminar is an embodiment of the notion of decision-making so that women will be partners in it and in influencing the mechanisms of its implementation".<br />
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Lina al-Tal, director of the National Center for Culture and Arts, said that "the seminar is rich in knowledge, especially since it contains data that shows diversity in women participation in the labor market and in education. The data shows that Jordanian women have the highest education in the Arab countries, but the lowest participation in the labor market".<br />
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She said: "This should make us work more to increase the participation of Jordanian women in the labor market and to amend legislation that limits women empowerment and participation. We should also change the prevailing negative attitudes toward the role of women in society and promote the concept of equality".<br />
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Dr. May Rihani, director of the project and professor at the University of Maryland in the United States, said that "the university designated a professor for managing the project and developing the general structure, in cooperation with Jordanian women leaders, to make decisions on two key issues through discussions with the attendees and develop a detailed plan of action and a timeframe for its implementation." The head of the Gibran Chair at the University of Maryland added that the project aims at "empowering women and improving their conditions and seeking their advancement in society in the world in general, and not only in the Arab world".<br />
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Dr. Basim Tweissi, dean of the JMI, had earlier welcomed the participants in the project. He explained the role of the JMI in supporting building the capacities of Jordanian women in media, communication, and development. The JMI has developed its own gender policy and conducted research in this field. The JMI also launched the first Arab platform for women experts for the benefit of the media, which is the "Khabirat Jordan" portal.<br />
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The project will last for a year and a half in three stages, in cooperation with the University of Maryland and the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).