Middle East | Qatar | Politics

Taliban meets with women’s rights activists, others after talks with Afghan officials collapse

The sudden cancellation of eagerly awaited talks between Taliban officials and Afghan leaders, planned to begin last Friday in Qatar, seemed a stunning reversal in slow-going efforts to bring a peaceful negotiated end to the 17-year Afghan war. As it turned out, the moment did not go entirely to waste. On Saturday, about 20 Afghan emigres from Europe and the United States, including three women, privately met Taliban representatives in Doha, the Qatari capital. They said they spoke for more than six hours with the group’s chief negotiator, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, and a dozen other

Middle East | Qatar | Politics

Taliban team at Afghan peace talks in Qatar to include women: spokesman

Source: Reuters

Women will be included for the first time in the Taliban delegation to peace talks in Qatar this month, the movement’s main spokesman said on Monday, ahead of the latest round of meetings aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan. For a group notorious for its strictly conservative attitude to women’s rights, the move represents a step towards addressing demands that women be included in the talks, intended to lay the foundations for a future peace settlement.

Middle East | Qatar | Leadership

Four Qataris make it to top 100 most powerful Arab women index

Source: Doha News

Health minister Dr. Hanan Al Kuwari and three other Qatari women are among the world’s 100 most powerful Arab women of 2016, according to a newly released index. Likely because of her recent promotion to the Cabinet, Al Kuwari moved up to 12th place in the CEO Middle East magazine rankings of the top influential women from the region, eight spots higher than last year. She is joined by powerful Qatari women from the entrepreneurship, finance and technology sectors. That includes former ictQatar Minister Dr. Hessa Al Jaber, who is 37th place, the CEO of QNB Capital Mir

Middle East | Qatar | Education

In Qatar, Michelle Obama delivers pointed message on women’s rights

Source: CNN

First lady Michelle Obama told a conference in Qatar Wednesday that it's time to confront ingrained cultural oppression of women, insisting that men also take up the cause of promoting girls' education in their societies. "We cannot address our girls' education crisis until we address the cultural norms and practices that devalue women's intelligence, that silence their voices, that limit their ambitions," Obama said at an international education conference held in Doha, the capital of the Arab Gulf nation. Obama was speaking midway through a five-day trip to the region promoting her "

Middle East | Qatar | Society

Ridiculous: Qatar court fines four women for beating up relative at wedding

Source: Doha News

A misdemeanor court in Doha has ordered four women to pay QR5,000 ($1,373) each for beating a fellow guest at a wedding, Al Raya reported on Friday. According to the newspaper, the women and the victim turned the event (which only had female guests) into a “wrestling ring,” after an argument between relatives escalated into a fistfight. The newspaper did not specify when the incident took place, but stated that those involved in the altercation apparently used knives and forks on the tables and “anything they could get their hands on” to attack each other.

Middle East | Qatar | Culture

Qataris elect two women for first time

Source: Manila Bulletin

Qataris have for the first time voted two women in to the Gulf emirate’s only directly elected body, the Central Municipal Council, officials announced on Thursday. Sheikha Jufairi and Fatma Al-Kuwari both won seats in Wednesday’s election to the 29-member council, which has advisory but no legislative powers. Elections director General Majed Ibrahim al-Khulaifi confirmed that it was the first time in the emirate’s history that two women had been elected. “I broke the spirit of tribalism and votes for the family,” said a jubilant Kuwari. “As the second woman to ente

Middle East | Qatar | Culture

Call for quotas for women as Qatar holds rare vote

Source: France 24

Qataris will have a rare chance to vote Wednesday as they choose candidates to sit on the country's only directly elected body, with calls growing to ensure more women are selected. Only one woman was elected onto the 29-seat municipal council at the last vote and out of 118 candidates this time, only five are female, one fewer than the number who stood in the first such election 16 years ago. Although the electorate of more than 23,000 people is split almost equally between men and women, the gender imbalance between the candidates is striking. "It would be very disappointing if agai

Middle East | Qatar | Education

Report: Literacy rate among Qatar women rises

Source: The Peninsula

The ratio of literate females in Qatar aged 15 to 24 years was higher than that of literate males in the same category during 2006-2013, shows the 2014 Millennium Development Goals report released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics. This ratio reached its highest level in 2006, jumping to 112 percent, due to state policies aimed at spreading education in all regions. According to statistical data, Qatar is very close to achieving gender equality in primary school enrolment rates, as the ratio of female to male students rose from 95 percent in 2006 to 96 percent in 201

Middle East | Qatar | Business

Qatar urged to increase women’s economic involvement

Source: Arabian Business

Qatar is struggling to boost women’s participation in the local economy, according to an official report. The country’s Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics has issued an update on how it is meeting a range of development targets for 2015 set by the United Nations. While Qatar has achieved many of the goals, the report said, it still faces challenges in encouraging women to play a more active role in the economy – despite having made progress in leveling the playing field for boys and girls in terms of access to education. “Even though the parity rate between the tw