Forbes Arabia shines light on role of women

The event, titled 'An Evening with Forbes Arabia,' will be held on Monday, March 27, 2006, at the Mina A'Salam hotel at the Madinat Jumeirah resort in Dubai, and will feature presentations by four leading businesswomen from around the region and a moderated debate between the speakers and audience members.

The keynote speakers for the evening include Raja Al Gurg, head of the Easa Al Gurg Group of Companies, President of the Federation of the UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry Businesswomen's Committee and one of the UAE's leading businesswomen; Dr. Nahed Mohammed Taher, the first CEO of Gulf Investment Bank and the first Saudi Arabian woman to head a bank in the Gulf region; Suhair Al Ali, the Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and the former general manager and country officer of Citigroup in Jordan; Ibtehaj Al Ahmadani, executive manager of the Al Ahmadani Group and Secretary-General of the Qatari Businesswomen Forum; and Elham Hassan, senior country manager of Pricewaterhouse Coopers' Bahrain office and the first Bahraini to become a U.S. Certified Public Accountant.

The five businesswomen will speak individually on the subject, and will then participate in a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Sulaiman Al-Hattlan, Editor in Chief of Forbes Arabia. The high-profile event is sponsored by Damas, Mercedes, Sony and CNBC.

The role of women and their empowerment and participation has long been identified as a make-or-break factor for Arab economies, most recently in the World Economic Forum's 2005 Arab Competitiveness Report.

Encouraging and facilitating women's participation in economic and political life will not only benefit Arab societies in their entirety, but also bolster their ability to face the post-9/11 economic and political realities that pose challenges to the region, WEF analysts concluded.

"It is important that not only governments but also the people of the region recognize that women are not only capable, but a vital force for development,"

said Dr. al-Hattlan.

Women's empowerment has a mixed track record in the Gulf countries, with substantial improvements in some quarters in the last few years. With the exception of Saudi Arabia, for example, all member states in the GCC countries have at least one female minister. Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE have also made groundbreaking progress on this front, with the new UAE federal cabinet appointing no less than two women to ministerial level.