Gender equality experts and advocates at a Feb 24 webinar titled: “Women Making an Impact in the Middle East to Create a Better World”. The event was jointly organized by the United Arab Emirates Consulate in Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong Gender Studies Programme. The speakers featured were Nourah Gargash, Manager of Women’s Pavilion, Expo 2020 Dubai, and Lana Farouki, Head of Women’s Pavilion, Cartier MENA while Sheikh Saoud Almualla, the UAE Acting Consul General in the HKSAR, gave his opening remarks. (SCREENSHOTS BY CHINA DAILY)
The COVID-19 pandemic derailed some of the hard-won progress in women’s advancement globally, but people could help contribute in their own way to help reverse the trend, a webinar heard on Feb 24.
“COVID-19 has taken us 20 years back with our progress. It’s something we need to address quickly,” said Nourah Gargash, manager of Women’s Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Expo 2020 Dubai kicked off in October last year and is running until March after a year’s delay due to the COVID-19 outbreak
She noted that many frontliners working to combat COVID-19 are women, who also also have “invisible work” such as taking care of the family at home. She encouraged people to “make change from where you are right now” and reflect on why women were being affected the most by the pandemic.
Gargash was one of the experts who spoke at the webinar, titled “Women Making an Impact in the Middle East To Create a Better World”, was jointly organized by the United Arab Emirates Consulate in Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong Gender Studies Programme.
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Expo 2020 Dubai kicked off in October last year and is running until March after a year’s delay due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Women’s Pavilion was organized in partnership with Cartier, the French luxury conglomerate.
In his opening remarks at the webinar, Sheikh Saoud Almualla, the UAE acting consul general in Hong Kong, said the UAE has always been committed to empowering women, who are “the foundation of communities”. He noted that the UAE has nine cabinet minister members who are women.
Nourah Gargash, Manager of Women’s Pavilion, Expo 2020 Dubai, taking the attendees of the webinar on a short virtual tour of the standalone pavilion.
The acting consul general noted that the UAE ranked first regionally and 24th globally in the Women, Peace and Security Report 2021 released by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, a think tank in Washington.
“(In spite of) all these achievements, our work is not done, and the government cannot solve all the challenges alone. The collaboration of the private sector, civil society, and individuals are needed to give voices to the women and girls in the UAE and globally,” Almualla said.
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Another speaker, Lana Farouki, head of Women’s Pavilion, Cartier MENA (Middle East and North Africa), said her company formed a partnership with the Expo because they shared a similar vision of empowering women.
“Our purpose as a brand is (that) the woman is at the center and core of what we do. Both from a business standpoint, from an inspirational standpoint and toward our commitments as well to women,” said Farouki.
She said Cartier also realized the importance of the public sector and private sector working together.
“You speak to different people and show different opportunities from both ends of the subject. So, when a government supports women, and a private sector as well supports women, then you’ve reached the maximum of movement that you can as a country, but also our responsibility as a private sector and that is why we chose to collaborate,” said Farouki.
Gargash said women are at the forefront of the Expo itself and “the Women’s Pavilion is the product of that”. She also said the women’s pavilion was not just for women, but men allies and the youth, too .
Almualla, the UAE acting consul general, said the Women’s Pavilion was a powerful platform to promote gender equality and engage different stakeholders.
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Attendees of the webinar were given a brief presentation of the Women’s Pavilion, the first standalone pavilion dedicated to the gender in the World Expo’s history. It had the theme “When women thrive, humanity thrives”, to highlight and celebrate women’s impact in different fields.
The webinar was moderated by Elizabeth LaCouture, director of HKU Gender Studies Programme and Daiana Mazaripova, a HKU Gender Studies Student.
