Habib Toumi

Woman's elections poster: the husband's picture and the brother-in-law's name

An Iraqi woman running in the March elections has appealed to voters to back her up, but put the picture of her husband instead of her own on her campaign poster. She also identified her brother-in-law to capitalise on his name.

 “Elect the one who is part of you … Mrs Shadha Razzaq Al Sultani … Wife of Ahmad Shaikh Jassem … Brother of Shaikh Malek,” the woman, also known as Um Sajed, wrote on the poster next to the picture of her husband wearing a two-piece suit and a tie.

 The poster, posted on Iraqi websites, drew sarcasm and scorn from readers who wondered how the woman would attend the parliament sessions if she ever got elected.

Hamid Karzai and Abdallah Gul

Turkish President Abdallah Gül is expected to visit Afghanistan in spring to officially open 68 schools built by Turkey.

The schools are part of Ankara’s multi-dimensional aid programme for Kabul that encompasses education, health, agriculture and human resource development,” the Turkish Daily News reported, quoting unnamed sources.

Afghanistan’s education minister Faruk Wardak said that his country was keen on learning from Turkey’s religious vocational high schools. ‘By learning from their experiences, we will be able to achieve a balance in our own Islamic education system,’ he was quoted as saying.

“The modernization of Islamic education is one of the most crucial issues. I visited a few imam-hatip schools in Ankara and saw that they give a balanced education. Sixty percent of their curriculum is normal education, 40 percent is Islamic. I have asked Turkish officials to establish some imam-hatip schools in Afghanistan,” said Wardak. continue reading…

The world economic forum on the Middle East and North Africa will be held in Morocco in October, sources have said.

“The forum will be hosted by the government of Morocco on October 26-28 in Marrakech,” the sources told Gulf News.

Last year, Claus Schwab the president of the World Economic Form said that the sixth World Economic Forum on the Middle East would be held in the Moroccan city in May 2010. continue reading…

A vociferous lawmaker who has often waded into controversy with his peers and officials said that he would not be running for a third term this autumn.

“I would like to retire and devote myself to religious causes. I have had my share of parliamentary action and would rather now focus on working on religious matters, but as a private citizen,” Mohammad Khalid, representing the Islamic Menbar, an offshoot of the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, said.

The MP said that the decision to quit the parliament was taken without pressure from any sources, denying claims that Al Menbar had informed him that he would be replaced.

“It was my decision and there was no interference from whosoever. I will continue to serve Al Menbar, but from a different angle,” said Mohamad Khalid who was elected in 2002 and 2006 under Al Menbar ticket. continue reading…

Kuwaiti women steadily moving forward - Al Qabas

Women make up 17 per cent of Kuwait’s labour force in the private sector, a study has indicated.

However, Kuwaiti authorities said that they wanted to boost the figure through measures that will foster women’s economic and political empowerment.

The study commissioned by the social affairs and labour ministry said that seven per cent of the jobs in the judiciary, military and diplomatic sectors were held by women.

Quoting from the study, Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas said that Kuwait has four NGOs to promote women’s rights and interests.

Women in the northern Arabian Gulf emirate last year made history when four of them were elected to parliament, the highest figure in a Gulf country. Kuwait also has women ministers.