It is doubtful that the fathers of the modern Olympic Games at the end of the
19th century, such as Baron Pierre de Coubertin, would have predicted that the
opening event of the Olympic Games in London 2012 would be a women’s soccer game
between Great Britain and New Zealand, and that Arabia would be represented by
two Saudi Arabian female athletes, competing in Judo and Athletics.
In
the first modern Olympics in 1896, women did not participate, just as in ancient
Greece.
We tend to use such examples to show the great process in the
status of women in society and in the world. Israeli women pilots, CEOs of
American multinationals, African Nobel laureates and so on and so forth. And yet
the world over the most blatant discrimination is still against
women.
Women constitute about 50.5 percent of human beings, yet in most
parts of the world they are far from enjoying equal rights with the other half –
men. This is true in almost all societies, especially those with strong
religious tendencies, and is definitely true for the Middle East and
unfortunately also today’s Israel.
Equality between women and men, given
their proportions in the population, should be the most basic of human rights.
This is not about feminism, it is about basic human values.
The 20th
century saw progress, yet insufficient for true gender equality, in relation to
voting rights (in the United States women got the right to vote for president
only in 1920), employment, social stature and conditions. But to varying degrees
in different parts of the world, the gap remains blatant.
After a century
of progress and change, it can be said unequivocally that the more a society
enjoys equality between the genders, the more advanced of a democracy, the more
developed of an economy and the more peace-seeking it is.
I have spent
some years in Norway. In the country of beautiful fjords and 60,000 lakes, there
is also a harmonious balance between women and men. In Oslo, close to 50% of
members of parliament and the Norwegian government are women; the same goes for
CEOs of the wealthy Norwegian private sector.
Some 99% of Norwegian girls
and boys graduate from secondary school and the percentage of women and men
participating in the labor market is almost equal – around 70%.
During
the same years, I also spent some time in Egypt, where
women are still being
discriminated against and there is only slow progress in the improvement of
their status. In Egypt there is a tremendous gap in labor market participation –
75% of men are employed, but only a quarter of women.
The gap in
education is smaller. And yet last year in the Tahrir uprising, young Egyptian
women played a prominent role in the demonstrations, the outcry for democracy
and human rights and the downfall of Hosni Mubarak.
In the Middle East,
the situation regarding gender equality is highly problematic, as women are
discriminated against by patriarchal and religious societies despite a recent
awakening to the issue thanks to the role of young women in the Arab
Spring.
Countries such as Saudi Arabia practice shameful violation of
women’s rights – women there don’t vote, don’t drive, must dress according to
strict codes and only 20% are employed.
On the other hand, there are
countries such as Tunisia, where young women in civil society actively helped to
bring about democratic change in the country and the new president, Moncef
Marzouki, pledged to
uphold gender equality. Women in Tunisia are represented in
politics, business and institutions of higher education. The same is true of
Palestinian women in the West Bank, the Palestinian parliament, business, civil
society and universities.
Even Mohamed Morsy, upon taking office as the
first Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt, felt compelled to guarantee the
rights of Egyptian women and announced he would appoint a woman vice president.
The Arab world is a world in transition, navigating its ways between secular
modernism, democracy and respect for human rights on one side and deeply rooted
religious ways of life and beliefs leading to xenophobic doctrines on the other
side. In this process, the role of women – and equality between genders – will
serve as a compass of where the Arab world is headed.
One hopes it will
be change by women, for women.
Israel, while a much more egalitarian
society, also finds itself today in a dichotomy between liberal secularism
within a globalized world and Orthodox beliefs in religious laws within a closed
ghetto where outsiders are cursed and expelled, and women serve men. Since the
creation of Israel, the
liberation of women and their role in society – be it in
the army or on kibbutzim – was of great importance in our nation-building
process.
We were one of the first countries to have a woman prime
minister. Women have also headed important corporations such as Strauss and Bank
Leumi. And yet we remain, by and large, a male chauvinistic society in terms of
attitudes, values and concrete indicators.
Wages of women are 15% lower
than those of men in similar positions, there is a gross underrepresentation of
women in the job market and on boards of governors of corporations and academic
institutions, not to speak of the Knesset and the government with its mere two
female ministers.
This inequality is exacerbated by two factors: Israeli
machismo emanating from a rather patriarchal society and military service, and
the nationalreligious and ultra-Orthodox Israel. The first results in usurping
the independent rights and roles of women, also exemplified by a great number of
sexual harassment cases, the latter leads to a medieval view of women, as
exemplified by women being ousted from the public space. And yet in our 2011
protest movement, which may be reignited soon given the government’s recent
draconian economic measures, young women took the leading role for social
change, justice and equality.
Given this background, we can say that in
Israel the rights and status of women in society are of critical importance to
our very identity. As we witnessed in the political wrestling around the Tal
legislation, the haredi parties have the upper hand on the issue of equality of
the burden in serving army and society, an issue that touches the very core of
our social ethos.
These parties and their constituencies see in women
subordinates to men and second-class citizens. One is not allowed to see them,
walk with them on the same side of the street, have them appear in the public
sphere. And all this is not in Tehran but in Jerusalem.
It is, therefore,
paramount that government and civil society in Israel make gender equality – in
attitude, values and practice – a high priority. The equal rights of women needs
to be put into a Basic Law and the same is true for equal wages. Political
parties should feel compelled to have an equal number of women candidates.
Private-sector companies, nongovernmental institutions and academic institutions
should have a fair, if not equal, share of women on their boards and in their
membership, even through affirmative action measures. The same should be true
for ambassadors and peace negotiators.
In this way, we will serve not
just the interests of women but mainly Israel’s national interest and democratic
character. Only then will we have the right to broach the issue with others in
the region.
The writer is president of the Peres Center for Peace and
served as Israel’s chief negotiator for the Oslo Accords.