Subject: [fem-women2000 595] UNIFEM project to facilitate the use ICTs by Arab women
From: lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org>
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 11:17:45 +0900
Seq: 595

---------------- Original message follows ----------------
 From: "Ra'ida S. Al-Zu'bi" <info@arabwomenconnect.org>
 Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 10:03:08 -0500
 Subject: UNIFEM project to facilitate the use ICTs by Arab women
--

PLEASE DISSEMINATE WIDELY

  "Arab Women Connect News"
UNIFEM Western Asia launches the Arab Women Connect Website,
E-Mail List and E-Newsletter

Issue 1, Vol. 1
February 2001
(Please print out this page for future reference)

Dear "Arab Women Connect News" Readers:

Welcome to the first issue of "AWC News", the newsletter of the Arab
Women Connect website: a pilot project launched by UNIFEM Western Asia
on December 17, 2000 in Amman, Jordan.  AWC is a bilingual clearinghouse
website providing easy access to on-line information, analyses and
resources on Arab women to policy-makers, researchers, NGOs, government
agencies, donors and UN agencies.  This website is part of a
comprehensive internet networking/training strategy formulated by UNIFEM
Western Asia to encourage and to facilitate the use of new information
and communication technologies by Arab women.

To assist you in navigating our website, we have prepared a brief
introduction to our various sections (below).  For your navigation of
our website to be as easy as possible, we recommend that you:
1. Download Internet Explorer 5.5 to read the Arabic text.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ie55sp1.htm
2. Download Adobe Acrobat to be able to read documents in PDF format.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
3. Have Windows 95 or 98 and MS Office 2000.
4. Register as a member of our Website, to post your news and views on
our Website.
http://www.awc.org.jo/cgi-bin/forum/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Register

Please note that to download an ".exe file", you first need to click on
the document link, than to choose whether you would like to download the
document (save this program on disk), or to open it from its current
location (run from current location). If you download the document, you
need to indicate where you want it saved, after which you should go to
the saved file location and click on it, than click on "extract, to view
the actual document.

Arab Women Connect Sections:
(If the underlined internet addresses do not appear in blue (hypertext),
please copy and paste them in the  "Address" box in Explorer)

Weekly News:
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/main.html
A weekly feature containing current news on Arab women.

What's New:
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/main.html
Contains the latest documents and links submitted to our website.

Arab Women's Organizations Database:
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/organizationdb.html
A comprehensive on-line directory of Arab women's NGOs and governmental
organizations.

Experts Database:
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/tsearchE.html
An on-line database of Arab experts in gender and development, media,
new information and communication technologies, advocacy, project
formulation and management, strategic planning and analysis (if
interested, please submit your resume to: info@arabwomenconnect.org)

Arab Country Sections:
Download full-length studies, reports and newsletters for, by and about
Arab women from:
Egypt   http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/egypt/egypt.html
Lebanon  http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/lebanon/lebanon.html
Syria   http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/syria/syria.html
Palestine
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/palestine/palestine.html
Jordan   http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/jordan/jordan.html
Yemen   http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/yemen/yemen.html
UAE   http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/uae/uae.html
Qatar   http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/qatar/qatar.html
And the Region:
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/regional/regional.html

UNIFEM Western Asia:
Access our latest on-line publications at:
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/western_asia/west_asia.html

Events and Publications Bulletin Board:
http://www.awc.org.jo/cgi-bin/forum/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Headlines&BID=24&S 
ID=932Read
about the latest women-centric events and publications from the Region
and across the globe.  You are also welcome to post your events and
publications in this section, but remember, you have to register here
first
http://www.awc.org.jo/cgi-bin/forum/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Register.

Discussion Forum:
http://www.awc.org.jo/cgi-bin/forum/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Headlines&BID=29&S 
ID=937Engage
in lively and informative on-line discussions with experts from the
Region on topics of relevance to Arab women.  For the first discussion,
UNIFEM Western Asia's Human Rights Program Team have prepared the
following introduction and suggestions:

"In October 1999, UNIFEM Western Asia Regional Office organized a
workshop that brought together experts from across the region to share
ideas about the compatibility between international human rights law,
particularly that pertaining to women, and Islamic law (shari'a).  The
workshop aimed to promote a constructive dialogue among religious
leaders and human rights activists around the United Nations Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
and shari'a in order to advance women's human rights on the national and
regional level. It became evident in the roundtable discussions that
increasing awareness on the meaning and provisions embodied in the CEDAW
is an essential and much-needed strategy for minimizing misconceptions
of what the CEDAW stands for, and for the advancement of the human
rights of women more broadly. (Please go to the AWC website and click on
UNIFEM Western Asia, Human Rights, Report on the Roundtable Workshop)

The Human Rights Team invites you to continue the discussion on one of
the following three issues:
1. Should the reservation by Arab countries on article 7 (prohibiting
women from assuming public office) be abolished, since there is no
explicit legislative proof prohibiting women from assuming public
office? Consequently there does not appear to be any justification for
maintaining any reservations on Article 7, on the pretext of its
contradiction to Islamic legislation.
2. Should nationality laws in the Arab world be amended to allow Arab
women to pass-on their nationality to their children? At present, the
majority of the constitutions of most Islamic countries have embodied
the principle of equality amongst its citizens, regardless of gender,
thereby implying that nationality laws in those countries which
discriminate between men and woman are unconstitutional.
3. Should the marriage contract used by most Arab countries be amended
to include stipulations safeguarding women's rights (following the
recent Egypt marriage contract model)? What, in your point of view are
the most important stipulations to be included?

Please send an e-mail to: info@arabwomenconnect with the topic of your
preference (e.g.: topic #2).

Job Vacancies Section:
Improve your career opportunities with access to a comprehensive listing
of the latest development-related vacancies.
http://www.awc.org.jo/cgi-bin/forum/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Headlines&BID=26&S 
ID=938

Links Section:
Explore a comprehensive list of websites for local, regional and
international organizations dealing with gender and development issues.
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org/english/main_links.html

Please feel free to browse through these sections, and do send us your
comments and feedback on how to make our website more user-friendly.  We
also invite you to send us your press releases, publications, and your
job vacancies for posting on our website (please send us a clean copy in
electronic format, either on diskette or via e-mail).  Our e-mail
address is: info@arabwomenconnect.org

Lastly, since Arab Women Connect is a work in progress, we would
appreciate your sending any technical problems you encounter to:
webmaster@arabwomenconnect.org

We hope that you will find the above information useful and welcome you
as a regular visitor to our website.

With warm regards,
The Arab Women Connect
UNIFEM Western Asia

You are receiving this e-mail as a member of the Arab Women Connect
mailing list.  If you do not wish to be a member of this list, please
send an e-mail to info@arabwomenconnect.org from your mail account, with
the message: unsubscribe.


Ra'ida Al-Zu'bi, Coordinator
Arab Women Connect Project
UNIFEM Western Asia Regional Office
Fax: 9626 567 8594 Tel: 9626 567 4689
P.O. Box 830896 Amman, 11183 Jordan
http://www.arabwomenconnect.org




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