Dubai, April 22: Bahrain’s Supreme Council for Women (SCW) has rejected the quota system for women in the upcoming Parliamentary Election.
Activists have been calling for temporary quota for women in the lower house, until the public accept the idea of having women parliamentarians, has said.
Currently, the elected house has only one woman among 40 members. The General Secretary of the SCW, Lulwa Al Awadhi, told a seminar on women empowerment that was held last week that the quota system violates the equality principle enshrined in the Constitution.
She stressed that the quota is like forcing women on the public and that is against their rights of selecting their representatives.
“Political empowerment of women could take place by teaching them their rights and duties,” she told the newspaper.
Awadi went on to add that if the public continues to reject women candidates, then they could prove their potential in the upper house as all its members are appointed by King Hamad bin Eisa Al Khalifa and has 10 female members.
—-PTI