More women 'expected to be in next Cabinet'

Abu Dhabi: More women may be assigned portfolios in the next Cabinet, a minister said yesterday.

"I anticipate more women will be named ministers in the next government," Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of Economy and Planning, told a group of US Congress interns on a visit here yesterday.

Shaikha Lubna, the UAE's first female minister, did not say how many women or what portfolios.

"When I assumed my portfolio in November 2004, I had sleepless nights for a couple of months. One night, I woke up and said to myself ? hey, the government would never have appointed me to fail me.

"I have ever since found peace of mind and have been going on with my life and position successfully," she said of her experience in a region that is still taking its first steps towards giving its women the recognition they deserve.