Women are contributing in parliament

Debate and controversy over the performance of women in the Federal National Council [UAE parliament] as Emirati women have not lived up to expectations' — that was the headline of a mainstream local Arabic newspaper as it summed up the three and a half years of Emirati women in parliament.

As a member of the UAE parliament, as an Emirati, and as a woman, I strongly believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe in objectivity and integrity in journalism.

This recently written article, ironically by a woman, brings several issues to light including the institutionalised and subconscious gender bias in our society.

For example, when the newspaper thought of evaluating the performance of parliament members in their last year of service, it decided to scrutinise nine members because of their gender.

The newspaper amusingly ignored the issue of the performance of the other 31 members of parliament, who happened to be men, as if somehow by virtue of being men they are above scrutiny.

Since the foundation of our union in 1971 women have not held any high-ranking official political posts that would have prepared them for political life, except for the few appointments of women in ministerial or ambassador roles made in the last couple of years. This essentially meant that women went into parliament with no political experience, but that certainly did not stop women from striving to contribute to our national interests.

The newspaper based its judgments on four interviews: two with academics and two with members of the UAE parliament. It also based its argument on the relative percentage of questions in parliament submitted by women compared to men.

One has to wonder about the flawed logic used, as there are 31 men and nine women in parliament (making it 77.5 per cent male, 22.5 per cent female). The logical deduction is that the ratio would be skewed towards the men submitting a higher percentage of questions by virtue of their greater number.

The article also totally neglected the fact that the bulk of parliament's work is done in its closed committees, which are seen as miniature parliaments, where policies and draft laws are dissected and analysed, and proposals for amendments are drafted. The contribution of women parliament members within the closed committees has been consistent with the commitments undertaken by all members.

The article went on to quote an academic who sternly stated that women in parliament have neither championed women's causes nor contributed to creating a women's political movement. Women's rights are not mutually exclusive from the issue of human development in our society; the debate on women's issues should not be in isolation from the debate on all issues pertaining to national policy and it should be viewed in the context of our constitutional rights rather than women's rights alone.

The approach and content of the newspaper's coverage illustrated a trend in the quality of journalism in our society. With only a few newspapers as exceptions, what we find printed is what I refer to as shallow journalism: reporting that skims the surface, with big headlines and little in-depth investigation. It flaunts a disregard for the responsibility to ensure that all relevant angles have been covered and that all the facts are straight.

This is a reflection of two issues. The first is that the corporate cultures that exist behind these newspapers still lack the ethics of excellence in journalism. The second issue is our educational institutions, which are still not graduating journalists who are capable of doing hard reporting in a culturally sensitive way.

I will also highlight that journalists need access to information, so they can cut back on their speculation. The free flow of information from Government or private entities that serves the public good is crucial.

Why you should care

Why should you care about what journalists write? And why should you care about integrity and objectivity in our newspapers? Because you function based on the information that you have. Therefore, if the information being put out there is not objective, and not accurate, you will not be able to make informed and objective decisions. There must be an ethical sense of responsibility by journalists pertaining to the information they are printing and its impact on people and our overall society.

In the final analysis

We as Emirati women in parliament make no claim to perfection. We are beginning a journey; we are the first group of women to take part in our country's parliament and undoubtedly those who come after us will learn from where we have erred and where we have succeeded.

We came into parliament with no political experience, but we will leave parliament with experience and are prepared to take that knowledge into civil society to create awareness and activism on the road to greater political empowerment of our citizens.

A journalist called me, but I was in a meeting so I didn't answer and she left a message, saying, "Ms Al Awadhi I'm assuming now since parliament is in its last year, it's a good time to ask, how would you evaluate the performance of the current Federal National Council?"

I have to smile at that question as it's not for me or parliament to judge ourselves, but rather it's for you and for history.

Najla Al Awadhi is a member of the Federal National Council.