Cablegate: Oic Brings Focus to Role of Women in the Islamic

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RUEHIK RUEHKUK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPW RUEHROV
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DE RUEHAK #6571/01 3381522
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041522Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0166
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006571

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KWMN KISL SCUL SOCI PREL ISCON TU
SUBJECT: OIC BRINGS FOCUS TO ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE ISLAMIC
WORLD

1. (U) SUMMARY: The Organization of the Islamic Conference
(OIC) held a conference November 20-21 in Istanbul on the
role of women in OIC societies, following through on a
commitment made last year by OIC Foreign Ministers to focus
attention on the need for legislative reforms and new
initiatives to address gender inequality in Islamic
countries. The Istanbul conference looked at the need for
member states to eradicate poverty and how a focus on
employment of women could help to address that. Participants
also discussed the need to eliminate all forms of violence
against women, to provide equal access to education for
girls/women, and to enhance the participation of women in
decision-making. The conference kicks off what the OIC hopes
will be a major new focus of addressing the needs of women in
member states. END SUMMARY

2. (SBU) The Organization of the Islamic Conference has
initiated a new focus on women's issues, organizing the first
OIC conference on "The Role of Women in the Development of
OIC Member States," which took place November 20-21 in
Istanbul. We received a read-out of the conference December
1 from MFA Department Head for International Political
Organizations Zeynep Kiziltan. According to Kiziltan, the
conference was fairly well-attended, with delegations from 43
of the OIC's 57 member states participating. Most
delegations were led by women.

3. (SBU) The conference came about as a recommendation issued
by the 32nd OIC Foreign Ministers' conference that took place
in June 2005 in Sana'a, Yemen. According to Kiziltan, Turkey
decided to host the meeting in December 2005 to ensure
planning for it advanced and took the lead in determining the
final agenda. There were four main areas of discussion at
the meeting, namely:

- eradication of poverty/employment of women;
- women's participation in decision-making;
- access to education for girls/women; and
- elimination of violence against women

4. (U) The host of the conference, Turkish State Minister in
charge of Women and Family Affairs Nimet Cubukcu, underlined
in her introductory remarks to conference participants the
need to involve both women and men in the development of all
nations. She pointed out that development models that
disregard women have been shown to be inefficient and, in the
long run, ineffective in alleviating poverty and establishing
social justice. Cubukcu also noted major challenges lie in
the increasing inequality of remuneration that women receive
and described Turkey's own efforts to enact constitutional
and legislative amendments with a view toward developing a
comprehensive strategy to better the lives of Turkish women.

5. (U) Both OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan stressed in their statements
the need for Islamic states to continue to focus on the needs
of their female citizens and pointed out the urgency in
making progress on this goal in light of the adoption of the
OIC's Ten-Year Program of Action last December in Mecca.
That program put in place a plan to eliminate poverty and
eradicate all forms of discrimination against women. Erdogan
criticized the oppression of women under the pretext of faith
and religion, adding that Islam does not prevent women from
participating in all aspects of modern society and that "the
problem lies in traditions which appear or are perceived to
derive from religion whereas they have no relation whatsoever
to it."

6. (SBU) Kiziltan said a major focus of discussion involved
the need to promote laws in member states aimed at
strengthening the advancement of women in Islamic societies
in economic, cultural, social, and political fields.
However, she noted that although the discussion was lively
("not that many long boring prepared speeches"), little new
ground was turned over. Nonetheless, Kiziltan stressed that
even if the conference produced "nothing spectacular," the
fact that it happened at all was encouraging.

7. (SBU) Conference delegates were unable to come to
agreement in Istanbul on the text of a declaration, according
to Kiziltan, but OIC staff is circulating a document that it
hopes to have finalized before the end of the year. She
hopes the document will help establish a framework through
which follow-on action on the issue can be planned. Kiziltan
expects an experts group will be formed as a follow-on
mechanism and an action plan will be adopted as well.

8. (SBU) COMMENT: Although Turkey has been deeply involved in

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the initial stages of getting this initiative off the ground
through organization of this initial conference, Turkey's MFA
does not anticipate it will continue to be at the center of
driving it forward. We leave it to our colleagues in Jeddah
to determine the degree to which OIC Secretariat General
staff will be able to keep the momentum going.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/

WILSON

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