President attends YWU meeting in Aden

ADEN, Dec. 21 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh attended on Thursday the third meting of the Central Council of Yemeni Women Union, which is being held in Aden. In the meeting president Saleh delivered a speech in which he thanked Yemeni women in all regions for their active participation in September’s presidential and local elections. “The Yemeni woman has played important role in the electoral process,”Saleh said. He highly appreciated awareness among women in realizing further development in the nation, pointing out to the success of 34 women in the local councils’elections. He said that the 7th meeting of the General People Congress held last year in Aden city, approved to allocate 15% of the seats in the local councils and parliament as well as civil society organizations leadership for women. ‘After revising this issue, we found that woman has the right to participate like the man without allocating any percentage.’ he said. ‘Woman is the half of the society and any discrimination against her is not accepted,’ he added. He compared the situation of the Yemeni women before and after the revolution. Any qualified, good and honest woman has the chance to compete to reach the suitable position in such organization, he said He criticized use of woman as tool for achieving such bad goals. He added that it is forbidden to use the woman as product even in marriage or for such political purpose. Recently, parents of woman enforce her to get marry from such man in return of a sum of money. He called on scholars and social figures to enlighten people about importance of making marriage easier with lower payment.He said that some political parties utilize woman in political work without granting her full rights or such reward. AH/TN SABA