By Women, For Women

President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan recently announced that women were ‘equal partners in all walks of life’. Luiza Karim looks at some of the advances women have made in the region including the the first women only investment company recently established in Qatar.

The Gulf is not normally known as a place where women enjoy social and economic freedom but changes are afoot. As we enter 1998, Qatar and the UAE are following Oman’s path of allowing women more political and financial rights.

Last year in Qatar, there was a conference on the role of women in the family and workplace, a womens’ only investment company was launched and women are now being allowed to vote in the municipal council elections for the first time.

The first women only investment company designed to provide investment management services for women in Qatar was launched in Doha last November.

Qatar Ladies Investment Company is being incorporated in Qatar with an initial subscribed capital of approximately Dhs 20 million, which will be raised by Qatar National Bank and the female shareholders. The company, which will be run by women for women, was set up to meet the economic, financial and investment objectives of Qatari women and to provide them with a sound knowledge of investment markets.

Established under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Mouza bint Nasser Al Misnad, consort to His Highness The Emir, the company aims to encourage Qatari women to play an increasingly important role in the economic development of the country and to develop an investment culture.

The Board of Directors of the Investment Company will comprise an equal number of representatives of the two constituent shareholding groups, the bank and the women shareholders.

The company will be run by Sheikha Hanadi bint Nasser Al Thani and will draw upon the technology and human resources of Qatar National Bank in the early stages.

Qatar National Bank is the country’s oldest and largest commercial bank with assets exceeding $4.8 billion and supporting equity funds of $780 million. It is owned 50 per cent by the government of Qatar and 50 per cent by private sector shareholders. Qatar National Bank controls assets representing 48 per cent of the Qatari banking system.

The company plans to commence operations in the first quarter of this year and hopes to establish itself as a profitable self-sustaining economic entity as soon as possible.

Allowing women access to international and local markets through investment advice and services, the investment company will also allow women to be actively involved in the day to day running of an investment company in Qatar.

Each female member of staff will be fully trained by Qatar National Bank, followed by overseas on-the-job training with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, the asset management arm of the Deutsche Bank Group, one of Germany’s leading banks.

The company has established a strategic alliance with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, which has a long track record in the provision of asset management services and private clients worldwide and currently manages assets in excess of $140 billion.

The company will be run from dedicated offices and will offer a wide range of asset management services specifically tailored to meet the individual requirements of each of the company’s female investment clients.

The emphasis from the outset will be upon soundly based conservative asset management principles with a low risk profile concentrating upon first preserving, then enhancing the underlying capital of the portfolios throughout the complete investment cycle.

From the outset, the company plans to concentrate primarily upon fully liquid, readily viable investments in established international markets, increased by investments in the growing Doha Securities Market. In due course, the Qatar Ladies Investment Company will play a role in the process of privatisation in Qatar. The investment company will also be expected to participate in the process of project and venture capital mobilisation, particularly for opportunities which will benefit women.

Conference

Earlier this year, at Qatar’s first International Womens’ Conference, Arab women called for better service conditions and facilities at work. These included calls for longer maternity leave, creche facilities at offices and “production salaries” for having children.

Speakers at the five-day conference put forward a number of ideas, such as demands for husbands to pay alimony and child support to their divorced wives and for the state to create more job opportunities for women.

Other demands included allowing women to seek driving licenses and bank loans without needing permission from their husband, father or brother. The drafting committee eventually agreed to nine recommendations from over 20 put forward. These included calls for greater flexibility for women at the workplace, well-staffed child care facilities in offices, state-run social security funds, maternity leave and pay as well as equal application of international conventions and laws both to women and men.

Chairwoman of the organising committee, Muneera Al Misnad, said a national committee will be formed to follow up the recommendations with the government.

The conference was organised by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Family Development Centre under the auspices of Her Highness Sheikha Mouza, wife of the Emir, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Sheikha Mouza has been actively involved in the Qatar Diabetics Association and the Family Development Centre, both of which are among the many charitable activities supported by her in order to alleviate hardship among the less fortunate members of Qatari society.

Elections

Democratic and feminist winds appear to be sweeping through Qatar with the announcement that Qatar is to have an elected municipal council which will be open to women.

“Women will have the right to come forward as candidates and to vote. The polls will mark a big step toward the consolidation of popular participation... with a view to achieving total democracy in Qatar,” said the Emir, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Having completed the project for municipal elections, under which the council will be formed of 29 members elected by universal suffrage, he suggested to the opening of a new session of Qatar’s consultative council that legislative elections could follow. Back in the United Arab Emirates, President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan announced that UAE women were equal partners in all walks of life, with the full right to participate in politics and decision-making. Sheikh Zayed said there was no objection to women joining the Federal National Council.

“This is their right and I have said it before. Now it is the role of the cabinet, ministries and all other authorities concerned to translate this right into a tangible reality,” he said.

His remarks came during a meeting with representatives of the United Nations organisations that honoured First Lady and Chairperson of the UAE Women’s Federation, Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, in recognition of her work for women’s causes and humanitarian projects. The President stressed that there was no difference between women and men in the UAE except in work, noting that the UAE woman has made her presence felt in the country’s social and economic life.

On the UN awards for Sheikha Fatima, the President described it as an honour for the women of the UAE, Gulf and the Arab nation as a whole, who live in accordance with the teachings of Islam and Arab traditions. Real development in the community cannot be achieved unless it aims at both men and women and is established on the basis of equality, according to Sheikh Zayed.

“Thanks to God, women are entitled to their right to be equal with men. In the UAE we are proud that women have this right, which gives both of them strength. Almighty God likes his strong servant. “We do our best for the sake of the UAE people.”