Dhabi, Nov 11th, 2008 - Queen Rania Abdullah of Jordan, said the features of Arab world changed so much over the last 8 years, and especially after the launching of the Arab Women Organisation in 2003. "We are more educated and more determined to achieve and progress in line with creating active Arab community with women and men on equal footing".

Thanking Sheikha Fatima for hosting the conference, First Lady of Jordan highlighted that Jordan became early aware about significance of education, as private sector was involved in promoting of education and creating healthy and secure environment for education.

"Though future is bright in Arab world as percentage of women increase in parliaments over the last 8 years, we need more 20 years to bring this percentage to 30 per cent and another 20 years to reach the percentage recommended by Beijing Conference. The road is long but we are speeding towards realising our goals", she added.

Her Highness Sheikha Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa Wife of His Majesty the King of Bahrain President of the Supreme Council for Women, paid tribute to Sheikha Fatima, saying that "her profound interest in all matters related to Arab women, to manage the organization with utmost efficiency and distinguished follow up of all genuine and meaningful activities carried out by the Organization personnel under the distinct leadership of Her Excellency Dr Wadooda Badran." She added that those efforts would allow women to be free of fear and have options to live in dignity, and most importantly to enjoy the right to benefit from every possible option.

"Last month, Bahrain launched "Bahrain Vision 2030", a blueprint of long term plans for the national economy based on the concepts of "sustainability for the sake of prosperity, "competitiveness for the sake of development" and "justice for the sake of stability," she noted.

Sheikha Sabeeka underscored that the current global financial crunch required collective efforts to ease burden on Arab citizens. (WAM/MN)