Opening Statement by H.E.
Dr. M. Javad Zarif,
Deputy Foreign Minister
for International Affairs
at the ESCAP Workshop on
Women's Information Network
in the Islamic
11 October 1994,
In the Name of God, the Compassionate,
the Merciful
Distinguished Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure
for me to welcome you to the Foreign Ministry and thank you for participating
at this workshop, which attempts to address a central issue in any genuine
development process. Let me express the
hope that the next three days will provide a useful opportunity for exchange of
views and expertise as well as a learning experience for all participants. I
should also express my appreciation to those who have made this training course
possible, particularly President's Office on Women's Affairs as well as ESCAP,
UNDP, and UNICEF.
The world is transforming
rapidly and new challenges are emerging. Meanwhile, the problem of gender
equity remains a persistent impediment to equitable development. For decades, women have attempted to surmount
enormous obstacles which have historically prevented them from attaining their
rightful place in the society and participating actively in various aspects of
political, economic, social, cultural, and educational life of their
communities.
These impediments are
indeed deep-rooted and multi-dimensional, and prevail in almost every civil
society regardless of its cultural or religious background or level of
economic, social or political development. They must be studied and analyzed
thoroughly and objectively.
Attempts to redress the
serious problem of inequality and discrimination which fail to take cognizance
of its complexity have proven ineffective and often lead to
institutionalization of further injustice and inequity against women and even
the emergence of social maladies ranging from sexual harassment to
pornography. Worse yet are attempts to
portray such uni-dimensional approaches to the solution of this
multi-dimensional problem as the only viable remedial recipe and to try to
impose it on various cultures and societies.
While we do not contend
that the situation of women in
First and foremost, due
to lack of necessary self-confidence, women's knowledge and abilities go
unrecognized, thus depriving them of even seeking positions in line with their
qualifications. This compounds the more obvious problem that for centuries, the
prevailing male-gender preferences have generated a misperception about women's
talents, skills and capabilities.
Reversing this situation
requires action-oriented policies and programs aimed at improving women's
access to economic resources, promoting shared responsibilities between women
and men, removing impediments to women's participation in public life and
raising social awareness, through effective programs of education and mass
communication.
As a related issue,
education is probably the most important vehicle for empowering women with the
necessary knowledge, skills and self-confidence. It enhances their
contributions to sustainable development by enabling them to become fully
involved in policy and decision-making processes at all stages. Through proper education, women can
become active decision makers,
participants and beneficiaries in all aspects of production, employment,
income-generating activities, health, culture, education, science and
technology, and indeed a variety of other fields.
Meanwhile, we recognize
the need to develop, implement and enforce national laws that protect women
from various types of discrimination, including gender discrimination in
hiring, wages, benefits, training and job security.
Let me now make a few
brief comments about the issue of women information network in general and
particularly its relevance and significance in
Organizations, as living
systems, feed on information. Applying a metaphor, acting without information
can be seen as walking in darkness without any light. At any rate, information
is considerably broader than the feeding of bits and pieces of factual or
descriptive data to a computer. In other words, information can be defined as
something received or acquired through knowledge communicated by others, as
well as knowledge obtained from study, observation, investigation, or
instruction. Information, unlike other organizational resources (human, fiscal
and material) is a non-depletive resource, as it is not used-up when it is
utilized. The misuse of information, however, can become a drain on other
resources such as human, fiscal and material ones. It can even exhaust
them. Therefore, this workshop should
also discuss the compatibility of the information variables with the value
system and economic, social and political environment of each country. As
mentioned earlier, no single model can be extended to all countries.
In
At the same time, due
attention should be given to the strengthening of existing information systems.
In other words, the foreseen information network should create, inter alia, a
linkage among all existing information centers, in order to bring about the
best use of currently available data-bases, while overcoming unnecessary
duplications. Furthermore, as has been
noted in the Training Manual of the workshop, information center should be
designed in a flexible manner in order to be able to respond to the dynamic
needs of its clients in a changing economic, social and technical milieu.
The Jakarta Declaration
on Women in Development calls for reducing the gender gap in training and
development. In doing so, the
On a parallel track, the
information center in the Islamic Republic of Iran needs to set up a working
link with the Women's Information Network for
In conclusion, I would
like, once more, to underscore the importance of this workshop in creating a
momentum for establishing a nation-wide information mechanism on women. I wish
you all success in this endeavor.