The Secret to a New Middle East
Women.
Women taking full participation in public life is the number one ingredient for much of the Middle East to reach its potential. Imagine if the same number of unemployed women were men, what would the implication be? Imagine if so many men being at the mercy of being financially supported by other family members. Imagine if that many potentially competent, innovative and resourceful members of society were sleepers—cocoons ready for an opening to flourish.
A healthy society cannot afford for that many people, regardless of their gender, to be untapped. Those potentials and hidden resources must be released. They can drive new economies given the opportunity, support, and functional easy processes that permits them to explore different avenues.
It is also environmentally health for women to participate and be integrated in public life. Those who argue against it on grounds of Islamic values are dead wrong. The very Quranic verse that stipulates that two women can testify in place of a man in contractual agreements has alway been viewed as discriminatory towards women. However, the Quran is largely geometric. The flip side of the verse only proves that women are encouraged to participate and be integrated in public life, side by side with men, in large numbers. That’s the trick and beauty of the Quran. It encourages that more women participate, not the opposite.
QED
