The high percentage of women MSPs in the Scottish Parliament has been hailed as a model for legislative institutions at an International Conference.
Scotland was one of only two European countries to provide speakers to the “Women as Global Leaders” event organised by Zayed University in Dubai that took place last week.
Over 1000 students from 36 countries took part including a seven-strong group from Scotland led by Wendy Alexander MSP for Paisley North who was one of the keynote speakers.
The Scottish contingent included two students from Aberdeen University, two from Dundee University and three from Dundee-based Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies.
The Institute has built a close relationship with Zayed over the past two years as they have worked to develop educational and business links between Dubai and Scotland and to promote multiculturalism.
It was as a result of those links that Scotland was invited to send a delegation.
Speaking on her return from the United Arab Emirates, Wendy Alexander said: ”The conference was a tremendous success bringing together young women from many different cultures and countries to look at all the issues surrounding leadership. Only two European countries provided keynote speakers, Scotland and Norway. Scotland because 40 per cent of our MSPs are female and Norway where 40 per cent of their cabinet is female. In the Emirates, women are taking their place in top-level jobs in business, commerce and industry. The first female Cabinet member was appointed last year. Now there is real recognition that women can have a leadership role to play and that is what the conference was all about. I was certainly delighted to learn that the representation of women in the Scottish Parliament and among Ministers in the Scottish Executive was well known.”
In her address to the conference Ms Alexander also paid tribute to the work being done by Al-Maktoum Institute in Dundee to raise awareness of the benefits of strengthening Scotland’s educational and business links with Dubai. Sarah Hassan (25) from Egypt, currently studying for a postgraduate qualification at Al-Maktoum Institute, was one of the students selected to attend the conference.
She said: “The conference emphasised that women’s education should give them opportunities equal to those given to their male colleagues. Students from 114 universities across the world attended, offering a tremendous opportunity to mix and learn about different methods of education.
“Among the topics discussed were international security, gender politics, women and trade unions in Turkey and Islam and feminism. My colleagues and I had a terrific time and we were all delighted to represent Scotland at the event.” A group of students from Zayed University will be travelling to Dundee in June to attend a summer school at Al-Maktoum Institute.
This will be the third year that the school has been held. Ms Alexander said there was a real appetite among young Emirati women to experience education in a country like Scotland and she hoped that the summer school could be developed further and students from Dubai could consider coming for a whole semester as part of an advanced exchange programme.
