Women voters have been urged to be more supportive of female candidates in order to boost the number of councilwomen being elected to the country's Federal National Council.
A debate surrounding the topic yesterday heard frustrations voiced about the small number of votes cast by Emiratis for women standing during recent elections.
During the elections in 2015, 78 women candidates stood across the seven Emirates but only one was elected. That was Naama Al Sharhan, from Ras Al Khaimah, who secured 1,004 votes.
Of the 79,157 Emiratis who voted, only 8.3 per cent – 6,589 – chose a woman as the person they wanted to represent them on the council.
A further eight women were appointed to the chamber, of which 20 are elected by Emiratis and 20 appointed by the rulers of the Emirates.
At a discussion panel organised by the UAE Ministry of State for the Federal National Council, in collaboration with the General Women’s Union yesterday, Afra Al Basti said that women should 'work as a team'.
The FNC member and director-general of the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children, said she was dismayed by the lack of support women gave to female candidates.
“Women don’t cooperate with each other. In my opinion, when they all work together lobbying for one or two candidates, some believe that is better than pushing by themselves,” she said.
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Female candidates receive less than 10 per cent of votes
Emirati women disappointed in lack of female representation in FNC
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“And most men said that their campaigns were run by their wives and sisters,” she said of the 2015 elections.
Dr Jamila Al Khanji, an adviser at the UAE Family Development Foundation, said that it was an “embarrassment” that the results so clearly showed how few had voted for women candidates.
“The first time I heard this statement was on Emirati Women’s Day," she said.
"It felt like a knife in my heart and was said during an event when we were honouring Emirati women for their achievements. Now in every meeting and FNC meetings it is said that women did not vote or support female candidates."
She agreed with Ms Al Basti that most men compete in a “healthy manner”
Some women on the other hand, compete against each other, she claimed.
She suggested if that continued, then it meant “that Emirati women are contradicting themselves and have not made achievements”.
Dr Al Khanji asked that the issue be studied and resolved.
“We cannot accept this. If we support each other we will be more productive. We have one of the greatest role models in history – Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak who supports all women," she said.
One government employee, Alya Al Darmaki, said that during the FNC elections, a female relative drove from Al Ain to Abu Dhabi to cast her vote.
“She refused to vote for a woman. She came all the way to vote for a male candidate,” she said.
But Noura Al Suwaidi, director of the General Women’s Union, said that Emirati women have been part of political life in the UAE since the country’s founding, and have since assumed more than 66 per cent of government jobs and 30 per cent of leadership jobs.
“Our wise leaders recognised early on the role that women can play,” Al Suwaidi said, “and paved the way for them to join the Federal National Council. 22 per cent of the Council’s members are now women. Moreover, The FNC Speaker is also a woman – the first in the entire Arab region.”
