Women’s role for more peaceful world discussed at Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye

By Seyma Uzundere

ANTALYA, Turkiye (AA) - The "Women empower humanity" panel was held Saturday as part of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF), of which Anadolu Agency is a global communication partner.

Dr. Stanislav Rascan, State Secretary at Slovenia’s Foreign Ministry, said women are afraid of being at the forefront in social life but that needs to be changed and he encourages his daughters to become diplomats.

He said in Slovenia, there is a 30% quota in the slates of leaders regarding the representation of women in parliament.

Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, the Deputy Speaker of Israeli Parliament and Meretz Party deputy, said except for Scandinavian countries, the representation rate of women in national assemblies generally remains around 30% and women parliamentarians make up 30% of the Israeli parliament.

Noting that young women should be encouraged to participate in politics, Zoabi emphasized that the world of politics is a "very ambitious" environment and women should learn to create networks to take part.

Zoabi said she was the first Arab woman politician to be appointed as Deputy Speaker of the Israeli parliament and underlined the importance of training young women to increase their effectiveness in politics.

Bineta Diop, the African Union’s special envoy on women peace and security, said women have unfortunate war experiences on the African continent where conflicts last many years and added the experience turned into an opportunity and they came to the front as it happened in Rwanda.

Diop said it is not a coincidence that the Rwandan parliament mainly consists of women as the country experienced conflict for years.

The panelists stressed that women in Ukraine also share the same fate as their counterparts in war-weary countries such as Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.

The panelists also emphasized the importance of women's presence at negotiating tables as those most affected by the war.

Zeynep Alemdar, the Dean of Business and Administrative Sciences Faculty at Istanbul Okan University, said women's participation in peace talks increased the probability of the successful continuation of the process by 20%, adding that women contributed to the construction of a more inclusive and lasting peace by enabling the crisis to be handled in a multi-faceted way.