The UAE joins the international community in celebration of this occasion and is proud by its women working tirelessly towards making the country great and developed. In addition to the 8th of March and in order to confirm the role of the Emirati Woman and her influence in the society, we annually celebrate Emirati Women’s Day on August 28. The day aims to recognize the contribution of the nation’s women, and their role in the development and advancement of the UAE. The date was chosen by Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, Mother of the Nation, to coincide with the birth of the General Women’s Union on August 28, 1975.
The UAE has proved to be a regional pioneer of women’s empowerment, as it has enabled its women to occupy leadership roles in the government and private sectors while around 70 percent of school and university students over the past five years have been female. Emirati women have occupied an advanced stature in the country’s development drive and have attained a key and effective overall role, through the political empowerment programmes launched by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Emirati women have taken on senior positions in the country, from employee to minister (not to mention, that the UAE has the youngest woman minister in the world), as well as professional positions, such as judges, doctors, engineers and soldiers. Overall in the public sector, 50 percent of the UAE’s ruling Federal National Council is female, as is one-third of our Cabinet –a higher proportion than either the US or Britain.
The country has focused, since its establishment on 2nd December, 1971, on raising and empowering women to perform their natural role as effective participants in the country’s sustainable development. The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan strongly supported and empowered women to take their rightful place in the country’s economic development and to join men in working to advance the country.
I extend my warmest congratulations to the women of the world on this occasion and wishes of gender equality with men in all countries of the world, because woman is a mother, a sister, a wife a daughter. If we ensure decent life and opportunities for her, she will give us a new distinguished generation. I wish a happy life and constant peace for all the women of Ukraine.