Bilal: Media Campaign for Family Planning is a National and Moral Responsibility

The Ministry of Information, in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched on Saturday the Media Campaign for Family Planning and Mothers Health at Sheraton Hotel in Damascus.

In a speech, Minister of Information Dr. Mohsen Bilal stressed that the campaign is a national and moral responsibility, and that it serves as the basis for the process of family planning and changing the typical concept of large families.

Development of Arab world stalled by sexist laws and domestic violence

BEIRUT: Women’s economic marginalization and vulnerability to violence is hindering development in the Arab world, UN and civil society officials said Friday.
Launching the Arabic version of the “World Survey on the Role of Women in Development” at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), representatives said increasing women’s access to resources would have positive implications for social and economic development. The report, published every five years by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, was originally published in English in October.

The fractious debate over Iraqi women's rights

Women in Iraq had freer lives than women in other Arab states before the war erupted. Now, it seems, the clock has rolled backwards and women face tougher choices and narrowed horizons. In "Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family, and Survival in the New Iraq," published by Random House in September, Christina Asquith explores the lives of four women in Iraq -- two Iraqi sisters, one U.S. soldier and a U.S. aid worker -- to explain the new challenges.