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BoscoX -> RE: Melania Trump hails 'empowerment of women' in Saudi Arabia (5/22/2017 7:45:28 AM)
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quote:
Melania and Ivanka Trump make stops in Saudi Arabia to promote women's empowerment
While President Trump is busy today in Saudi Arabia with bilateral meetings and summit events, first lady Melania Trump and the president's daughter and adviser, Ivanka, have been engaged in activities of their own.
Ivanka Trump attended a roundtable on women's economic empowerment while the first lady visited a school and an all-women business center.
Both women have accompanied the president on several of his official activities in Saudi Arabia. And when they have, they have stood out from the crowd as some of the only women in the room.
At events they have gone to on their own, both Ivanka and Melania Trump have engaged with mostly female audiences and have stood out in their western clothing from Saudi counterparts dressed in the traditional Saudi abaya and hijab.
Human rights concerns have so far been absent from the president's official agenda and public discussion in Saudi Arabia, but Ivanka Trump at the roundtable today applauded their host nation for recent progress in empowering women and said, “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
“Saudi Arabia’s progress, especially in recent years, is very encouraging but there’s still a lot of work to be done and freedoms and opportunities to continue to fight for,” she said.
“The stories of Saudi women, such as yourselves, catalyzing change, inspire me to believe in the possibility of global women’s empowerment,” she said, noting that the government has taken strides to advance women’s participation in the workforce and politics.
Ivanka Trump’s comments come, however, as Freedom House ranks Saudi Arabia as the 10th worst in the world in political and civil rights.
The president's daughter and adviser referred to herself as a "female leader within the Trump administration" in discussing her work on women's issues in the United States and globally.
She introduced Jim Yong Kim of the World Bank, who announced that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pledged a combined $100 million to a women’s empowerment fund spearheaded by Ivanka Trump along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Kim said that with that funding commitment and other pledges from the U.S. and other countries, the World Bank is set to announce at the G-20 Summit in July a $1 billion fund for women’s economic empowerment through the Women’s Entrepreneurship Facility, which he described as a first.
“This is really a stunning achievement. I’ve never seen anything come together so quickly, and I really have to say that Ivanka’s leadership has been tremendous,” he said.
Full article here
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