VZCZCXRO5564
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHGI
RUEHIK RUEHKUK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPW RUEHROV
RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAK #6571/01 3381522
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041522Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0166
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006571 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR G/IWI AMBASSADOR STEINER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN KISL SCUL SOCI PREL ISCON TU
SUBJECT: OIC BRINGS FOCUS TO ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE ISLAMIC 
WORLD 
 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY: The Organization of the Islamic Conference 
(OIC) held a conference November 20-21 in Istanbul on the 
role of women in OIC societies, following through on a 
commitment made last year by OIC Foreign Ministers to focus 
attention on the need for legislative reforms and new 
initiatives to address gender inequality in Islamic 
countries.  The Istanbul conference looked at the need for 
member states to eradicate poverty and how a focus on 
employment of women could help to address that.  Participants 
also discussed the need to eliminate all forms of violence 
against women, to provide equal access to education for 
girls/women, and to enhance the participation of women in 
decision-making.  The conference kicks off what the OIC hopes 
will be a major new focus of addressing the needs of women in 
member states.  END SUMMARY 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Organization of the Islamic Conference has 
initiated a new focus on women's issues, organizing the first 
OIC conference on "The Role of Women in the Development of 
OIC Member States," which took place November 20-21 in 
Istanbul.  We received a read-out of the conference December 
1 from MFA Department Head for International Political 
Organizations Zeynep Kiziltan.  According to Kiziltan, the 
conference was fairly well-attended, with delegations from 43 
of the OIC's 57 member states participating.  Most 
delegations were led by women. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The conference came about as a recommendation issued 
by the 32nd OIC Foreign Ministers' conference that took place 
in June 2005 in Sana'a, Yemen.  According to Kiziltan, Turkey 
decided to host the meeting in December 2005 to ensure 
planning for it advanced and took the lead in determining the 
final agenda.  There were four main areas of discussion at 
the meeting, namely: 
 
- eradication of poverty/employment of women; 
- women's participation in decision-making; 
- access to education for girls/women; and 
- elimination of violence against women 
 
¶4. (U) The host of the conference, Turkish State Minister in 
charge of Women and Family Affairs Nimet Cubukcu, underlined 
in her introductory remarks to conference participants the 
need to involve both women and men in the development of all 
nations.  She pointed out that development models that 
disregard women have been shown to be inefficient and, in the 
long run, ineffective in alleviating poverty and establishing 
social justice.  Cubukcu also noted major challenges lie in 
the increasing inequality of remuneration that women receive 
and described Turkey's own efforts to enact constitutional 
and legislative amendments with a view toward developing a 
comprehensive strategy to better the lives of Turkish women. 
 
¶5. (U) Both OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and 
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan stressed in their statements 
the need for Islamic states to continue to focus on the needs 
of their female citizens and pointed out the urgency in 
making progress on this goal in light of the adoption of the 
OIC's Ten-Year Program of Action last December in Mecca. 
That program put in place a plan to eliminate poverty and 
eradicate all forms of discrimination against women.  Erdogan 
criticized the oppression of women under the pretext of faith 
and religion, adding that Islam does not prevent women from 
participating in all aspects of modern society and that "the 
problem lies in traditions which appear or are perceived to 
derive from religion whereas they have no relation whatsoever 
to it." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Kiziltan said a major focus of discussion involved 
the need to promote laws in member states aimed at 
strengthening the advancement of women in Islamic societies 
in economic, cultural, social, and political fields. 
However, she noted that although the discussion was lively 
("not that many long boring prepared speeches"), little new 
ground was turned over.  Nonetheless, Kiziltan stressed that 
even if the conference produced "nothing spectacular," the 
fact that it happened at all was encouraging. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Conference delegates were unable to come to 
agreement in Istanbul on the text of a declaration, according 
to Kiziltan, but OIC staff is circulating a document that it 
hopes to have finalized before the end of the year.  She 
hopes the document will help establish a framework through 
which follow-on action on the issue can be planned.  Kiziltan 
expects an experts group will be formed as a follow-on 
mechanism and an action plan will be adopted as well. 
 
¶8. (SBU) COMMENT: Although Turkey has been deeply involved in 
 
ANKARA 00006571  002 OF 002 
 
 
the initial stages of getting this initiative off the ground 
through organization of this initial conference, Turkey's MFA 
does not anticipate it will continue to be at the center of 
driving it forward.  We leave it to our colleagues in Jeddah 
to determine the degree to which OIC Secretariat General 
staff will be able to keep the momentum going. 
 
Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ 
 
WILSON