Only one woman appointed in new 24-member government cabinet

10 September 2021: Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s new government only included one woman in the 24-member cabinet.[1] This constituted a significant decline from the number of women appointed to cabinet in 2019, when women made up thirty percent of the members.[2] When faced with criticism, Mikati said in a statement that “the woman is life…the woman is the mother, wife, sister, daughter and granddaughter, the woman is everything. You can empower her…we want to empower her and we cannot stand here without her by our side… the woman exists in the heart of every one of us.”[3] (rough translation from Arabic). This patriarchal view of women was denounced by the organisation KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation.

See Foreign Policy or UN Women or KAFA