UAE gives all its ‘gender balance’ awards … to men

The United Arab Emirates drew mockery this weekend after announcing the winners of its gender balance awards – and every one of them was a man.

At an awards ceremony on Sunday, the UAE had named the winners of its Gender Balance Index for the second round of 2018 in three categories: “Best Personality Supporting Gender Balance”, “Best Federal Authority Supporting Gender Balance”, and the “Best Gender Balance Initiative”.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, gave out the awards, which were accepted by an all-male cast.

Lieutenant General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, was awarded the first prize, while male representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation also received awards.

In a news release, Maktoum said that gender equality was in the spirit of the founding father of the Emirates: “The achievements of Emirati women today reaffirm the wise vision of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who believed in the importance of the role of women, and their right to work and become key partners in society.”

But the fact there were zero women among the winners announced on Sunday drew widespread criticism and mockery.

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“Great to see Dubai promoting and rewarding the promotion of gender balance, but there is something missing in these photos ... cannot put my finger on it …” posted one on Twitter.

“Sorry which genders are they balancing? We see only one,” posted another.

According to the news release put out by the Dubai media office, Maktoum had “recognised the efforts” of one woman - Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum - but she did not win an award.

She is the head of the UAE’s Gender Balance Council and wife of a deputy prime minister.

In previous years, the UAE’s Gender Balance Index has honoured women. In 2017, the same year that the index was launched, the UAE launched a programme to try to become one of the top 25 countries in the world for gender equality by 2021.

Despite the bad optics, the UAE is the highest ranked Gulf state for gender equality and second only to Israel in the wider Middle East, according to the United Nations.

The country was listed as 34th among nations in a 2017 ranking, just behind Poland.

However, activist groups argue that the country has not fully implemented laws that would stop discrimination against women.

In their 2018 country report, Human Rights Watch noted that discrimination of the basis of sex and gender was not included in a 2015 anti-discrimination law and also that current law permits domestic violence by a husband to his wife.

Additional reporting by Thomson Reuters Foundation