Questões da Prova UESPI - 2011 - UESPI - Vestibular - Prova 01

Suffrage is one of the oldest issues that women’s rights activist have been fighting for. The struggle to gain suffrage is often referred to as the first wave of feminism. In 1906

Finland became the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote and stand in elections. Now, 105 years later, Saudi women have also taken a step towards equality with the decision of King Abdullah to grant the women of Saudi Arabia the right to vote and stand for election. The right for women to vote and stand in elections hasn’t always been the case in the West, for example in Switzerland women got suffrage as late as 1971.

According to the decision made by King Abdullah, Saudi women can take part in municipal elections – the only public elections in Saudi Arabia. Women will also be able to be members of the Shura Council which has the power to propose laws to the King.

The announcement has been received with mixed emotions. According to the international organization of Parliaments, IPU, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the decision means that no country in the world now discriminates against women when it comes to electing leaders. Others remain more sceptical. For example professor and researcher Stéphane Lacroix said in an interview for French newspaper Libération that this decision does not fundamentally change Saudi society.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomes the recent announcements. He believes that these represent an important step in the realization by women in Saudi Arabia of their fundamental civil and political rights.

It will be interesting to see how this law will be implemented and if it succeeds in advancing women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.

Disponível em: <http://www.create4theun.eu/women-all-around-the-world-areallowed-to-vote/>  Acessado em 2 de outubro de 2011. 

More than 250 people were nominated for the prize this year, and there had been speculation that the committee would reward activists from the Middle East who used social networking sites and other Internet platforms as they challenged entrenched dictatorships.

But if the committee had singled out the Arab Spring, it could have courted criticism that, far from rewarding efforts toward peace, it had chosen a phenomenon whose final outcome in Egypt and Tunisia is far from clear, and which has provoked bloodletting and strife in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.

Mr. Jagland said the 2011 prize recognized those “who were there long before the world’s media was there reporting.”

The announcement in the Norwegian capital followed intense speculation that the prize would be awarded variously to a figure from the Arab Spring, the European Union or exclusively to Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf, 72, a Harvardeducated economist, who has often been cast as a pioneer in African politics.

She was broadly perceived as a reformer and peacemaker when she took office after several years in exile.

In Yemen, Ms. Karman has been widely known as a vocal opponent of the pro-American regime of Mr. Saleh since 2007, leading a human rights advocacy group called Women Journalists Without Chains. But it was only earlier this year that her readiness to take to the streets inspired thousands more in Yemen to do the same.

In Liberia, Ms. Gbowee, 39, was cited by the Nobel committee for uniting Christian and Muslim women against her country’s warlords. As head of the Women for Peace movement, she was praised for mobilizing women “across ethic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war” that had raged for years in Liberia until its end in 2003 and for ensuring “women’s participation in elections.”

Adaptado de: <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/world/nobel-peace-prizejohnson-sirleaf-gbowee-karman.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp>  Acessado em 7 de outubro de 2011.