Conference on Women Empowerment, Gender Justice organised by the Law Society, Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University

Aligarh: “Since the idea of women empowerment swept the world, women are becoming powerful every passing day and now more than ever, it is about improving the way the world perceives the strength of women,” said Prof Namrata Pradhan, Royal University of Bhutan.

She was delivering the keynote address in the international virtual conference on ‘Women Empowerment, Gender Justice and Role of International Law’ organised by the Law Society, Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

Prof Namrata pointed out that women are advancing in each and every field and the world is slowly moving marching towards total gender justice, indispensable for development, poverty reduction and human progress.

She discussed how a woman health minister in Bhutan, Dechen Wangmo, successfully averted the Covid19 crisis in the Himalayan country. With no reported coronavirus-related fatalities, the Bhutan contained the pandemic despite limited resources.

Prof Namrata further discussed laws relating to women in Bhutan. Sharing life experiences, she elaborated the role of her mother in making her a successful person.

Inaugurating the conference, AMU Vice Chancellor, Prof Tariq Mansoor highlighted the contributions of women leaders of various nations in tackling the coronavirus outbreak.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, female leaders at the helm of different countries have effectively handled the Covid19 crisis. The actions of female leaders in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Germany, Taiwan and New Zealand are cited as supporting evidence that women are managing the crisis better than their male counterparts,” said the Vice Chancellor.

He added that even as women have came a long way in the past four decades, be as it may, a lot of work has to be done in order to achieve complete gender justice.

Prof Mansoor pointed out that nowadays, more women are joining the legal field as judges and lawyers in the apex and other courts of the country.

The Director of the Conference, Prof M Shakeel Ahmed Samdani (Dean, Faculty of Law) highlighted women rights in Islamic law.

He mentioned that the religious scriptures guarantee property, remarriage and educational rights to women and curbed the practice of female infanticide.

The Chief Guest, Ms Wafa Rashid Al Alyani, Director, Students Affairs Department, University of Buraimi, Sultanate of Oman delineated laws for promotion of gender justice in Oman. She pointed out that Oman’s 42 percent women are employed in various sectors.

Attending the conference as the Guest of Honour, Dr Sadaf Khan, Princess Nora Univeristy, Riyadh, discussed reforms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for women empowerment.

Dr Shad Ahmad Khan (Chair, Staff Professional Development, University of Buraimi, Oman) introduced the theme of the conference to the participants.

Prof Mohammad Ashraf extended the vote of thanks, while Mohammad Nasir moderated the question and answer session.

Abdullah Samdani, Secretary, Law Society conducted the programme. Ayesha Nasir Alavi and Shalja Singh delivered the welcome address.

Over 3000 academicians, researchers and advanced students from all over the world registered to participate in the conference.