When Jordanians went to the polls in 2007\u2019s local elections, one candidate in particular stood out. Kawtar Abd-Allah Bakheet Al-Egweiri was a clear vote-winner (being the woman candidate who received most votes in the entire country) and was overwhelmingly elected onto the municipal council of Jordan\u2019s third-largest city, Zarga.
\nIn the run-up to the local elections, Kawtar Abd-Allah Bakheet Al-Egweiri ran her own campaign with the help of friends and family who assisted by handing out flyers and putting up election posters.
\nHowever, that same strategy was not enough for one of her colleagues somewhere else in the world. When Danish Birgitte Vind ran in the 2009 local council elections in Denmark\u2019s ninth-largest city Vejle, she had to think creatively in order to catch the attention of the voters. Therefore, she set up a boxing match between her and an opposing male candidate to drum up press coverage and thereby get her message across to the voters.
\nOn a sofa in Copenhagen, these election stories from Jordan, Morocco and Denmark are digested with a solicitous air of understanding.
\nWe are at a conference on women in local government in the Danish capital Copenhagen. Here, three such political women \u2013 Moroccan Zakia Mrini, Jordanian Kawtar Abd-Allah Bakheet Al-Egweiri and Danish Birgitte Vind \u2013 have taken a seat on the sofa to share with each other their experiences of being a woman in local government.
\nAlthough being very different, the three of them have something in common \u2013 they have all gone into politics because they want to make a difference. <\/p>\n
Danish Birgitte Vind is 45 years old and is new in the world of politics having only served as a town councillor for one year.
\n\u201cI stood for election because I was unsatisfied with the policy of the government. I thought it was short sighted and failed to tackle some important political issues,\u201d she explains.
\nMoroccan Zakia Mrini is 51 years old and serving in her second term. She has been in local government for seven years and is now mayor of the Gu\u00e9liz district of Marrakech, Morocco\u2019s second largest city.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve always had a strong sense of justice and believed in fighting discrimination and it\u2019s because of these convictions that I\u2019ve been politically active for the last 20 years,\u201d Mrini tells.
\nFor many years, Zakia Mrini has been involved with the Moroccan women\u2019s movement and she is founder and president of several women\u2019s rights organisations.
\nJordanian Kawtar Abd-Allah Bakheet Al-Egweiri is also serving her second term and has eight years of local government experience behind her.
\nShe entered into politics because she believes that local politics in Jordan needs the contribution of women.
\n\u201cMen dominate society and are the decision makers in many areas. But now, with five women having been elected onto the local council, things are changing,\u201d she points out.
\nIn all three countries, men outnumber women in local government. The ways the different countries deal with this imbalance in the corridors of local power differ significantly. As do the ways the three women perceive the situation \u2013 are there fewer women in local government because local social barriers afford women less opportunity to gain political influence? Or is the low number of women in local government due to the women themselves?<\/p>\n
Moroccan Zakia Mrini is in no doubt. When the conversation turns to the causes of the gender imbalance in local government, she smiles and shakes her head.
\n\u201cMen and women can\u2019t compete on equal terms,\u201d she says.
\n\u201cThere is a clear imbalance between the genders throughout the hierarchy. Just look at the figures \u2013 they speak for themselves,\u201d she stresses
\nToday, only 12% of the elected local government officials in Morocco are women. And this amount is taking into account the fact that, following pressure from the Moroccan women\u2019s movement, quotas were introduced at the last local elections \u2013 a quota for women which has been set at 12%. The number of women mayors is even lower.
\nMarrakech, where Zakia Mrini herself is mayor for the district of Gu\u00e9liz, saw its first ever woman lord mayor elected at the last elections \u2013 the first ever woman lord mayor in the country. The 33-year-old lawyer made headline news across the world when she toppled the city\u2019s male lord mayor of many years and was slated by critics who questioned her ability and political clout to be able to lead one of Morocco\u2019s largest cities. -Just as many were furious about the fact that Morocco had even introduced quotas for the number of women elected to local government office.
\n\u201cThe introduction of a quota wasn\u2019t well received within the political system. Many believed that it was tantamount to giving seats on the local council away to women,\u201d Zakia Mrini explains.<\/p>\n
Such was not the case in Jordan when Kawtar Abd-Allah Bakheet Al-Egweiri ran in the 2007 local elections. These elections were the first to be held following the introduction of new laws introducing a quota for women within local councils of 20%. The quota system here was met with no criticism.
\nAt the elections, 215 women were voted into office: 195 of these as a result of the quota system. Kawtar Abd-Allah Bakheet Al-Egweiri was one of the remaining 20 women politicians who won a seat on the local council based purely upon the number of personal votes she had received.
\nKawtar Abd-Allah Bakheet Al-Egweiri is keen to stress that the bulk of mayoral posts are still held by men. Today there is only one woman mayor in Jordan.
\n\u201cParity between men and women is still a long way off in top leadership. But it\u2019s also about the women. Most women don\u2019t elect other women \u2013 they elect men. And women perhaps don\u2019t work as hard as men to get to the top. So the responsibility lies with the women themselves,\u201d explains Kawtar Abd-Allah Bakheet Al-Egweiri <\/p>\n
Unlike Morocco and Jordan, there are no quota systems in place in Denmark at local government level. Nevertheless, a record number of women were elected at the most recent local elections with almost one third of posts, or 32% of local council seats, going to women. At the same time, Denmark achieved the greatest number of women mayors ever with a total of 14, equivalent to 14%.
\nBirgitte Vind was one of the new local politicians to be elected. Although she still sees certain barriers for women in Danish local politics, she believes that these are disappearing.
\n \u201cDanish politics has in the past been very male dominated with male norms and values being the order of the day. Women make room for others \u2013 men don\u2019t make room for others to the same extent. But a lot is changing now. We can already see this at a national level where there is a majority of female party leaders in the Danish parliament Folketinget,\u201d she explains.
\nAccording to Birgitte Vind, the biggest barrier for women today is themselves.
\n\u201cSo many of us just don\u2019t believe that we can do it and we haven\u2019t been brought up around politics. At the same time there is a duality: on the one hand, we believe that having women in politics is important; yet, on the other, the majority of women say \u2018I don\u2019t want to be elected just because I\u2019m a woman but because I\u2019m up to the job\u2019,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n
When stepping into the political arena it is difficult to avoid the media spotlight \u2013 no matter where you live. It is precisely through the media that candidates make themselves visible to voters and convey their messages. But what do the media think of female politicians? Here, again, the experiences of the three women differ.
\n\u201cIn Morocco, the media have reacted to the introduction of quotas and women politicians in different ways,\u201d tells Zakia Mrini.
\n\u201cThose sections of the media that are positive about the women\u2019s movement have shown a keen interest. Whereas areas of the media that are against the quota system have given negative coverage. It\u2019s hard getting through and getting journalists to come when, for example, we are hosting an event,\u201d says Zakia Mrini.
\nBeing able to get a word in is difficult in the Danish media \u2013 whether you\u2019re a man or a woman politician,\u201d explains Birgitte Vind, continuing:
\n\u201cFor me being so new it was important for me to get media coverage. But journalists aren\u2019t interested in hearing opinions about things like educational policies \u2013 they want a story that will sell newspapers.\u201d
\nAnd it was because of this that she came up with the idea to have a boxing match with a political opponent in the area of educational policy, which resulted in catching the media\u2019s interest.
\n<\/p>\n