IWG celebrates International Women’s Day
The International Women’s Group (IWG) celebrated International Women’s Day at Crowne Plaza Hotel yesterday. The event was organized by the Russian Embassy in cooperation with Crowne Plaza Hotel. “The IWG meeting in March coincides with International Women’s Day. This anniversary is considered rewarding for all women across the world for the roles that they play to develop societies,” said Narjes Al-Shatti, a board member of IWG. “IWG is celebrating International Woman’s Day with the participation of a number of diplomats and ambassadors, who will give their opinion on the role of women around the world who helped in developing their countries in all fields,” she added.
Shatti pointed out that women succeeded to get their rights by fighting for them. “The woman fought for equal rights and the recognition of being an active member. She deserves to have this day to celebrate her accomplishments and encourage others. IWG is preparing for a spring festival on March 15 at Ruby Tuesday restaurant. We are going to visit Sheikh Nasser Al-Ahmed AlJaber Al-Sabah, Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs, this month. The ambassador of Uzbekistan has also invited IWG to visit Uzbekistan for two weeks, where we will visit the historical cities of Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara,” she said.
Shatti said Ambassador of Canada Martine Mareau, First Secretary of the Embassy of Cuba Maribel Duarte Gonzalez, Second Counselor of the French Embassy Veronique Bertrand-Galli and Dr Nibal Bourisly, who used to work at the Kuwait Cultural Office in the UK, will share their stories of success as women.
Bourisly, the undersecretary general for academic and students’ affairs at the private university council, told Kuwait Times that “IWG invited me today to speak about my experiences and the challenges that I faced as a Kuwaiti woman outside Kuwait. I’m going to talk about the values that I gained during my career when I was in London. You should have a mentality to understand how to deal with different cultures. Once you erase differences or stereotyping people, it will become much easier.”
She added that she worked at the Kuwaiti Cultural Office in London with people from more than 10 nationalities. “You have to understand their culture to understand them. You have to understand the work ethics to learn from them for your work and own sake. One of the most important thing that I learned was the importance of global citizenship among our youth - we instill in them this kind of value. We provide them with the tools to live with all kinds of people. We encouraged Kuwaiti students in London to engage with the British society and not only with the closed Kuwaiti community,” Bourisly said. At the event, IWG presented a documentary where the ambassadors spoke about women’s role in the world and the sacrifices they made to obtain their rights.