By Taylor Luck

AMMAN - Established and aspiring women leaders and activists from across the region and the world can now unite under a website launched in the capital on Tuesday.

The International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iKNOW Politics) website, an online workspace and forum designed to serve the needs of elected women officials as well as candidates and researchers, was launched in Arabic for the first time yesterday in order to encourage and assist Arab women leaders.

Addressing around 150 women leaders, political candidates and representatives of women’s organisations, HRH Princess Basma voiced hope that the new media will promote women’s political roles.

“I am confident that greater insight into the cause and message of individual members in the Arab region will be gained through the powerful medium which the iKNOW Politics Arabic website provides,” she said in her keynote speech at a conference to mark the launch.

Princess Basma, who is chairperson of the Jordanian National Women’s Commission, highlighted the commission’s work in securing a quota system to ensure women’s participation in municipal councils. Since the introduction of the quota, some 245 women have become council members, she noted, stressing that they serve as advocates for women in their local communities.

“Jordan recognises that it needs to promote and encourage its citizens to choose their representatives based on merit rather than other considerations, and is promoting the view that the right representative in a democratic process could well be a woman,” said Princess Basma, who also serves as UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador.

The utilisation of modern technology and new media has yet to have an impact on Arab women politicians, she said, as Arab politicians largely rely on “family networks and tribal, clan or regional affiliations”.

Some of the greatest barriers to women’s participation in the Arab world, are poverty and a lack of access to information technology, according to the Princess, who highlighted the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development’s ICT training programmes in rural and underprivileged areas.

Princess Basma stressed that established women politicians must also “play their part” in changing society and overcoming “distrust” of gender reform, which is too often misconceived as a threat to social or religious traditions.

The website, www.iknowpolitics.org,

is already available in English, Spanish and French and hosts a free online library of 1,500 documents including articles, training manuals, legislation and political campaign guides, according to organisers.

The site currently has 70 experts from 30 countries available to answer questions for established or up-and-coming women leaders as well as voters.

The organisation will translate ongoing forum discussion on the websites into the four languages in order to encourage participants from across continents and cultures to exchange insight and experiences, iKNOW Politics Project Manager Anita Vandenbeld told The Jordan Times.

She added that it was important to launch the website in Jordan, “where women’s talents can be unleashed and are in the process of being realised”.

“Before, as a woman politician, there were certain lessons you had to learn and you had to learn them on your own. Now with the iKNOW website, they are never alone,” she noted.

Women’s representation in parliaments stands at 18.9 per cent internationally, while it is 9.7 per cent in Arab states and 6.4 per cent in Jordan, according to organisers.

The two-day conference aims to address quota systems in the region and across the world, the role of the media and perceptions of women, and campaigning with new media.

iKNOW Politics is a union of five organisations including UNDP, UNIFEM, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.