Supreme Council for Women

The Supreme Council for Women (SCW) is Bahrain’s advisory body to the government on women's issues. It is chaired by Sheikha Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the wife of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The current Secretary General of the Supreme Council is Hala Al Ansari.

The Supreme Council was established to promote women’s rights in the Kingdom and women’s full participation in society, and has been at the forefront of the campaign for the introduction of a unified personal status law (see women’s political rights in Bahrain for more details). It has also published studies, worked to coordinate campaigns with other women’s rights groups, and sought to promote female candidates for the 2006 municipal and general elections. Among the candidates contesting the 2006 poll, to be held on 26 November 2006, is the Council's Dr Munira Fakhro, who is standing for the ex-Marxist Waad.

According to Lulwa Al Awadhi the biggest obstacle to women's rights in Bahrain are clerics, who set political agendas for their followers and have remained steadfastly against a united family law in the kingdom. Ms Al-Awadhi said of particular concern is Shia clerics' objections to women taking part in municipal elections due to what she termed their 'strange' perception that female municipal councillors may be called late in the night to help with a municipal problem and thus be placed in a morally compromising situation.

Former activist with the Supreme Council, Dr Nada Haffadh, was appointed Bahrain’s first full female cabinet minister in 2004 when she became Minister of Health. Several other members are legislators in the upper chamber of parliament, the Consultative Council.

Ghada Jamsheer, the most prominent women's rights activist in Bahrain has accused the Supreme Council of hindering women's rights in Bahrain, calling it a "government cliché". In a statement in December 2006 she said:

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