Muscat: The International Women’s Day was celebrated on Saturday by Whispers of Serenity Clinic hosting Women’s Garden at Hormuz Grand Muscat by gathering different women around the world to observe the day in the balanced equal world. The speakers were talking about their subjects but face to face groups of women at times more like a conversation. The slogan for this year's Women's Day has been #balanceforbetter.
The aim of the event was to gather women in a peaceful atmosphere where they can share their magnificent life-changing stories which would impact from one woman to another. The event had 11 garden sections with 20 speakers including international speakers as well as the Egyptian actress Laila Eloui and the United Arab Emirates singer, Ruwaida al Mahrouqi.
The topics ranged from Women in War, Health, Education, Diplomacy, Aviation, Law, Art, Research, Media, Music, Sport etc. According to Her Highness Sayyida Basma al Said, founder of the Whispers of Serenity said, “We wanted to make it easy going like an afternoon tea where women gather and talk about topics as well as inspire each other.
Initially, we came up with five topics and then we noticed women are in a lot of fields. Today here we have 11 gardens but this is nothing there are so many we could not include but we will include them next year. We have asked the speakers to speak about their lives also as women, then their career. So it is different from standing on the stage and talking about what they have done. It is actually speakers addressing – ‘what I did and what I am.’” Singer Ruwaida al Mahrouqi said the event is important because we must support and encourage women sometimes with our experiences we can help them to use any talent they have.
An event such as these encourages others. I would like to tell everyone that no matter what you are doing and no matter how little you think you are doing what you are doing makes a difference.”
Dr Jumana Abduwani was a speaker at the Women in Health Garden and she touched upon accepting changes in life, “In my topic, I was talking about different aspects of life and at times in our life it is important to make a change. What I wanted to say was do not be afraid of believing in yourself, sharing your ideas and going after them. Change sometimes is necessary and it is not a bad thing always. Sometimes we need to change to achieve that better balance in our lives and be able to be happier and healthier.”
Dr Nadiya al Saady, director of Animal and Plant Genetic Resources, said, “It was interesting because I was sharing with them the changing perspective of women in research as well as the challenges we might face in research. We are seeing more women in research today and I think it is time to stop thinking of being a woman as a limitation to research. We can do anything we set our mind upon. It is a question of building the credibility,”
Thubelihle is considered as a survivor, voice and anchor for all women of colour and this is what she had to say under her topic Women in War, “My message is that as a society it is about time we increased the level of commitment to women’s education, to women empowerment, to pay women the same amount of money that we pay men because when we empower women the entire society gains from that. Everyone benefits. Women invest their money in healthcare, in taking care of their families, educating younger children and all that. But when we take income from especially married women we expose them to types of abuse which they would not have gone through if they were not financially dependent on their men.”
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