Passage of Affirmative Action Bill an acknowledgement of need to address issues related to female representation – Shamima Muslim

Media personality and a communications team member of the National Democratic Congress(NDC),  Shamima Muslim has described the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill as an acknowledgement and endorsement of some inequality issues which need to be addressed.

Speaking on TV3 New Day, she said “the passage is an acknowledgement and endorsement by the people of Ghana that there are issues to address when it comes to representation and inclusion in our society.”

Shamima Muslim said all the clauses in the bill are important, adding that this is a first good step, which will require some awareness to drive education about the whole gender debate.

According to her, the gender debate was the stumbling block, due to the appreciation of gender and viewing of the bill as some feminist groups who want to distort the country’s cultural set up adding that there is an entire science behind the calls for inclusion.

She further noted that the statistics have shown that women are the group that has been under-represented in all spheres of public life, even though women play crucial roles in their private and informal sector.

Shamima noted that the Ghana Statistical Service report shows that there are more female headed households than men.

“We all have such experience of the metrics in our families, there are so many things women bring to the society,” she concluded.

By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme