Ramallah: Human Rights and Democracy Media Center, “SHAMS”, in cooperation with the Canadian Women’s Fund, organized a round table meeting through the Zoom app on the importance of female students ’participation in the student council’s elections for nomination and election, in which a group of students from An-Najah National University participated.
The meeting aims to determine the reasons for students ’reluctance to participate in the elections, to identify the importance of participating in student elections in Palestinian universities, the problems that affect student decision-making on campus, the importance of female students’ participation in student elections, as candidates and electors, and the reasons for female students ’failure to participate in the elections.
In turn, the lecturer, Dr Othman Othman, addressed the importance of women’s participation in decision-making and their effective role in society and in the political process, and the importance of female students ’participation in student elections that would contribute to forming their awareness at an early period and determining their political affiliations, and breaking down their psychological barriers to speak in public, express their opinions, and strongly represent other females, which qualifies them for political participation later on, and an opportunity to accustom society to the existence of political roles for women and the ability of women to run for leadership positions and participate in decision-making.
Adding that the participation of female students in the elections in universities opens the way for female students to participate in making decisions and conveying their voices to those concerned with the university and the development of their concept of democracy, freedom, clear policy for the election process, transparency in action, demand and preserve their rights, adopting their practical and academic issues and working on their solution, as well as participating in supporting the academic process, cultural, social experience in the university.
At the end of the meeting, the participants recommended the importance of properly administering the elections within universities and among students, in order to result in a strong, democratic student council that has awareness and culture and is qualified to represent all students. The participants also recommended working on the awareness of students, increasing the participation rate of female students in university councils, provided that the applicant is able to serve and defend students, the need for a supervisory and accounting body to hold the student council accountable for its work, and the need to emphasize that university youth in all the world are the main engine of change and development, and elections University is nothing but a democratic experiment that represents student awareness.