Progress Amid Resistance

350 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAF The government should enact laws criminalizing sexual harassment inthe workplace and should establish programs to provide informationand support to female victims of sexual harassment.F The government should eliminate gender discrimination in the educationsector and provide women with equal resources, funding, andaccess to higher and technical education facilities.F The government should ensure that all jobs are open to women byestablishing affirmative action programs in both the public and privatesectors.POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIC VOICEOmani men and women do not have the right to change their governmentdemocratically, and have only limited rights to peaceful assemblyand freedom of speech. All organized activities require prior governmentapproval, political parties continue to be banned, and all opposition to thegovernment is prohibited. Nevertheless, the Omani political field is liberalizinggradually as women are beginning to play more important rolesin the upper level of government, are registering to vote in larger numbers,and are increasingly running as candidates in parliamentary elections.Universal suffrage was offered for the first time to both women and menin the 2003 elections, although selected groups of citizens of both gendershad been voting since 1994. Recently, civic associations have been establishedin a variety of fields, and in November 2004, the Oman JournalistsAssociation was approved three years after submitting its application.Oman has a bicameral advisory parliament consisting of the appointedState Council and the elected Consultative Council, neither of which haslegislative powers. Elections for the Consultative Council most recentlyoc curred in October 2007, drawing approximately 63 percent of the morethan 388,000 registered voters. The number of female candidates in creasedfrom 15 in the 2003 election to 21 in the 2007 election, but for the firsttime since they were permitted to run as candidates in 1994, no womenwere elected. 31 Some analysts blamed this on widespread vote-buying, whileothers contended that there were no qualified female candidates that couldcapture widespread support. Meanwhile, many women argue that theyneed extraordinary skills to compete with ordinary men if they are to overcomethe bias against women leaders that continues to pervade Oman’sin creasingly conservative society.