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On January 27th, the UAE gave away gender equality awards. The authorities in the country were strongly ridiculed on social media after it turned out that all of the awarded individuals are men.
. @HHShkMohd honors the winners of the Gender Balance Index 2018. The Index features three categories: Best Personality for Supporting Gender Balance, Best Federal Entity for Supporting Gender Balance, and the Best Initiative for Supporting Gender Balance. #UAE pic.twitter.com/qE5GkYHzTo
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) January 27, 2019
Certificates and medals were awarded by Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, in the categories of “best government entity supporting gender balance”, “best federal authority supporting gender balance” and “best gender balance initiative” at a ceremony.
The awards went to the finance ministry, the federal competitiveness and statistics authority and ministry of human resources respectively. All awarded departments were represented by male awardees.
Another absurdity is that essentially the UAE government was giving “gender equality” awards to its own departments, to itself in short.
This included top ranking generals given that the deputy prime minister and minister of the interior, Lt Gen Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahyan, received the “best personality supporting gender balance” — supposedly for his tireless efforts implementing maternity leave in the UAE’s military.
Expectedly, the Twitter post and the Award initiative were both ridiculed widely on social media.
— Ana Lúcia (@AnneCalie) January 28, 2019
nice pic.twitter.com/A368mmdEot
— Seth Cowan (@Crystal_SethLab) January 27, 2019
— Weesue – Ex Fundy (@weesue) January 28, 2019
The Dubai Media Office tried to salvage the situation with a follow-up tweet, which dug an even deeper hole.
. @HHShkMohd: We are proud of the success of Emirati women and their role is central to shaping the future of the country. Gender balance has become a pillar in our governmental institutions. #UAE pic.twitter.com/zKPkn9nTMd
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) January 27, 2019
After all, the post did add a few women in the group photograph.
Following are some of the more interesting responses.
— CBNN (@TheRealCBNN) January 28, 2019
Wow, did The Onion hack y'all?
— Earth Warrior (@Earth_Woman1) January 27, 2019
And finally, in the spirit of gender equality and LGBTQ justice.
So they all identify as women?
— Candice Blackwell (@candblack) January 28, 2019
