The third ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference on women's affairs opened in Tehran on Sunday. The conference will run until Tuesday, Tehran Times reported.
The meeting focuses on promotion of women's participation in the economic area, reducing impacts of financial crises and economic developments on women, convergence of Islamic countries, lifting economic siege on some Islamic states, the problems faced by Palestinian women and delivering aid to them, as well as the crises in Pakistan and Indonesia.
Representatives from a number of OIC member states including Afghanistan, Albani, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cameron, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Senegal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, and Uganda are attending the meeting.
The two first OIC ministerial meetings on women affairs were respectively held in Turkey (2006) and Egypt (2007).
Opening the conference, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed drawing up a 'charter on role of women and families in saving humanity'.
During his speech, Ahmadinejad highlighted the importance of drawing up a roadmap to help revive human rights particularly women's rights.
Drawing up such a roadmap necessitates consultations with intellectuals from other countries, the president added.
He also insisted on women's participation in various spheres in society.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmadinejad said that economy must be at the service of humanity not the other way around.
He also said that women are the main victims of the arrogant powers' policies and criticized materialistic attitude toward human being.
Feminism is the "cry of protest of crushed women in capitalism", the president stated.