By Elizabeth Kelleher
Washington File Special Correspondent

Washington -- The U.S. government, under its Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), is preparing to sponsor conferences in cooperation with Qatar, Jordan and Egypt to bolster women's rights and promote education in the Middle East.

Qatar's Supreme Council for Family Affairs and two MEPI-supported U.S. organizations -- the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute -- will host a women's campaign school in Doha, Qatar, Feb. 14-18. The government of Jordan joins MEPI to host a conference on women and the law in Amman, Jordan, Feb. 16-18. And Egyptian officials and MEPI are planning an education summit in Alexandria, Egypt, for mid-April.

MEPI was established by President Bush to support political, economic and social reform efforts in the Middle East. MEPI strives to link Arab and U.S. private-sector businesses, non-governmental organizations, civil society elements, and governments to achieve its goals. MEPI underpins President Bush's goal of creating a Middle East free trade area by 2013.

The "Al-Khalij [Gulf] Women's Campaign Initiative" begins Saturday [Feb. 14] in Doha. It will draw women who serve as public officials, are candidates for office or are activists for change from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Participants will be instructed by "trainers" from Canada, the United States, Jordan, Morocco and Lebanon. Among the speakers will be Fatna El Khiel, a member of parliament in Morocco, and Wejdan el-Saket, a member of the Jordanian parliament.

Attendees will develop campaign messages and learn to organize volunteers and to use limited money to target an audience. They will focus on the nitty-gritty of campaigning -- how to speak well in public, have a good picture or videotape taken or make political posters.

Organizers said that in many places in the region, voting is becoming possible for women. Bahraini citizens elected their parliament in 2002 for the first time in 25 years. Oman extended the vote to all adult citizens and held elections last fall. Qatar has a new constitution and plans to hold elections in the coming year. Qatar's constitution guarantees women the rights to vote and to run for elective office.

In the last few years, female political participation has been an issue in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates, according to Professor John Voll of Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. "There were votes in parliaments to define the political power and role of women," he said.

"There was some progress," he said, "but not as much as people had hoped." For instance, in 1999, Kuwait's ruler proposed giving women the right to vote, but his decree was narrowly defeated in the Kuwaiti parliament.

"This is not particularly an Islamic issue, " Voll said. "There are Muslim-majority countries where there have been women heads of government." He said almost one-fourth of the Muslims of the world live where they have elections and females have won.

Referring to women's political participation, Heba Elshazli, a deputy director of the National Democratic Institute, said, "we will pump it up." She said organizers are committed to building "a community of activists and a community of possible candidates" and promised additional campaign schools in Morocco, Jordan and Yemen.

"Women and the Law -- A Regional Dialogue" is the title of a conference to take place in Amman beginning February 16. Jordan's Justice Minister Salah Al Bashir will open the event with his remarks, to be followed by those of U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Edward Gnehm. Queen Rania of Jordan is invited.

Jordan is a "one of the more active places in the region on these issues," said Angela Conway, a director at American Bar Association's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative and an event organizer. Conway said Jordan has a Council of Family Protection that analyzes legislation for its impact on women. The Jordanian government supports organizations, such as the Jordan River Foundation, a women's legal-aid clinic, which educate women about their legal rights.

Participants are expected from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Fern M. Smith, a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California, will attend the Amman conference. She said there is a substantial number of female professors and lawyers in the Arab world who are active on these issues. She added that bar associations are being formed in a number of Arab countries. Judge Smith said that although she hopes that more women will become judges in Arab countries, she does not anticipate rapid progress. She said even in the United States, woman do not occupy 50 percent of the judgeships.

Besides encouraging women's legal and judicial careers, discussion in Amman will focus on the personal legal status of women. "That will be the riveting topic," Conway said.

Conway said steps taken in January in Morocco to liberalize women's status would provide interesting dialogue. Morocco revised its family law code to give wives joint responsibility in family matters, allowing them to seek divorce, custody of children and equal share of goods acquired during marriage. Morocco also raised the age girls can marry to 18 from 15 and restricted polygamy.

Egyptian officials and MEPI staffers are working out the details of a conference to be held in Alexandria, Egypt in mid-April called a "Transforming Education Summit." MEPI and Egypt will co-host it and are seeking additional private sector sponsorship. Participants will share "best practices" in education, with an emphasis on technology.

One of the key reference points of the Alexandria gathering is a program launched in 2002 by Jordan to bring Internet access to its educational systems. The Jordan Education Initiative involves laying fiber cable throughout the country to accommodate high-speed Internet access in classrooms and revamping educational standards and curriculum. The Jordanian government has invested tens of millions of dollars in its Education Initiative, and several U.S.-based companies, including Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp., have donated goods and services. Education officials from Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Tunisia and Syria have asked Jordan how to undertake similar reforms.

In addition, a pilot program in Egypt that offers teachers performance-based pay will be spotlighted at the Alexandria meeting.

"MEPI is focused on supporting voices of change working within the region," said Alina Romanowski, the head of the MEPI office in the State Department. She said the three forthcoming MEPI programs will create partnerships that will drive change from within the Arab world.