UAE's gender equality awards won entirely by men

Emirati authorities ridiculed on social media after Gender Balance Index awards announced

Bethan McKernan
Mon 28 Jan 2019 11.38 GMT

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have been ridiculed after it emerged that all of the winners of an initiative designed to foster gender equality in the workplace were men.

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 on Sunday.

The awards went to the finance ministry, the federal competitiveness and statistics authority and ministry of human resources respectively, which were all represented by male awardees.

The deputy prime minister and minister of the interior, Lt Gen Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahyan, was recognised as the “best personality supporting gender balance” for his efforts creating maternity leave in the UAE’s military.

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“Has The Onion hacked y’all?” another Twitter user asked, referring to the satirical website.

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