I want to break down every wall that comes in our way and instead build a bridge

Two years ago the Arab world’s first regional parliament was inaugurated in Cairo.

Arab states were invited to nominate representatives and each country was asked to put forward at least one woman. From the 22 countries making up the Arab Parliament, only nine women were nominated. One of those women was Alice Simaan, a Bahraini – and a Christian.
Miss Simaan is remarkable woman and the embodiment of a powerful message that Bahrain is sending to the international community.
“Bahrain has nominated me as a Christian and as a woman to set an example. Lebanon and Palestine also nominated Christians.
But I am the only Christian woman. Bahrain is sending a message to show that this is how we run our country and we wish you would do the same. Bahrain is showing harmonious living between all people and I hope this goes down to the grassroots,” she said.
Miss Simaan is a member of the Shura Council, the upper house of the National Assembly, the main legislative body of Bahrain.
She is one of 40 members appointed by the King of Bahrain, and the first woman to have been chosen three times consecutively to sit on the council.
She is also the first woman – even if it was by default – to have chaired the Shura council. (If the chairman, vice-chairman and second vice-chairman are all absent, the duty falls to the eldest member of the council.)
“It was the first time age has come in handy!” she joked. 
Miss Simaan is now one of 10 women in the Shura Council, showcasing what is becoming an increasingly familiar reality: throughout the Arab world women are taking on high-profile political roles.
“Bahraini women have really worked hard, they have excelled in many fields and the leadership has recognised this. They did not appoint just anybody, but those whose history speaks for them,” said Miss Simaan. 
She is also keen to point out that she is not just “a decoration,” chosen because of her faith and gender.
“His Majesty wanted to show that he cares about his people, and he wanted his council to be representative of everybody who is a Bahraini regardless of sex, or ethnicity or religion,” she explained.
“All of us have different backgrounds with different ideas, and this crystallises in our committee meetings.
“His Majesty has his wisdom because each person in the council is important, and when they speak, I always think yes, they have a point.” 
Despite being the first woman to ever chair an Arab parliament, Miss Simaan is not a seasoned politician with a lengthy political career behind her.
Instead her life has been a diverse and all-encompassing collection of projects which has given her a unique position at the forefront of the region’s development.
Born to Iraqi and Turkish parents who emigrated to the kingdom in the late 1920s, Miss Simaan was brought up in Bahrain.
“I grew up among Arab neighbours and as Christians we never found problems,” she said.
“This is a Muslim country, your religion is your own, their religion is their own, and you have to respect and love it. If you are going to live here you must live here with respect and love for everybody. And that is how we were brought up.”
She studied at the American Mission School before completing her education at the British Lebanese Training School in Beirut, Lebanon.
While still at school in the 1950s, Bahrain Radio was established and Miss Simaan was asked to read the news, becoming the first woman to broadcast in the Gulf.
During her summer holidays she would read reports compiled from BBC broadcasts.
“At the time Bahraini women would not do these things,” she said, “There were no other stations and small boys would imitate me when I walked down the street saying ‘Hona el Bahrain,’ (this is Bahrain) which I always said at the start of my broadcasts.”
Her broadcasting career was put on hold when she returned to the American Mission School to teach for four years.
Then, in the early 60s, another radio station requested her services. Radio Voice of the Gospel – a religious station – operating out of Kuwait and Ethiopia asked her to produce shows for them.
Miss Simaan was sent by the station to train with the BBC in London, and later moved to Kuwait. Soon she had mastered how to write, produce and broadcast radio shows.
“I really learned from my work,” she said. “I met fantastic people, poets and writers and thinkers.”
On one trip to Addis Ababa she met the Emperor Haile Selassie who complemented her Bahraini pearls.
After six years away from home, Miss Simaan once again returned to Bahrain where she was quickly snapped up by Bahrain Radio as well as the Ministry of Health, where she helped to “Bahrainise” the health system.
Then in the 1980s the United Nation’s Children Fund (Unicef) opened an office in Bahrain.
Miss Simaan became the organisation’s national programme officer, organising immunisation drives and campaigns to improve children’s health.
After five years the infant mortality rate had fallen to such a low level that Unicef pulled out of the country and Miss Simaan was asked to move to Oman to become the international programme officer where she worked for six years.
The position meant that she became the first Bahraini to join the United Nations agency as an international worker.
In 1994, over 30 years after she first read the news on the radio, she once again went back to broadcasting, this time as a news anchor on Bahrain TV. But the first time she read the news to the camera she says she was so bad her sisters told her to give up.
“They said give it up, we’re ashamed of you, go back to the radio,” said Miss Simaan.
That evening she watched and re-watched the footage until she worked out what she was doing wrong and the next day she did it perfectly.
It was while working for the TV station that the news broke that the King was going to appoint a Shura Council.
“The girls at the station said you’re going to be appointed and I said what a wonderful joke,” she said.
But sure enough, a few days later a call came from the Prime Minister’s Office. “My heart stopped.” she said. “I had never been a politician and I had never been involved in political societies.
“I met the Prime Minister and he said we’ve watched your history, we know what you’ve done for this country, we would like for you to continue serving your country as a member of the Shura Council. I said, what an honour, I hope I can live up to it. I felt so humbled.”
But almost immediately, her life experiences became essential elements contributing to the success of her new political career.
“All the work I had done previously became very handy. It’s all in the back of your mind and all your experiences come in handy when you are legislating and that is what really matters,” she said.
“You come with your own views, background knowledge and experience … and add to it.”
She was appointed on to the General Services Committee which deals with health and education and over the years she has worked on laws affecting children and women.
After decades of work and achievements Miss Simaan shows no sign of slowing down.
“Challenges and accomplishments motivate me. I love life and I want to make this a better world for everyone including me. I want to break down every wall that comes in our way and instead build a bridge.”
As one of the handful of women currently at the top of politics in the region, Miss Simaan provides a powerful advert for the unifying and essential role that women can play.

Special Report
By -RdS-
editor@gulfweekly.com