BWU to go to seed likely

The Bahrain Women’s Union (BWU), an organisation that helps women and children combat violence, promote women empowerment and strives to improve laws, is facing closure due to lack of financial aid. 

BWU’s financial woes started back in 2013, when external funds started to cease, prompting it to depend solely on the grant provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Development.

And in November this year, the Union was informed that the monthly financial support of BD1500 by the Ministry would cease by the end of 2015.

Financial constrains have forced the union to move its headquarters several times, and lay off three women employees. 

It also prevents the Union from regularly fulfilling their material obligations including paying employees, financial compensation, rent or utility bills and accumulated salaries.

President of BWU, Fatima Bu Idrees confirmed that if the issue persists till the end of the month, they wouldn’t be able to keep their headquarters at Zinj.

As of now, the union lacks an alternative headquarters, and so there is no place store files and necessary equipment, which cannot be disposed off after closing the headquarters.

“We don’t know what is going to happen, having nothing to depend on. We have even started selling the headquarters’ furniture and equipment to raise funds,” Bu Idrees said.

“We have approached the Supreme Council for Women and the Ministry of Labour and Social Development and all we’ve obtained is a verbal agreement. I beseech the wise leadership of the Prime Minister to help us find a solution, because we need to be an independent and official entity to run programmes that would help women and children,” she added. 

BWU, which was established in September 2006, has achieved many accomplishments in the last one decade. 

The BWU was instrumental in issuing provisions in the Family Law (Sunni) in 2009 and the law to protect families from domestic violence in 2015. It also worked to achieve full citizenship for women by contributing to make amendments in the legislation to give equality to Bahraini women married to non-Bahrainis to grant citizenship to their children.

In addition, it followed up on the subject of labour recruitment offices and the problems of domestic workers, in coordination with the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions and Expats Association.