Bahrain Ranks First in the Gulf for Empowering Women
Bahrain has achieved a high ranking in human development with
regards to women’s rights, education, health and income, according
to the 2009 UN Human Development Report. Bahrain was ranked fourth
out of 155 countries for exerting efforts to develop the capacity
of women. The report stressed that despite the fact that Bahrain
scored 39 out of 182 countries and fell one place due to the entry
of 3 new countries in the report, it has still achieved a high score
in the main indicators of human development which are health, education
and income, thus gaining its first place among the Gulf states in
the empowerment of women particularly for occupying leadership positions.
The report also affirms that there has been a positive increase
in human development in Bahrain since 1985. The report data ranks
Bahrain first in spending on education among other Arab states (Bahrain
spends 9.5% of its budget on education), and in the ratification
of international agreements. The report also states that the percentage
of people attending primary, secondary and university education
has reached 90% which is the highest in the Gulf area and ranks
28th in the world. It also shows that 88% of the youth aged 15 and
above were interested in reading and writing. The life expectancy
of the Bahraini citizen has reached 77 years and the GDP per capita
was US$30,000 for 2007.
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