On October 28th, 2020, the University of Hassan II in partnership with Stevens Initiative launched a webinar on Women’s Leadership: Driving Change. Dr. Driss Ouaouicha, Delegate Minister of Higher Education, opened the webinar by introducing and welcoming the participants as well as the audience. The webinar was mainly about finding ways to empower women and create more opportunities for them. The President of Hassan II University started her speech by highlighting the importance of such webinars, and she encouraged everyone to be involved in them more often in order to give women the opportunity to engage and be heard.
The participants enriched the conversation by sharing their own stories and how they became leaders in their societies. The common point between all female speakers was that they were the first to occupy high positions in their small communities. Such stories inspire not only women but everyone out there to take action and make a change in society. The webinar was a chance to remind women of their worth and capabilities in changing their economic situations by changing their attitudes first and pursuing their goals.
This message of women’s empowerment is the key to the work being done by the High Atlas Foundation (HAF). HAF invests in women’s empowerment by providing workshops to women in rural areas and helping them develop their own projects. The programs provided by HAF do not stress the economic issues alone, but they also include all topics that will be of help to women like emotions, body, work, and spirituality.
As a member of the audience and a volunteer in HAF, I thank my mentor and professor Abdelkader Sabil for the invitation. It was a great platform to meet different people from different countries who are willing to discuss this interesting topic and provide many opportunities for women to act as leaders in Moroccan society.