By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter

A prominent Qatari educationalist and philanthropist has advocated for a gender quota system for the empowerment of women in Qatar and the region.
Speaking to Gulf Times, Board member of Rota as well as a member of Supreme Education Council (SEC) Sheikha Dr Aisha bint Faleh al-Thani said: “I hope that in Qatar there will soon be the implementation of a gender quota system. Such an arrangement will make sure that women are represented in most of the sectors of the society.  It is important to make sure that women have a voice in every segment  of the country.”
She added that Qatar is a leader in many of the educational and social activities in the region and hopefully, the country will be the first in the region to follow the suit in this regard too.
Sheikha Aisha said that every year she used to give talks about women empowerment inside and outside Qatar. She explained: “Women empowerment is a topic that is very close to my heart. Some countries in the Far East already started implementing the gender quota system. I did speak about the subject in Georgetown University earlier this year.”
The official said that she had recently attended a conference on philanthropy organised by CAS Business School London. She said: “CAS business school is co-operating with World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists and has come up with a programme to launch a diploma in philanthropy. A diploma in philanthropy is first of its kind in the world.”
She said practitioners, heads of foundations, top level managers and philanthropists can join the one-year diploma.
Sheikha Aisha said that at her request CAS has decided to launch the programme in Qatar. She said: “The representatives of CAS Business School will be in Qatar for the recruitment of the first lot of people for the diploma programme. It runs over a year with one or to workshops in two months. It is awarded under the accreditation of CAS Business School which is very important.”
Dr Aisha also revealed that she was contributing to a  book on philanthropy. She commented:  “As an academic of philanthropy, I am writing a segment of a book about empowerment of women called ‘Companion to Philanthropy’ The book will soon be published by Rutledge.”  
She added that the philanthropy conference on the topic of women’s role in philanthropy was attended by many members of Islamic institutions as well representatives from Islamic financing.