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The Maastricht Diplomat

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Alodia Heijmans

[Fox News] Women’s Healthcare and Education: is there an international answer?

On the second day of EuroMUN Maastricht, delegates from multiple countries in the world are present to debate upon healthcare and education for women within the International Organisation, UN Women. Although heated debates were expected as well as solutions for improvement, the stale arguments seem to show the irrelevance of the discussion at a global scale.


19/05/2023, Day 2 of EuroMUN. The delegates are seated loudly in the room, waiting for the session to start. Yet, the organisation feels slightly scattered, some of the delegates do not have their placard set, professionalism is clearly lacking. Something else is lacking, representation, only one man is present at the session, revealing the seriousness that the session is going to offer. The delegates emphasise the need for improvement in the sector of healthcare as well as education for women, although these objectives are already well rooted in the United Nations. Indeed, the Sustainable Development Goal (4), which aims to improve education and healthcare for women over the world, is already set for 2030, making the point of these negotiations unnecessary - or at least not urgent. During the session, Afghanistan emphasises their need for funding as they want to be supported by NGOs to improve their education and healthcare system. To emphasise this need, they state that women are now done “being told what they are supposed to do and to be '' in Afghanistan. Surprising to say from a country ruled by an Islamic State. On their side, the Western powers of the European Union, such as Germany, remind of their influence in the world in terms of high-quality education, which according to the delegate of Uganda should be an example for other present countries. The United States seems highly optimistic in wanting to include fathers in pregnancy and women's life in order to make their life easier and improve their healthcare. Indeed, although it seems to be feasible in the United States, that is not in the Islamic Republic's present situation such as Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia where society is clearly sexist in their structure. Talking about the wolf, Saudi Arabia seems to support Women’s rights as they wish women to be able to choose for themselves whether they wish to be pregnant or not. Once again surprising to hear such a progressive argument on the behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi, a country that allowed women to participate and vote in the national elections for the first time only in 2015. As a comparison, the United States gave this right in 1869. As the conversion goes on, the topic of abortion is brought up by Japan, to which Afghanistan immediately reacts emphasising the controversy of the topic and how its interpretation and justification is unique to each nation. Surprisingly, we have to agree with Afghanistan on this matter, as we in the United States know better than to let other countries dictate us to let children be killed.

Lastly, memory seems short for Somalia which states they want to avoid the “White Savior '' syndrome, pretending they cannot be “saved” by western power to solve these issues. They seem to forget that last year, the United States donated 1.3 billion euros to the Horn of Africa from which Somalia is part. During these negotiations, most African and Middle East countries seem to turn things to their advantage as well as going away from the original discussion, which seems to be so unnecessary as a topic that delegates have to deviate from it.


- Alodia Heijmans, International Correspondent for Fox News


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