‘What Women Want’ workshop held at Asian University of Women

Asian University of Women (AUW) with the support of UN Women held a day-long workshop titled "What Women Want" to stimulate a discussion on women's empowerment, gender equality and their role as young female leaders. 

A group of all-female Ambassadors from embassies and development agencies in Dhaka took part in an engaging panel discussion with students of AUW, said a press release on Saturday. 

Country Representative of UN Women Bangladesh Shoko Ishikawa led the panel discussion. 

The panel speakers included - Ambassador of Royal Thai Embassy Arunrung Phothong Humphreys, Ambassador of Swedish Embassy Charlotta Schlyter, Ambassador of Royal Norwegian Embassy Sidsel Bleken, Country Representative of UNFPA Bangladesh Asa Torkelsson, and Head of Education and Education Programme Specialist of UNESCO Dhaka Sun Lei. 

The panel speakers motivated students with advice on career choices and insight on leadership. 

"The Asian University for Women as an institution and the enthusiastic students inspired us to do more to create a supportive environment for these young women to be able to realize their dreams and aspirations," Shoko Ishikawa said.

"We were impressed by the awareness and eagerness of the students to take hard gender inequality issues into their own hands and contribute to social justice and change," she added.

The year 2020 is a pivotal year for advancing gender equality worldwide, as the global community takes stock of progress made for women's rights since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. 

This year also mark significant moments in the gender equality movement: a five-year milestone towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.