The high table during the programme yesterday
Dr. Fatima Mohammed of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital yesterday urged women to be supportive of each other during her keynote address at the 8th Muslim Women’s Conference held at the Ghana Muslim Mission headquarters at Korle Gonnor, Accra.
The female doctor recalled how during her challenging years as a medical student and the support she received from both her colleagues and father, to buttress the importance of being supportive of each other as women.
A product of the University of Development Studies, Tamale, she was the best student in her year group, the challenges she endured notwithstanding.
The Muslim Women Conference is the initiative of Gifty Anti’s Standpoint programme, which over the years since its inception has initiated programmes intended to empower Muslim women.
This year’s programme tagged ‘Rising Above The Challenges’ was graced by prominent Muslim women personalities.
In furtherance of her speech, Dr. Fatima Mohammed charged women “to be agents of change. Let us form mentorship groups to help each other”.
As a doctor, she was able to point at one of the prominent Muslim personalities at the programme, Dr. Rabiatu Armah of the University of Ghana, Legon, whom she looked up to as a mentor when she was growing up.
Today, as fate would have it, both of them were present at a programme intended to inspire women to rise and shine.
Her story, full of challenges, including losing her mother at the age of 39, though painful and depressing, did not stop her from pushing on to achieve her aim of becoming a medical doctor.
Some women took turns to narrate the challenges they faced as women in typical married lives and the need to balance these with the realities of life.
One of the women urged men to allow their wives to be what they want to be in life.
In her presentation, Oheneyere Gifty Anti, proprietor of Standpoint, spoke about the challenges of women, referencing her 25 years in the media to illustrate her narration.
The trauma some women go through, she said, has broken marriages in some instances.
Regardless of these handicaps, she charged women to rise above the impediments which come their way and be what they want to be.
Alhaji Abdul Salaam, CEO of Afro-Arab Microfinance Company Limited, spoke about empowering women and how he is ready to do so himself.
An important attraction during the programme was the launching of Oheneyere Gifty Anti’s array of books to commemorate her 25 years in the media.
Dr. Nasiba Swallah-Tahir, as chairman of the occasion, added her rich experience to present a wonderful amalgam at the occasion.
By A.R. Gomda