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Men Win All of the UAE’S Gender Equality Awards

“Best personality supporting gender balance” went to a man.

The United Arab Emirates held its Gender Balance Index awards on Sunday—and only men walked away winners. The awards featured three categories: best personality supporting gender balance, best federal authority supporting gender balance, and the best gender balance initiative. The UAE drew mockery online for the ceremony after its media office posted photos of the all-male winners. According to the accompanying news release, one woman, head of the UAE’s Gender Balance Council and the wife of a deputy prime minister, was “recognized,” but did not win an award. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, vice president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, gave out the awards. In a news release, Maktoum said that gender equality was in the spirit of the founding father of the Emirates: “The achievements of Emirati women today reaffirm the wise vision of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, who believed in the importance of the role of women, and their right to work and become key partners in society.”

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