Iran Press/ Africa: In her speech to the Ethiopian parliament Zewde said: “When there is no peace in the country, mothers will be frustrated. Therefore, we need to work on peace for the sake of our mothers.”
Sahle-Work is at present U.N. under-secretary general and special representative of the secretary general to the African Union. She replaces Mulatu Teshome Wirtu, who tendered his resignation to parliament earlier on Wednesday, according to Africa Times.
Parliamentary members from the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) & House of Federation (HoF) accepted the resignation of now former president Mulatu Teshome Wirtu, before proceeding to elect Zewde to replace him.
Following her swearing-in ceremony, Zewde addressed the legislators, making a passionate appeal for peace in the country.
The East African nation with a population of over 100 million people, is currently plagued with bloody inter-communal disputes that have displaced 1.4 million people this year, according to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.
Zewde, also used the occasion to highlight the plight of mothers and women in Ethiopia, urging the lawmakers to work towards building a society that rejects oppression of women.
In a patriarchal society such as ours, the appointment of a female head of state not only sets the standard for the future but also normalises women as decision-makers in public life.
Last week, when the prime minister reshuffled his cabinet, he appointed 10 female ministers, making Ethiopia the third country in Africa, after Rwanda and Seychelles, to achieve gender parity in their cabinets.
Sahle-Work Zewde was previously the special representative of the U.N. secretary general to the African Union. Before that, she headed the United Nations’ Nairobi office with the rank of undersecretary general.
She began her diplomatic career as ambassador to Senegal in 1989 with responsibilities in neighbouring African countries and later went to Djibouti before eventually serving as ambassador to France, where she had previously studied.
Read more:
Human Rights watch: Ethiopian reform agenda threatened
208/103
