Organizers of the annual “Souq Okaz” – Okaz Market – cultural festival have said that there will be no separate women-only events. Juraidi Al-Mansouri, the festival's secretary general, said Thursday that the event's women's committee no longer exists, and that instead Souq Okaz was to be regarded as “for everyone”. “Women, like men, enjoy poetry and stories and relate and hear them from the pulpit that is Souq Okaz,” Al-Mansouri said. “There is no difference between men and women when it comes to engaging in culture. All people at Souq Okaz are neighbors and are in dialogue in the same place.” The secretary general also revealed that there are proposals for the 2011 festival to hold investment projects and give businessmen the opportunity to have a presence. “The proposed Souq Okaz will be an economic congregation, just as it is a cultural and literary gathering,” he said. “The market historically represented an assembly for Arab traders, and that's what we hope to revive in the future.” The proposed measures would see investors establish hotels, commercial outlets and recreation facilities, along with cultural and literary sites, to extend the area from one of being what Al-Mansouri describes as a “beacon of culture, literature and creativity”. Mona Al-Maliki, supervisor of Souq Okaz's women's committee, meanwhile, has said that she has received no information concerning the unification of activities for males and females, saying “all I know is that the role of the women's committee this year is confined to receiving noted female guests and visitors,” Al-Maliki said. She described news of the move, however, as “positive and the right thing to do”.
