CMEC’s women’s programme has been slowly building, and we are pleased to present the launch of a schedule of podcasts, webinars and articles which will run throughout the course of the year reflecting on the often-overlooked roles that women play in diplomacy, business, sport, arts and culture throughout the Middle East region.

Our first podcast sees CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie in conversation with the brilliant Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa.

Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa is a pioneering lawyer and diplomat from Bahrain. As ambassador to France (1999-2004) she became Bahrain’s first ever female ambassador. She was one of the first two women in Bahrain to practice law when she was admitted as a lawyer in Bahrain in 1979. She is also Bahrain's permanent delegate to UNESCO. She served as the President of the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which closed in September 2007. She is the third woman to hold the position. She is the recipient of several notable awards, the most recent of which include the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Special Award, 2007, in recognition of her work in promoting the set of global anti-poverty targets, the Path to Peace Award 2007, from the Path to Peace Foundation, in recognition of acts of individual leadership in the international community, and the Social Creativity Award, representing appreciation for Arab women, at the Sixth Conference of the Arab Thought Foundation. Sheikha Haya is the principal and founding partner of Haya Rashed Al Khalifa Law Firm.