Anastasiades marks women’s day with bicommunal gathering

President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday night received Greek and Turkish Cypriot women at the Presidential Palace in an event to mark International Women’s Day, which was marked on March 8.

The President said that even though today, despite the fact that equal pay has been safeguarded by law, there was still a pay gap between men and women in Cyprus.

Anastasiades, who has only one woman in his cabinet, added that he would like to see more women in public office and pledged to promote this policy. He called on his guests to support female candidates at the upcoming parliamentary elections.

His government, Anastasiades said, has launched the 2014-2017 action plan for equality aiming to “increase female participation in the country’s public affairs by promoting equality in the workplace, education, politics,” and to battle violence against women.

The President also praised the bi-communal gender equality technical committee which “is actively engaged for the creation of the necessary pre-conditions so that if and when we are blessed to have a solution soon, […] to overcome problems both communities face today and enter a modern era where we will not just make promises but make into a reality what we owe to women.”