The United Arab Emirates authorities held their 2018 Gender Balance Index award ceremony on Sunday to celebrate how various government bodies have championed gender equality. With certificates and medals presented by the UAE vice-president and ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, all four of the awards 'supporting gender balance' were presented to men.
Yes, really.
The awards included 'best government entity supporting gender balance', 'best federal authority supporting gender balance' and 'best gender balance initiative', going to the finance ministry, the federal competitiveness and statistics authority and ministry of human resources respectively.
With all of these awardees being male, the deputy prime minister and minister of the interior, Lt Gen Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahyan, also received a 'best personality supporting gender balance' award for his commitment to implementing maternity leave in the military.
Tweeting on the day of the ceremony, the Dubai Media Office said, 'We are proud of the success of Emirati women and their role is central to shaping the future of the country. Gender balance has become a pillar in our governmental institutions,' attaching four pictures, only two of which included women and one being a group shot of five women, and nine men.
The irony has not been lost online, with their tweet announcing the winners receiving tons of ridicule. 'And they say that satire is dead,' one commentator replied.
While the UAE have made progress toward bringing more women into the workforce according to the United Nations Development Programme, which found in 2018 that it was the highest ranking Gulf country for gender equality, gender discrimination is still widespread in the UAE. For example, domestic violence is still legal, and is only restricted by certain limits set by Islamic law.
So as much as these images are laughable for their irony, they speak to a much larger issue when it comes to gender discrimination in the UAE. And it's really not that funny.