Women reminded of their ‘duties’

APIA – Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has told women thinking of running for parliament they should not neglect their families.

Tuilaepa was speaking at the final sitting of parliament for the year yesterday which was attended by women taking part in a programme promoting women’s participation in Parliament.

He said women should not let their drive and determination to enter politics make them neglect their God given duties as mothers.

He said women hold families, villages, and churches together and they are also the backbone of the country.

Samoa passed a law last year which reserves five seats or l0 per cent of the forty nine seats in Parliament for women.

The prime minister said the government had devised a way to bring more women into parliament but he hopes that in their quest to become MPs, they will not neglect the roles for which they were chosen by God.

He said Samoa needed tall, strong boys to play rugby, adding that Samoa’s population has stood at l80,000 for about 20 years, while Fiji’s population has reached almost one million.

- RNZI