March 13, 2014
by Shiryn Ghermezian

Israel was the ranked the best country in which to live as a woman in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to a 2013 report cited by  The Huffington Poston Thursday.

Each year since 2006, the World Economic Forum has released its annual  Global Gender Gap Report examining efforts to close the gap in four categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political Empowerment.

While ranked first for its region, the Jewish state came in 53rd  in the overall Gap Report  for 2013, moving up three spots from its 2012 ranking.

Iceland took the top spot for the fifth year and Colombia was the biggest riser, moving up 28 places to rank 35th.

Out of the 110 countries that have been included every year, 95 have shown improvement over the last four years,  The Huffington Post  noted. Women are getting more opportunities than ever for economic participation, gaining greater access to education and are living longer and healthier lives. They are also playing a much larger role in the political decision making process, according to the report.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This article contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.