"I am a woman and foreigner, so how come I should not be interested in helping foreign women better integrate into society," said Princess Maxima

THE HAGUE, September 2 (IslamOnline.net) - Princess Maxima, wife of Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, will supervise a committee helping Muslim women integrate into society and improve their work and education chances, Minister of Immigration and Integration Rita Verdonk announced.

"The princess said she was ready to acts as the coordinator of the committee, and she will not give up that role even during pregnancy period," Paul Rosenmiller, chairman of the committee on the integration of women from foreign origin, told a press conference in the Hague Monday, September 1.

Rosenmiller, a former leader of the Green Left Alliance, recalled that Princess Maxima responded to his request of supervising the committee saying: "I am a woman and foreigner, so how come I should not be interested in helping foreign women better integrate into society".

He added that the Argentine-born princess vowed to follow up the committee’s activities and keep contacts with its members.

"She realizes that improving the conditions of this section of society requires a lot of effort and work, and that most of foreign women in the country look up to her as an example," Rosenmiller noted.

Maxima, who hails from Argentinean origin, will become the European kingdom’s queen when he husband assumes the throne.

Dutch officials said that Muslim females, especially of Turkish or Moroccan origin, are grappling with social isolation and lack of educational and cultural qualifications to facilitate their integration into society.

"Some 25 per cent of Moroccan women are in the workforce, and 40 per cent of Turkish women and 53 Moroccan counterparts are living fully isolated in their houses with no contacts with the Dutch society," Minister for Empowerment and Social Affairs De Geus told the same press conference with Rosenmiller.

Some officials believe this isolation could be overcome by encouraging the learning of Dutch and education.

"Teaching a woman means teaching her children and family, and this should be well realized by men in Islamic minority here," said Rosenmiller.

The call came against the backdrop of accusations leveled by political and human rights groups that "men are practicing discrimination against women and deny them the right to education on religious grounds and wrong social beliefs".

But many Islamic organizations had reservations about the government’s plans to impose Dutch learning courses and encouraging Muslim women to join the workforce as part of efforts to upgrade their social and economic situation.

"These plans act against the principle of respecting cultural peculiarity of ethnic minorities," said Amr Abdullah, an activist for a number of Islamic social organizations.

He admitted, however, that most Muslim women are grappling with social problems in the country.

"Government parties concerned about Muslim women should have listened to their views first so that the proposed solutions would be viable instead of working them out top to down, " the Muslim activist said.

Seven Muslims lawmakers  including four women, maintained their seats in the new Dutch parliament.

There are one million Muslims living in the Netherlands which has a population of 16 million.

On February 1, 2002, Maxima’s marriage was held in Amsterdam, with the attendance of foreign royals, other friends and family members and some Dutch political leaders - but not the bride’s father on his political backgrounds.

Having just celebrated her first wedding anniversary, she is already the sweetheart of the Dutch people with her modesty and social interaction.

But being the future queen does not mean Maxima, who has dual Argentine and Dutch citizenship, was ready to lose her identity.

"I am Latin and I will continue being Latin in respect to some aspects of my culture," she maintained.