Egypt State Information Service

Egyptian women are an important pivot and an effective partner in the march of development. Their participation are based upon the rights and the opportunities which the society adopts in development, modernization, upgrading and reform efforts.

Women nowadays are witnessing an era that enables them further chances to serve their society, adopts their rights to education, work and participation and urges their positive existence on the various political, economic and social fields. Within the past few years, Egyptian women had achieved many gains in various pivotal issues such as education, health, legislations, in addition to assuming leading posts, economic empowerment and entering elections.

Egypt had acceded to the international agreements and conventions that aim at enhancing women's participation in the public and political life. It also participated in several conferences and crowned the efforts exerted for promoting women by establishing the National Council for Women (NCW) which expressed her advancement and empowered her on various levels.

Egyptian women played a primary role along history as she always remained a partner in the building and development process throughout history. The Pharaonic civilization was characterized by the participation of women in all walks of life. The inscriptions and statues found in temples show that Egyptian women had assumed political offices and reached the post of goddesses.

Hatshipsuit ruled Egypt 22 years. Similarly, Nefertari was Akhnaton's partner and participated with him in calling for monotheism. Furthermore, several goddesses took the form of a woman such as the goddess of wisdom and the goddess Isis who was a symbol of loyalty and sincerity. The pharaonic civilization had laid down the first legislations and laws which organize the role of women.

When Islam prevailed in Egypt, its principles and instructions had its impact on the public life as it paid due attention to women, showed their rights and duties, elevated their position, included them in all legislations and put them on equal footing with men in almost all the rights and duties.

When Mohamed Ali started establishing the modern state, special attention was paid to women and a call for improving their living conditions and establishing schools for girls had emerged. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Egypt's enlightenment pioneer, had called in his book that was established in 1872 on the importance of educating girls.

This was followed by the establishment of the first school for girls in 1872. In 1889, the most authentic school for girls was established and great men such as Gamal al-Din al-Afghani and Imam Mohamed Abdo supported the women issue, in addition to Qassem Amin who supported women through his two books "Emancipation of Women" and "New Women" who called for the participation of women in public life and practicing her right in education and work. This call echoed widely during Mustafa Kamel's era.

When the 1919 revolution erupted, women expressed their national stance and the first feminist demonstration against the British occupation took place in March 16, 1919 that resulted in the first two female martyrs. In 1920, the political action of the Egyptian women took an institutional nature and the "Central Wafd Committee for Women", which called for a total independence to Egypt formed, then the Egyptian Feminist Union was established by Hoda Sha'rawi in 1923.

In 1942, Fatma Rashed established the first Egyptian Feminist Political Party. Moreover, the Arab Feminist Union was established in Cairo, 1944 and Doreya Shafiq established "Bint an-Nil Union" in 1949.

It is worth mentioning that the Egyptian life was teemed with great women who performed an important role in the national movement, the political life and public service such as Safia Zahgloul, Nabawia Moussa, Siza Nabrawi, Latifa as-Zayyat and other pioneers of the feminist movement.

The 1952 Revolution is considered the beginning of a new era, during which the concept of women participation in all walks of life has been entrenched. During this era, women have gained their political, social, cultural and economic rights in accordance with 1956 Constitution, including their rights in voting in elections and nomination in the political and legislative institutions. These rights have been confirmed in Egypt's permanent constitution of 1971. In 1957, women entered the parliament for the first time and the first female minister in the Egyptian government was appointed in 1956.

The period from 1981 up till now has witnessed fundamental and tangible changes that mainly aim to empower and develop women and overcome all the obstacles that could hinder her development and effective participation in comprehensive development.

According to the statistics of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt's population in January 2006, has reached 73 million, according to a natural increase rate of 1.9 percent.

The number of females in the Egyptian society amount to 34.839 million, accounting for 48.83 percent. Hence, the participation of women is of supreme utmost importance. Thus, it was inevitable to formulate and adopt policies that aim at empowering women politically, economically and socially. Furthermore, women empowerment policies have stemmed from the importance of emphasizing the principle of participation and cooperation between the government and the civil society in applying, implementing and evaluating these policies. Such policies aim at realizing the following objectives:

Men and Women are equal before the Egyptian Constitution: "All citizens are equal before the law. They have equal public rights and duties without discrimination between them due to race, ethnic origin, language, religion or creed."

In appreciation to the effective role of women in the development and advancement of the society, Article 10 of the Constitution has stipulated the protection of women and committed the state to adopt this protection: " The State shall guarantee the protection of motherhood and childhood, take care of children and youth and provide the suitable conditions for the development of their talents."

The Constitution has also stipulated that: The State shall guarantee the proper coordination between the duties of woman towards the family and her work in the society, considering her equal with man in the fields of political, social, cultural and economic life without violation of the rules of Islamic jurisprudence."

Women's rights are quoted in several laws: Personal Status Law- Civil Law- Labour Law- Law on Nationality- Laws organizing Political Rights- Penal Law- Social Insurance Law).

- Assuming the Office of a Judge: Mrs Tahani el-Gibali was nominated the first female judge, which is the highest judiciary rank in Egypt, in the Supreme Constitutional Court. In addition to that, number of women in the administrative prosecution reached 436. Furthermore, women have chaired the administrative prosecution for two successive terms, and for the first time, a number of female judges took part in supervising constituencies in 2005 People's Assembly elections.

- Amending a law on the selection of mayors, based on the fact that such law contradicts the principle of equality so that women were actually granted the right to assume the office of a mayor which took place in two Egyptian villages.

- Issuing Law No. 1 of 2000 on regulating litigation procedures of personal status and those relating to divorce, alimony, divorce at instance of wife who pays back dowry (Khole'). Article 17/2 stipulates accepting divorce actions in case of the unregistered marriage (common-law marriage) in case they are documented.

- Amending Law on Nationality by Law No. 154 of 2004 and realizing constitutional equality between the Egyptian mothers and fathers through granting the Egyptian nationality to the children of the Egyptian women married to foreigners. Thus this law alleviated a great burden from thousands of Egyptian women married to foreigners and from many sons who are currently living in peace and security.

- Establishing a family insurance system so as to ensure the implementation of provisions of the wife, the divorced or the children's alimony under the supervision of Nasser Social Bank.

- Issuing new Labour Law No. 12 of 2003. This law has amended many texts concerning the protection of working women that were stipulated in the previous Labour Law No. 137 of 1981.

- Social Insurance Law: Women occupy a distinguished position in this law and the women's rights in the pension of the deceased differ according to the degree of their relationship. Lately, an article has been added that enabled husbands to benefit from their wives' pensions only if certain conditions are met.

- The New Tax Law: Discrimination against women has been amended in the new tax law concerning the personal exemption limit; thus, this law has included adopting the concept of financer without discrimination between males and females.

- The People's Assembly had accepted in March 2005, amending the law on raising the custody age for both males and females to 15 years. This came upon the approval of the Islamic Research Center, Azhar, on this amendment.

- On the world level, Egypt has signed the Convention on Eliminating All Forms of Discrimination against Women on July 16, 1980 and ratified it on September 18, 1981. Egypt has also abided by the World Action Programme for Promoting Women which Beijing Conference had adopted in 1995.

Education is one of the most important means for empowering women through teaching them knowledge and the skills necessary for effectively participating in the development process. Statistics show an 43.8 percent decrease among females, thus reflecting the exerted efforts in this field, in addition to creating new mechanisms for educating girls.

This mechanism is called societal education. It is comprised of the society schools which started in 1992 and the one-class schools that were established upon the ministerial decree No. 255 of 1993 so as to realize the principle of equal educational opportunities among girls in the high density population areas and the disadvantaged areas from educational services and small mixed schools where girls represent 75 percent, boys represent 25 percent and children are enrolled in the age 8-14 years.

Women are considered a national power that affects society. In order to activate women's role in comprehensive development, establishing several facilities to fulfill the interests of women in Egypt became inevitable.

The establishment of the National Council for Women in 2000 is considered as an essential and effective step towards the development of women. The establishment of the National Council for Women came after establishing the national committee for women in 1993 as well as a number of regional committees on women in governorates and a number of administrations and centers in various ministries that are concerned with women's issues in some ministries, governmental bodies, research institutions and the Social Fund for Development.

The Council was established by virtue of presidential decree No. 54 of 1998; amended by decree No. 273 of 1989. It is concerned with setting developmental directives for the national plan, that are related to childhood and motherhood in the society, the family, the health care system, the educational system, the cultural system, and the media. It is concerned with mobilizing public opinion concerning childhood and motherhood needs, problems and means for solving them.

Moreover, it cooperates with governmental and non-governmental organizations working in the field of childhood and motherhood on regional and international levels. Examples of these organizations are (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and the children's international center in France. The council encourages voluntary work in this field. Salient achievements are:

* Preparing childhood and motherhood component in the state's third socio-economic five-year plan (1992/93-1996/97), the fourth five-year plan (1997/98-2001/02) and the state plan for (2002/07).

* Girl Education Initiative as well as choosing 2003 to be the year of the Egyptian girl. In cooperation with the UNICEF and other Un Organs, the Council had laid down a procedural plan for the years (2002-05) and applied four programmes for facing the gender gap between males and females in primary education.

It was established by virtue of decree No. 193 of 1993 under the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood. The committee enhances the women's role in society, studies and eradicated their problems, cooperates with the Egyptian, regional and international institutions concerned with women issues and organized conferences and meetings.

Preparing and implementing the three National conferences on the Egyptian women. The first conference was held in 1994 under the title (Egyptian Women and the Challenges of the 21^st Century). The second conference was held in 1996 under the title (Over the Policies of Advancement and Development Society) with the participation of parties, civil societies, syndicates, local councils, research centers and universities. The third conference was held in 1998 under the title of (Developing the Rural Woman). Moreover, the National Committee on Women had prepared Egypt's report in 1995 for the fourth international; conference on women in Beijing.

It was established with the presidential decree No. 90 of 2000 as an independent constitutional institution under the jurisdiction of the Presidency of the Republic. It is concerned with promoting Egyptian women. The establishment of such council came as a natural response to the national changes and international challenges and to crown the achievements realized to Egyptian women.

- The council is concerned with proposing the general policy of the society and its constitutional institutions regarding women's affairs and development as well as enabling women to play their economic and social role, merging women's efforts in comprehensive development programs and drawing a national plan for developing the skills of women and helping them solve and overcome problems that face them.

- Expressing its opinion in draft laws, resolutions and conventions related to women, representing women in international forums and organizations, establishing a documentation center for collecting information, data and research related to women, in addition to organizing training courses and issuing publications and magazines.

- The first conference: It was held in March 2000 under the title, (Egypt's Rise: Women, Citizenship and Development). It focused on three main points: women and development, women and cultural awareness and women and public and political lives.

- The second conference: It was held in 2001 and titled (Egyptian Women and National Plan (2002-07). It discussed the main outlines for incorporating women into the national plan.

- The third conference: It was held in 2002 in Menya governorates, under the title (Women and Society Modernization). The conference tackled all aspects of modernization as well as activating women's role in society.

Women Day Forum in Governorates: In March 2003, NCW held a forum in all its branches in different governorates, on development and women's role. This contributed to forming a realistic database regarding women's status in governorates and helped in drawing up an action plan stemming from women's needs regardless of their position.

- The fourth conference: It was held in March 2004, entitled (Egyptian Women and achieving the Third Millennium's Objectives). The objectives were set by the United Nations and partly formulated by Egypt. They tackled different ways of alleviating poverty and hunger, realizing basic and comprehensive education, reducing infant mortality rate, improving the productive health resources and developing world partnership for development.

- The fifth conference: It was held in March 2005 under the title (Development Based on Participation). It aimed to create a clear vision that enables both the international and Egyptian societies to be acquainted with the efforts exerted in Egypt for enabling Egyptian women to participate in development.

- A Center for developing women skills in small-size enterprises: it is considered one of the promising fields that gain a great attention from the state. This aims to develop the capabilities of Egyptian women, and activate her role in the society so as to maximize her participation in developing national economy. The center also aims at helping all women, whether those who finished their university education or those who did not receive high education, on managing and establishing successful small-size or independent enterprises, or helping in raising the efficiency of working women so as to improve her occupational performance in various fields.

Egypt is enhancing Human Rights through supporting the women and Egyptian family's rights, thus it established the specialized councils in light of the continuous and advanced reform process which it started many decades ago. It provides a political addition for women and a legal support for their rights and their march forward. The Council's board is comprised of six women, which indicate that the importance of women's participation with men for achieving the aspired goals, the natural acknowledgement of the importance of women's role, and the availability of efficient female leaders in the field of human rights.

According to the Egyptian Constitution, its complementary laws and laws on fulfilling political rights, Egyptian women enjoy their full rights and they were keen on fulfilling such rights. In spite of the exerted efforts for enhancing the political role of women, Egyptian women participation in the political and parliamentary life is still limited. However, the number of women who are registered in the past election has doubled more than twice during the period from 1975-1986. The number of women registered to vote increased from 1.6 million to 3.6 million. During the period from 1986-2000, the number has doubled two folds and a half, as the number of enrolled women reached 8.8 million in 2000 and 9 million in 2005.

The NCW has established this center to contribute to building female cadres capable of taking part in different elections, whether legislative or local ones, as well as to spread and activate the culture of political participation among women. The center trained 317 women during the period from July 2003 to July 2005.

This forum was established in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture. The activities of the forum started on May 19, 2004 on a weekly basis in all governorates. It included political and cultural enlightenment meetings for women to make them acquainted with the importance of their participation in political life and decision taking. Total number of meetings reached 392 and number of female beneficiaries reached 40021 till 2005.

The state is keen on modernizing the electoral process for adding further efficiency and accuracy, continuing the database of the electoral lists and applying regulations for spending on electoral campaigns and searching for the best electoral systems so as to enhance women's participation and guarantee further women representation in the representative councils.

In November 2006, a project entitled (Towards a Distinguished Parliamentary Performance for Egyptian Women), in cooperation with the UN Development Fund and UNDP. Such a project represents a main step towards the political empowerment of women.

The state recognized that the advancement of society could not be achieved without expanding the participation of all citizens in public life, without discrimination between men and women.

Number of females enrolled in high posts represent 25.7 percent of the total number of workers till September 2004. Number of females in vocational syndicates reached 413130 in 2001. Female participation is considered the pillar of many sectors as around 22 percent of female leaderships work in the culture or the media sectors and around 11 percent work in the presidential service sector.

Egyptian women occupies the post of a minister since the sixties of the last century as Hikmat Abu Zeid was appointed as the Minister of Social Affairs in September 1962. Since then, the Egyptian government used to include many female ministers. Furthermore, women succeeded in entering the diplomatic corps and the legislative authority.

The economic empowerment of women is considered an effective means for promoting the economic level of the family and the society. The state is exerting efforts to curb the phenomenon of feminizing poverty, supporting poor women in the unofficial sector and the rural women, especially the family woman headed, raising the competitive ability of women in the labour market in light of the market economies, privatization and globalization and reducing the rate of female unemployment.

Numbers show that females represent 22.6 percent of the total work force in 2006, against 77.3 percent for males. In 2003, female contribution in economic activities reached around 13.3 percent against 44.9 percent for males. According to the labour market, female employment represents 19 percent of the total number of workers with 3.5 million in 2003. The majority of female workers reside in rural areas; they account for 57 percent of the total female workers, compared to 43 percent in urban areas. The agricultural sector is the most accommodating sector for the female workers. Statistics for the year 2003 show that women's participation in the governmental sector represent about 25 percent, private sector 14 percent, and the public enterprises and public sector 12 percent. Around 50,000 female workers are being trained annually.

The state pays due attention to the health care of the citizens and women in particular through improving the quality of health services, particularly in the deprived rural areas, upper Egypt and squatter areas. Female mortality rate has decreased and life expectancy at birth rose to 73.6 percent in January 2006. Moreover, due to the increasing usage of contraceptives that reached around 60 percent of the total married women in 2005, total fertility rate has decreased to 3.2 children for every woman in 2003 and then to 3.1 children for every woman in 2005.

In the framework of paying special attention to women's issued, the state has exerted information efforts that led to a relative increase in the volume of interest in such issues. Moreover, a change took place as regards tackling previously-neglected women issues and presenting positive examples for the Egyptian woman.

The state believes in the importance of developing such efforts through an integrated policy that aims at changing the negative concepts and values about women and developing society.

2- Developing the media message that aims at changing the culture of the society concerning women, the issues of the social gender, gender discrimination and realizing equal opportunities.

In the recent years, number of television and radio programmes whose audience are primarily women have increased. Moreover, the State Information Service (SIS) plays an important role for enhancing family planning issues. The NCW has signed an agreement with the UNICEF so as to establish a media monitoring unit to evaluate the stance of media according to women. The SIS has also fulfilled its role to serve the media work through issuing publications and holding meetings and symposiums in the Nile Centers and the information, education and communication centers.

The term "NGO" means the organized unprofitable organizations that work in social care and depend on the private sector and the individual's donations. Since the mid seventies of last century, a new flourishing movement has started in the civil society in general and the NGOs in particular as they reached 21558 organizations.

Integrated Care Association, the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, Women's Development Association, the Egyptian Women's Issues Center and the Institutions Forum for Women Development.

In the framework of the NCW's primary role in ensuring its strong ties with the Arab countries and acknowledging its pioneering role regionally, the Council had organized the first conference for the Arab Woman Summit in Cairo, November 18-20, 2000. The second Arab Women Summit was held in Jordan, October 31, 2002 and the Council had also organized and coordinated the efforts that led to the establishment of the Arab Woman Organization according to the recommendations of the first Arab Women Summit.

This Organization was established in Cairo, March 3, 2003. It aims to unify and coordinate the efforts of the Arab women on the international level. It also works under the umbrella of the Arab League.

- Arab women and armed conflict forum, held in Beirut, March 7-11, 2004. It tackled three pivots, namely; women in legislations and mechanisms related to armed conflicts, Arab women towards the armed conflicts and the role of the Arab woman and the means of empowering her to establishing justice and peace.

On the Arab arena, the Arab strategy for protecting the family was adopted. It led to establishing of the consultative committee on the Arab family, then organizing the celebration of the Arab Day for the family in cooperation with the Syrian Institute for Family and the Arab Family Organization, and declaring the labour organization for peace in response to Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak's call to all women around the world to join forces for realizing the culture of peace.

Suzanne Mubarak's International Movement of Women for Peace was launched in September 2002 in Sharm el-Sheikh. It is the first women initiative for peace in the Middle East. It is the rostrum through which voices of peace conscience could be heard so as to realize further and actual representation for women in all fields, prevent conflicts, find solutions or rebuild after conflicts.

Thus, this movement aims to find a fixed place for women in dialogues concerning peace and social security so as to realize more dramatic and lasting results based on social justice, equality, respecting human rights and committing to collective work. This should be done to effect the required change and enhance the impact of women organizations working for peace all over the world.

This institute was inaugurated in February 2006 at Bibliotheca Alexandrina. It is considered the academic side of Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak's International Movement of women for peace and the first of its kind in the Arab world. It aims to be a scientific and an academic cornerstone and a research and studies center in all peace-related political, economic, social or legal fields.

Moreover, the institute works on entrenching various peace-related intellectual and research orientations through a wide ranging publication movement in different languages. It also documents the successful experiments for further benefit performs its role in training youth in the Arab region and provide them with the necessary skills to merge and participated in the political and social life.

Furthermore, Egypt had witnessed in November 2006, the regional forum towards activating the UN resolution No. 1325 (Women- Peace-Security) which is considered a follow up for the regional workshop which the movement had convened in 2004 under the title (The road towards the UN resolution No. 1325 (Women-Peace-Security-Future Horizons).

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak exerts sustainable efforts not only for the Egyptian and the Arab woman, but her efforts had also reached women around the world. Suzanne Mubarak's International Movement of Women for Peace became the rostrum of the Arab region to provide opportunities for fostering and enhancing women participating opportunities in building last and just peace.

In appreciation to Suzanne Mubarak's valuable works for promoting the status of women, the UN had granted her a Certificate of appreciation in Geneva Conference on Women. She was also granted a merit medal from the German Goethe University in Frankfurt in appreciation of her efforts in promoting education and her continuous activities for human rights.

It was convened in Cairo, June 2006, under the title (Davos for Women). It is the first time to be convened in an Arab state and is considered the largest international gathering for businesswomen around the world. In this summit, the Egyptian women represents a part of the international dialogue over improving her social and economic conditions.