Rose El-Youssef: Women face many challenges, plan to forge ahead
Egypt, Culture, 7/16/2002

There is little doubt that Egyptian women are facing a fierce campaign launched by extremists, against their position and participation in society even though women gained full political rights in the 1956 constitution.

The law protects their rights but still some are against their progress in society.

The Legislative Committee reporter of the National Council for Women (NCW), Fawzya Abdul Sattar says that there are many obstacles preventing women from fully participating in social development.

"The first of these obstacles is surely illiteracy that is still on the increase amongst women. Consequently, it is logical that the woman who can't read or write does not have a window on the outside world to see what is going on," she said.

"There is political illiteracy among educated women which is very important and affects her role in the decision-making process.

Accordingly, she is restrained from making any political contribution, whether through participating in elections or nominating herself for representative councils or participating in the procedures as a member," she told Rose El-Youssef magazine.

"This explains why many educated women don't have voting cards and even those who do, do not go to vote for their representatives in the legislative councils," Abdul Sattar maintains there is also a cultural illiteracy that leads women to live with old conceptions and ideologies and not to develop her ideas and thoughts simultaneously.

She lives under illusions and superstitions imposed on her that have no basis in reality or in religion," she warned.

She said that a husband's authority over his wife plays a part in this respect.

"The wife can be educated and have enthusiasm for public work but her husband is against her participation in politics. I think this is a big obstacle and causes confusion for women between staying away from public work and destroying her family. In order to eliminate such obstacles, we have to eliminate illiteracy. The President is very supportive of this and has determined a time period to work within," Abdul Sattar said.

The Secretary General of the National Council for Women (NCW), Dr. Farkhanda Hassan says that for the first time in Egypt's modern history Egyptian women are participating in planning for the development of the state.

In 1996 the national committee for women presented to the government an outline on the role of women in the form of a five-year plan.

However, participation in the full sense of the word hasn't yet been accomplished.

"Egyptian women have participated for the first time in meetings in Sharm El-Sheikh at the beginning of this year and were represented by an Egyptian delegation from NCW," Hassan said.

"I want to confirm that there is no ground for talk on the failure of the women's movement in society, but there are fields we have to work on, for example, in politics as women's participation is still limited. Women's work in politics should not merely be confined to voting in general elections, or joining parliament but should involve her full and active participation in the national development process" she told the weekly.

"Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak has called on women to vote in the upcoming elections as female participation in political life is one of the vital issues affecting the whole of society in general and women's lives in particular," she concluded.

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