Egypt embraces religious teachings on women issues

Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak Wednesday affirmed that Egypt embraces religious teachings, traditions, and norms on women-related issues, such as inheritance.

Addressing the extraordinary session of United Nations General Assembly, Mrs. Mubarak clarified that some delegations want to return to the zero point in tackling such issues, that received more than enough research at previous conferences.

"These issues have been discussed in the Population and Development Conference in Cairo 1994 and the Fourth International Women Conference in Beijing. A plan of action was issued as well," Mrs. Mubarak said.

In press statements on the sidelines of the Assembly, Mrs. Mubarak said that discussions should cover the states' achievements over the past five years and not on previous issues with the goal to re-open the brackets and enter new issues.

On Tuesday, Mrs. Mubarak examined with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan Tuesday the role of the UN in giving aid to the developing states to help enhance the status of women.

Mrs. Mubarak suggested, in a word before the participating delegations in the Assembly, to set a fund to finance poor women in combating poverty.

"The proposal will be studied and Egypt will look into the probability of implementing such experiment at the local level under the umbrella of the National Council for Women," she said.