Mrs Mubarak: Council for Women founding in response to global challenges

Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak said yesterday that the establishment of the Egyptian National Council for Women (NCW) was in conjunction with an international movement for putting women's concerns on top of the international development agenda.

The establishment of the NCW was also in response to growing fears worldwide of the new challenges and threats posed by globalisation and the Information Age.

Mrs Mubarak was delivering a lecture at a meeting of representatives of British and Arab NGOs at Lancaster House in London.

At the beginning of her speech, Mrs Mubarak expressed her happiness at meeting with members, whose conference was organised by those NGOs, which she described as "guardians of human law and charity work".

On the role of the NCW, Mrs Mubarak said that the council, which was founded in 2000, aims to improve the social status of Egyptian women in all domains so that they become active participants in the nation's comprehnsive development process.

The main role of the council is to empower women socially, economically and politically through education and training, she said.

Finally, Mrs Mubarak gave a detailed report on the council's achievements and accomplishments, from which women have benefitted