Women’s Groups are actively campaigning for women’s rights
even though they feel that there are inadequate electoral laws, poor political
representation and a problematic constitution regarding women in Egypt. Nehad
Abou El-Komsan, head of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR) says “we
are moving backward.” She goes on to explain that the current cabinet of Prime
Minister Hisham Quandil only includes one woman; compared to four female
ministers in the last cabinet of Mubarak’s presidency. The article also
mentions that Egypt is ranked first among countries witnessing a decline in the
political status of women, ranking 126 on women’s rights this year according to
the Global Gap Report. Regarding women holding ministerial positions, Egypt
ranked 95 out of 125 countries. Egypt ranked lowest women holding governor
positions, with zero female governors. They also ranked first in the list of
countries that recorded a decline in economic opportunities for women compared
to previous years. In fact, the amount of women unemployed is 4 times greater
than men. Women occupied seven percent of the Constituent assembly formed in
2012 which was put together to formulate the current constitution. Mona Ezzat,
a member of New Women Foundation, described that different women’s rights
organizations presented suggestions to the assembly, regarding women’s rights
to be tackled in the constitution. She said “however their effort went down the
drain.” The article then goes on to mention the dissolved parliament for
women’s rights and then describes how women are acting out on these issues.
From a sociological perspective, the fact that Egyptian
women have fewer rights is something that is and has always been a global
problem. Even in the US women are still working to gain equality. It is shocking to see how in Egypt the rights
that women have are declining instead of increasing.
12:12 PM, 2/15/13
Alice Gunning
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