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A stronger Voice for Egyptian Women MPs
Promoting the Parliamentary Performance of Egyptian Women
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During the third workshop of the
project organized by the National Council for Women (NCW) in Egypt, MP Kamal
El Shazly advised the women MP’s in the two houses of the Egyptian
parliament that they have to grab the momentum accompanying the process of
the constitutional amendments taking place now in Egypt. He added that the
time is propitious for them to ask for a fairer representation of women in
parliament and added that the “… political will is there, the government
support is there and that it is now up to you to make your voices heard …..”
Her Excellency Mrs. Mubarak, President of the Council, in her inaugural
speech during the launching of the program highlighted that it is only
through professionalism and effective performance that the society will
realize the importance of women’s role in decision-making. It is worth
mentioning that the meeting was attended by the members of the Committee on
Women’s Human Rights of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly.
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“Building the capacity of the 27 women parliamentarians so that they acquire
the skills necessary to perform with enhanced legislative and oversight
capacities, making their contribution visible to the public and stimulate
enhanced governance through participatory development dialogue,
institutional capacity building and civil society empowerment…”
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 Dr.
Farkhonda Hassan; NCW Secretary General
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"….The purpose of the program
aiming at enhancing the role of Egyptian Women Parliamentarians is just
that…: adds Dr. Farkhonda Hassan, Secretary General of the National
Council for Women.…”Although few in number, the performance of women in
parliamentary debates has been targeted to important developmental
issues affecting the welfare of the Egyptian society. Also despite the
increased numbers of women on voters’ lists, only few women were able to
be elected. This is mainly due to inherited societal perceptions that
view politics as a male-dominated domain…” continues Dr. Hassan
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To address this issue, the National
Council for Women, is engaged on a multi-pronged program, that aims at
creating awareness of the importance of women’s participation development
efforts, establishing a Center for the Political Empowerment of Women (CPEW)
and the current project carried out with support from the UNDP and the
UNIFEM. It is designed to enhance the legislative and oversight knowledge
and skills of women MP’s to effectively deploy parliamentary tools to
propose, review and amend legislation, to strengthen their skills for
lobbying and advocacy; building coalitions and pursuing public support.
Initially, the project activities included a series of 6 workshops, where
experienced politicians and academicians, both men and women, would interact
with the 27 women parliamentarians, through a series of structured topics.
The opportunity for a candid dialogue was extremely well received by all
participants, including those with vast experience. The discussions were
lively and all the concerns were brought out openly. Now, with the imminence
of the Constitutional Amendments, the need arose to involve the women
parliamentarians in the drafting of the amendments, through a unique
on-the-job experience, through which they could make their voices heard.
For this reason, it was decided to dedicate three additional sessions to the
revision of the constitutional amendments, where the 34 articles would be
reviewed. The MP will be working at finding a niche in the constitutional
texts that would pave the ground for a more equitable representation of
women in the decision-making and political participation areas.
Hereunder are comments from a number of senators:
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MP Dr.
Zeinab Safar
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“…I have been in the Shura Assembly for 11 years now. Yet, the
interaction with the resources persons through the Women MPs program has
opened new perspectives, particularly in the economic field and of
course the constitutional amendments. I imagine that as an outcome of
this program, if we, women MPs can reach a consensus on an issue and
take the right approach in lobbying for their opinions, we can have a
good result. I would like to add that the representative party list
approach is more likely to succeed in a fairer representation of women
and other minority groups than any other approach.”
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MP Samia
Shenouda Guirguis
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“….This program has provided exposure to the holistic picture of public
life and political participation. The discussions with experienced
parliamentarians, in addition to providing the benefit of their
experience, gave us the opportunity to discuss and analyze major issues
and gave some insights as to how these issues could be dealt with. It
also made us think how the reform could be translated into procedures…”
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