Human Rights of Women
Egypt’s parliamentary majority, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has condemned calls for a new National Council for Women (NCW) less than two full days after the military junta announced it was re-establishing the women’s council.
The Secretariat of the National Council for Women on Sunday lauded the decision of the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), to re-form the NCW, one year after it was dissolved.
In its statement, the council congratulated Egyptian women, and considered the decision as “evidence of the political leadership’s faith in the importance of women’s role in Egypt’s path to progress sand renaissance.”
The council said in the statement that this decision “is a strong message and response to claims raised abroad that the Egyptian revolution has led to the marginalization of the role of women, these allegations, which was the basis of an international complaint sent by the Women’s Organization in the United Nations to the Egyptian government through the Permanent Mission of the United Nations to Egypt.”
It pointed out that the decision of the political leadership in Egypt is strong evidence “able to silence” the voices that called the abolition of the National Council for Women, “as this decision emphasizes the belief of the government in the importance of the active participation of women in the development of society in all fields.”
The statement explained that the council is the governmental “machinery for the progress of women for and a complement to the efforts undertaken by civil society organizations NGOs, trade unions and political parties all working on the inevitability of the participation of all members of the society with their efforts for the sake of Egypt`s development.”
But the MB’s political wing, the FJP, rejected the decision of the military junta to re-form the NCW, justifying its refusal, saying that “the decision was made without consultation with the political parties, especially as it regards an important institution.”
The FJP said in a statement that the NCW used to be “a tool of the former regime to break up the ties and bonds of the Egyptian family.”
The party said in its statement on Sunday, that the re-formation of this council in any way without consultation with political parties and national forces is “unacceptable.”
“The reformation of this council is neither in the interest of the nation nor the goals of the revolution with regard to Egyptian women,” it added.
The statement continued to argue that “the reformation of the council without reconsidering its purpose or evaluating its performance protects the western agenda in which it was originally designed to serve.”
Egyptian women at a protest.