Human Rights of Women
Human rights activists and civil society organisations continue to seek stronger political representation for Egyptian women in parliament, ahead of elections for the lower house of the legislative authority this year.The Shura Council, which holds full legislative powers until those elections are held, approved the elections law and another law that regulates political rights on January 19th.
DIFFERING OPINIONSLawyer May Sherbini from the Coalition of Egyptian Women's Organisations said Egyptian women are demanding fair representation in parliament, "as this is one of their basic rights and they have proven for decades their ability to partake in the political process".
Women have been politically active since 1919 but currently Egypt ranks at the bottom of the list of Arab countries with female representation in parliament, she said. Less than 2% of women made up the country's previous parliament, whereas in Morocco and Libya that figure reaches 17% , in Iraq it hits 25%, in Mauritania 22%, in Algeria 32% and in Saudi Arabia 20%.
Sherbini said women made numerous calls for stronger representation in parliament, including calling for a 30% quota for women candidates and that women be placed in the top third of names on electoral lists.
"Women also called for election lists to be equally distributed among male and female candidates, on the condition these lists are displayed in sequence, meaning that a female candidate name comes after each male candidate," she said.
This year, Sherbini said she expects women to receive around 2% of parliamentary seats -- eight seats out of the 498 up for grabs -- as they did last time.
Human rights activist Nihal Faraj, a member of the Egypt's Women Foundation, said she opposes a female quota.
"The problem is not in the law but lies with women themselves. Egyptian women do not have political confidence in female [politicians], which is why they do not vote for them in the parliamentary or municipal elections," she said. "The male domineering mentality also plays a role in Egyptian society, not to mention inaccurate religious interpretations that influence the political process."
Quotas are a kind of "negative discrimination", she said, because they force women on parliament, which could bring in under-qualified women.
"The best and most democratic solution is to actually include women in political life and to reinforce this presence," Faraj said.
"This is the responsibility of the political parties," she said, adding that women voters in Egypt number as many as 23 million, making them "a major [political] force to be reckoned with if they are well taken care of and if a suitable political base is provided for them".
Meanwhile, Dr. Souad Mahmoud, a lecturer at Cairo University's Faculty of Law and a member of "The Egyptian Female Lawyer's Initiative", said she wonders why some reject the idea of a female quota in parliament.
She said 58 countries apply the quota principle, and in the Arab world, this experience has been successful in Algeria.
"Egyptian women have the right to their share of parliament seats, especially since they are a significant economic and productive force," Mahmoud told Al-Shorfa.