Maya Morsi, chairperson of Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW), has been awarded “Women of the Decade in Public Life and empowerment” by the Women Economic Forum (WEF 2018) in the Indian capital New Delhi. The WEF 2018 opened on 26 April and runs till 1 May, with participation of some 1100 personalities form across the globe. Dr Morsi is the first Egyptian woman to win this prestigious award.
In her acceptance speech, Dr Morsi said she had left a job at the United Nations to serve Egyptian women who, she said, make up half of the society. She had served in 2014 – 2015 as regional gender team leader for the UN Development Programme in Cairo, and country programme manager for the UN Development Fund for Women.
Dr Morsy holds a BA in political science from the American University in Cairo in 1995, an MBA from the City University of Seattle in 1997, and an MA in public administration from Seattle in 1998. In 2008, she earned a PhD in public policy from the Institute of Arab Research and Studies in Cairo.
Dr Morsi said she currently worked with more than 400 employees at the NCW and some 3,000 volunteer workers in nationwide outreach programmes for Egyptian women. The NCW, she said, has knocked on the doors of some 4 million women in Egypt to listen to them talk about the problems they face, and raise their awareness. The NCW’s reach to women has risen 216 per cent that of its reach in 2015, she said.
Today, Dr Morsi said, Egyptian women occupy for the first time positions of national security consultant to Egypt’s President, vice president of Egypt’s Central Bank, and Governor of Beheira. All these women, she said, have proved they are able, faithful, and efficient workers.
Watani International
29 April 2018