Women have been granted a quota in Parliament. Will this effectively raise their participation in political life?
WATANI International
28 June 2009
The decision to increase the number of parliamentary seats from 454 to 518 in order to assign 64 new seats to women in 32 new electoral districts met some opposition. Opinions range from doubts over the unconstitutionality of the decision to the view that it is a positive move, especially within the current cultural and social climate and the very low voter turnout among women. Some feel the decision might open the door to other segments of society to pledge for quotas, such as Copts. It is therefore essential to clarify the role of women, and a good way to do this is by referring to modern Egyptian history.
Back in history
Since ancient times Egyptian women have hardly had an imprint on the political scene. Apart from the female ruler Hatshepsut (1479 – 1457 BC) who was among Egypt’s strongest and most prosperous rulers but who nonetheless faced so much opposition she had to wear a beard, and Cleopatra, no woman ever ruled Egypt.
It was only in the 19th century, under Mohamed Ali who is famous for being the founder of modern Egypt, that women began to assume a role in public life. The establishment of a midwifery school in 1832 marked the first move towards allowing women to work. Intellectuals and enlightened Egyptians such as Rifa’a al-Tahtawi and Qassem Amin took up the case of women and their right to education and work.
In 1892, Hind Nofal published the first journal oriented towards women’s issues, Al-Fata (The Girl). This was followed by Gamila Hafez’s Al-Rihana. Both journals marked the first effort by women to adopt women’s issues and rights and struggle against the rigidity of accepted tradition.
Right to vote
The beginning of the 20th century saw the formation of the Intellectual Union for Women. This was deeply involved in politics and the national movement, as was evident when a woman was killed during the 1919 national revolution against the British occupation of Egypt. Four years later Hoda Shaarawi conducted a demonstration calling for the formation of the first Egyptian Women League (EWL), which would ensure a better standard of education as well as full social and political equality.
In 1907 Nabawiya Moussa became the first Egyptian girl to apply for Thanawiya Amma—the secondary school certificate. After succeeding in obtaining her Thanawiya Amma, Moussa was appointed headmistress of a primary school in Fayoum and afterwards became a pioneer of education and social work.
In 1942 the Egyptian Women Party was established as the first women’s political party. In 1947 EWL called for the election law to be amended to grant women the right to vote, as well as to have full political rights and the right to sit on local council seats.
It took some more than a decade for women to be granted full political rights in the 1956 Constitution that was drawn up following the 1952 Revolution and the transformation of Egypt into a republic. For the first time, women stood at the 1957 elections and were voted to parliament.
Poor representation
The first woman to hold ministerial office was Hikmat Abu-Zeid, who in 1962 held the position of Minister of Social Affairs. Since that date the Egyptian government has maintained ministries held by women. Today there are three women ministers: Fayza Abul-Naga, minister of international cooperation; A’esha Abdel-Hadi, minister of the work force and immigration; and Mushira Khattab, minister of family and population.
The 1971 Constitution confirmed complete equality between all citizens in law, regardless of gender, origin, language, religion or sect. In 1979 Gihan al-Sadat, Egypt’s then first lady, was instrumental in allotting a quota for women to occupy 30 seats in parliament. This lasted until 1987 when the parliament was dismissed.
From 1957 to date only 144 women have became members of either the People Assembly or the Shura Council—the lower and upper houses of Egypt’s parliament—of which 125 were elected and 19 appointed by the president. The last round of parliament (2000 – 2005) had 13 women members, representing only 3 per cent of the total number of MPs. Eighteen women out of a total of 264 members held seats in the Shura Council, representing 6.8 per cent of the total seats. Eight women out of 454 represent the people in the current round of parliament (2005 – 2010).
As for women participation in election, less than one million women out of 3.5 million actually voted.
Ranking low
Egypt’s image in international reports regarding women’s public role is far from good. The United Cities and Local Government organisation (UCLA) confirmed that Egypt was in a weak position on the issue of women in local councils, where women’s representation did not exceed 5 per cent.
According to a report published by the information centre affiliated to Stockholm University, Rwanda with 48.8 per cent female representation in parliament is highest in the world, followed by Sweden with 47.3 per cent and Costa Rica with 38.6 per cent. Of Islamic countries, women in Afghanistan hold 27.3 per cent of parliamentary seats, Pakistan 21.3 per cent, Bosnia 14.3 per cent and Indonesia 11.3 per cent.
A report entitled “Gender gap”, issued by the World Economic Forum in 2007, measured gender inequality in these aspects: economic participation; the right to education and health, and political empowerment of women. According to the report, which included 128 countries of the world in its study, Egypt ranked 120th.
The quota
There have been movements consistently calling for substantial female presence in parliament, and for the Constitution to include a clause guaranteeing a fair ratio of gender representation in political parties.
The last few weeks witnessed the passage of a law granting women a quota in Parliament. It was decided that 32 new constituencies would be bound to women candidates. Despite an argument that such a move might not be constitutional, since the Egyptian Constitution stipulates gender equality, the law was passed.
Amina al-Naqqash, editor of the weekly Al-Ahali, the mouthpiece of the leftist Tagammu party, told Watani she did not consider the step a positive move. Previous attempts at positive discrimination in favour of peasants and workers—commonly considered oppressed sectors in the community, she said, failed miserably in practice. Better than the quota system, Ms Naqqash said, the application of a slate system in elections would guarantee fairer representation for marginalised groups such as women and Copts. Allowing a quota for women, she stressed, meant that Copts too may be entitled to a quota, which would eventually fragment the system. Naqqash added that only the more privileged women would benefit from the quota system, giving a false impression of women’s participation, while what was needed was an electoral system that allowed true participation.
Quotas not the point
Activist Nihad Abul-Qumssan, director of the Centre for Women’s Rights, described the move as positive, with the provision that a slate system might be better than a basic quota system. When Watani asked Ms Qumssan on whether Copts would ask for a quota now that women had theirs, she replied that women represented 50 per cent of the community, not a minority, and that moreover this ratio included both Copts and Muslims.
Abul-Ezz al-Hariri from the Tagammu party said there was no point in allocating seats specifically for women so long as the political scene was corrupt and elections rigged, since women who made it to parliament would probably be selected by the powers-that-be. “There is already a quota in parliament for workers and farmers, but that doesn’t reflect a true representation for either workers or farmers,” he said. “Quotas are not the point; the real point lies in turning programmes and plans into action.”