Egypt’s Women Expect More in Mubarak’s Next Term

During the 2005 Presidential Election campaign, each of the ten candidates unveiled ambitious programs promising a better future for Egyptians. Women, however, were conspicuously absent from these campaign promises. Only President Mubarak made an explicit commitment to furthering women’s issues, promising greater participation in the political arena. Should Egyptian women, therefore, be encouraged by their prospects during Mubarak’s fifth term?
Over the last twenty-four years, Mubarak’s attention to women’s rights has been scant, and might have been worse if it weren’t for the work of First Lady Suzanne Mubarak. Currently, women occupy just 2% of the country’s 454-seat parliament. Only two of these women were directly elected. Another seven were token appointments by the President, who is entitled to allocate ten seats at his discretion. The constitution provides for equality of the sexes, but as is so often the case, constitutional rights don’t always find expression in reality.
A number of factors contribute to gender inequality in Egypt. The foremost of these is the yawning gulf between men’s and women’s literacy levels. According the 2005 United Nations Human Development Report, 43.6% of Egyptian women are illiterate compared to 67.2% of men.
In other areas, an older set of family laws and customs which govern adultery and divorce continue to promote discrimination. A new Family Court, which was created to address these inequalities, remains impotent. Moreover, the disparity in men’s and women’s salaries remains staggering with women earning roughly one fifth as much as men by annual average. While policies which empower the Family Court, create a quota for women’s participation in parliament, or address the salary gap would be welcome advancements, they would still focus on symptoms rather than treating the root of the problem. Without serious work to tackle low literacy levels among Egypt’s women, there can be little to hope for in the way of real gender equality. This publication urges the Mubarak government to take serious steps in this regard in the coming term.