A village in Port Said has become a landmark in the fight against female genital mutilation, reports Reem Leila P Mrs Suzanne Mubarak has declared Bahr Al-Baqar, in the Port Said governorate, the first anti-Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) village in the coastal city. The announcement was made on 19 June during a celebration attended by Health Minister Hatem El-Gabali, Minister of State for Family and Population Affairs Mushira Khattab, Secretary-General of the National Council for Women (NCW) Farkhonda Hassan, Minister of Local Administration Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub, Chairman of the National Council for Youth Safeieddin Kharboush and Port Said Governor Mustafa Abdel-Latif. While addressing the gathering, Mrs Mubarak recalled her childhood memories, and how she used to spend the summer vacation with her family in Port Said. She also recounted an incident when she was 17. "One day my brother, who was in the Air Forces, invited his boss to spend the weekend with us at Port Said." The handsome boss turned out to be President Hosni Mubarak, who her brother described as "firm and kind". "Who would have thought that this boss was going to be Egypt's president one day? We formed a small family and raised our children," Mrs Mubarak said. Mrs Mubarak toured several sites in Port Said, during which she inaugurated Al-Zohour Hospital in Al-Manakh. The LE42 million hospital has 72 beds, an ICU, laboratory, CT scan unit, recovery room and two operation theatres. According to El-Gabali, the hospital was built in three years, and an annex will be added in the next six months. "Occupation during the hospital's soft opening exceeded 70 per cent. Extra beds will be added to take in the number of indoor patients," El-Gabali explained. During Mrs Mubarak's tour she laid down the foundation stone of the new branch of the NCW. "Many achievements were realised in promoting the role of women in the development process on the national level through activities of the NCW." This coincided with Mrs Mubarak's tour of the Mubarak Public Library and the 2010 summer campaign of the Reading for All Festival marking its 20th anniversary. The main theme of this year's festival is "Reading is a Right of Life". The national Reading for All Festival has been praised by several international organisations, particularly UNESCO, which called for the transfer of this model as far as may be appropriate to other national environments. Mrs Mubarak said reading was the basic tool to acquire knowledge and the basis of any worthwhile scientific, cultural or intellectual effort. "The book is the main source of knowledge which entitles people to the right to imagine the future. It generates endless possibilities from a single situation or thought. Reading enlightens the mind and polishes the personality." Mrs Mubarak concluded her tour by chairing "Empowering Egyptian Families", a conference in which 11 people narrated their experiences with FGM. During the conference, Mrs Mubarak stated that women and men have become fully aware that this practice "is a form of unreasonable violence against female children and a violation of their basic human rights. "Any girl has the right to preserve her dignity and the privacy of her body," Mrs Mubarak told the conference. She said that she had been paying close attention to improving the overall status of the Egyptian female child and ensuring that she enjoys her civil rights. This attention, Mrs Mubarak continued, had been expanded to protect the female child against harmful inherited practices such as circumcision and marrying girls at an early age. "These practices, which have no sound health, social or religious basis, are performed either intentionally or unintentionally by parents on the grounds they are protecting their daughters." During the conference Mrs Mubarak made it clear that the past decade was full of activities, achievements and work in the interest of the future of the nation, including developing education, spreading general culture, communicating with youth, enhancing the culture of peace, and empowering women. Mrs Mubarak said she was particularly proud of efforts undertaken to make education more accessible to girls and to secure healthcare and legal rights for as many women as possible. She said she was also proud that women are assertively finding ways to be involved in politics at all levels. "Many achievements were realised in promoting the role of women in the development process and peace activities on the national, regional and international fronts through activities of several governmental and non-governmental organisations," stated Mrs Mubarak. She said recent constitutional amendments had guaranteed more opportunities for women to be represented in elected parliamentary councils. "There are now 64 seats in parliament for women. We have dozens of women who work as judges," she said, adding that this was part of the great efforts which have been exerted to grant women equal citizenship rights. Mrs Mubarak stressed the important role of families in protecting children and called for spreading educational programmes to guide parents and families towards positive and constructive means in protecting children against various dangers through dialogue and monitoring relationships with people around them.
