Just as the inter-Palestinian dialogue may have come to a standstill, US-Iranian contacts are likely to take off. Doaa El-Bey looks at both, plus the plight of Egyptian women who must work The celebration of Mother's Day and Women's Day was a chance for some writers to pinpoint various problems facing mothers and women in general. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram focussed on the mother as the sole breadwinner in the family as a result of the death, disability or illness of her husband, or because her man abandoned her. Statistics from the National Council for Women show that women are the only breadwinner in more than 25 per cent of Egyptian families. The state and the council have exerted much effort to improve the status of these women by giving them small and medium-sized loans to run their own home projects. Nevertheless, the editorial said, more needs to be done. The establishment of a special ministry for family affairs could be a good start to resolving the problem by providing women with more of these projects and trying to improve their standard of living. Resolving the problem is directly linked to improving the standard of living of all sectors in society and boosting the economic standard of poor and deprived areas. That would be the best present for a mother on Mother's Day as the edit concluded. Rabie Abdel-Gaafar said it was unfair to celebrate Mother's Day once a year because mothers deserve to be feted every day. He said Mother's Day is a chance to shed light on the problems of the elderly in Egypt, pointing to the crisis in the number of elderly homes. There are from 120 to 150 such homes in Cairo and Alexandria that can take 4,000 elderly people, but there are nearly 500,000 elderly men and women who are in need of a home. Abdel-Gaafar, who quoted a manager of one of these homes, emphasised that the state should establish a number of elderly homes and try to emulate England in transferring the pension or income of the elderly to the home he or she resides in. Strangely enough, the Ministry of Social Solidarity stops the pensions it gives to the elderly once they move to an elderly home instead of transferring it to the home to support it in caring for the elderly, the writer concluded in the official daily Al-Gomhuriya. Shawqi El-Sayed reviewed the efforts to improve the status of women in society in the daily newspaper Rose El-Youssef. He pointed to her participation with male colleagues in public work and revolutions including the 1919 Revolution. El-Sayed regarded the establishment of the National Council for Women in 2000 as a great success for women and hailed its efforts to abolish all forms of discrimination against women, to educate them and improve their abilities. The yearly celebration of Women's Day on 16 March is necessary to cast a fresh look at issues concerning women. This year the declaration issued after the celebration sent messages to the government to abide by the constitutional principle of equality between men and women in all ministries, to the parliament to pass laws that help in the fair representation of women in parliament, to the private sector, political parties and to women themselves in order to support women issues. Writers were still looking for a way out for Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir after his indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Abdel-Rahman El-Hawari drew a few scenarios awaiting Sudan after the ICC indictment. One was to hold an international conference to be attended by Egypt, other Arab states, the African Union and the UN to find a way out of the current crisis. The conference should be coupled with handing over whoever is involved in the violence in Darfur and working towards reaching a peace agreement that would end violence in that region. Another is change in the Sudanese political leadership by way of a coup and postponing the ICC indictment. That could lead to stability in Sudan, holding scheduled elections this year and trying the Darfur culprits in a hybrid tribunal of independent Sudanese as well as Arab and African judges. El-Hawari drew up two pessimistic scenarios: Sudan's refusal to hand over Al-Bashir to the ICC, which would force the ICC to refer the case to the Security Council which would have to impose economic sanctions on Sudan. That would affect Sudan's economy and peace agreements with the south and in Darfur. The second scenario is an external intervention in a way that instigates an internal coup against Al-Bashir, and encourage southern Sudan to declare its independence and the rebel groups in Darfur to establish an independent region in the west. That would lead to complete havoc in Sudan. Thus the writer called on the present government to deal wisely with the indictment and not to take any step without studying it objectively. Moreover, Sudan needs to work hard to conclude a peace agreement with the rebel movements in Darfur, initiate a development programme that would improve the conditions of the people in the region and respond to Egyptian, other Arab and African efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis. "All parties should work toward one basic target: preserving Sudan's unity and stability," El-Hawari wrote in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom . Essam Abdel-Aziz pointed to the internal rage ignited by the ICC ruling which was translated in expelling humanitarian groups active in Darfur. However, Abdel-Aziz called on Sudan to accept Egyptian suggestions to contain the present crisis by working to reach comprehensive national reconciliation between all the rebel groups in Darfur and the political parties in Sudan, refraining from taking retaliatory measures likely to escalate confrontation with the international community -- including expelling humanitarian groups -- and taking the necessary measures to try those involved in crimes against humanity in Darfur. He welcomed the Arab League's suggestion to hold an international conference to resolve the crisis caused by the ICC indictment. However, Abdel-Aziz pinned more hopes on the attempt by the Arab League-AU delegation to persuade the US, Britain and France to use item 16 in the ICC statute that allows the Security Council to postpone the ICC indictment for a year to give time to peace efforts. The delegation is scheduled to travel to New York later this month. "It is also important to seek the help of Arab and international experts in international law to defend Khartoum in the ICC," Abdel-Aziz wrote in the weekly magazine Rose El-Youssef.
