CAIRO: Egypt has agreed to set up a branch of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Institute for the Empowerment of Women (NIEW) in Cairo as suggested by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the Malaysian Prime Minister. Malaysia's Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil said Egypt's willingness was expressed by First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, wife of President Hosni Mubarak, the host for the NAM First Ladies Summit which ended in Sharm El Sheikh on Thursday. Shahrizat said that with the proposed establishment of the institute in Cairo, it would become the second NIEW regional office in Africa after the NIEW in Kuala Lumpur for the Asian region. The other two regions were the Latin American and Caribbean region, and the European region. Shahrizat said all the First Ladies who attended were impressed with the excellent achievement of the Kuala Lumpur NIEW in training 2,600 participants of the NAM member countries since it was established when Malaysia became the NAM chairman from 2003 to 2006. Rosmah had made the call to set up the NIEW in each NAM region when speaking at the first Summit Meeting of the First Ladies. She was accompanied by Shahrizat at the meeting. Activists in Egypt are not convinced of the endeavor, however, saying that the first lady is not someone to buttress efforts to empower women. “Her comments last year over sexual harassment, or what she said lack thereof, show that she has little clue about what needs to be done in order to improve women's rights in the world,” said one female Egyptian activist, referring to Mubarak's comments that sexual harassment in Egypt is not a problem and that “Egyptian men respect women.” BM
