CAIRO: The State Council's refusal to appoint women as judges was among the top public issues in the first half of 2010. However, women's participation in the parliamentary elections and the quota system became a more important topic in the second half of the year. This year also witnessed much discussion about women's status, most of which reflected a social regression the position of Egyptian women. Women occupying of positions, whether high positions or not, is given arrogantly by the government and is marked as a social tolerance, but not a right of all citizens. Any appointment of any woman anywhere is noteworthy, even though these cases are individual. Women are put under both political and economic pressure. Although many, regardless of gender, suffer political and economic problems, women suffer disproportionately from gender-based discrimination, violence, and lack of protection. On the level of leadership and decision-making, a woman was appointed as the president of Tanta University and is only the second woman to hold this position. Moreover, a number of women were appointed to different positions for the first time. For example, the first female marriage registrar was appointed in Upper Egypt. A woman was appointed head of the administrative office of the New Urban Communities Authority, three women were appointed as vice presidents of the administrative office of the New Urban Communities Authority, and many women were appointed as heads of youth centers. Concerning economic development, some described 2010, especially the first half, as the year of sit-ins. Protests were held and demonstrated many Egyptians' anger. Women participated in sit-ins, because they are considered as part of work force and concerned with helping their husbands. Such sit-ins were held in different fields (medical, educational, and professional). In addition, there were many protests held against sexual harassment and sexual assault. As the rates of violence against women are increasing, so is the rate of girls' suicide. This year there were 54 documented cases of attempted suicide (20 were rescued and 34 died). The reasons for suicide attempts varied from economic hardship to suffering from domestic violence to lack of job opportunities. In addition to the increased number of violent crimes committed in the second half of 2010, the documented number of violent crimes against women was 1306, which is even greater that the number of sexual harassment cases, 933 (71.4%). It's noticeable that sexual harassment happens to girls at schools. Newspapers informed us about many incidents in which a number of young men tried to break in schools and harass girls. Moreover, girls are harassed by their teachers, and security forces of the universities committed crimes of assault such as harassment, hitting and detaining girls. There is a continuous rise in the violence crimes, for domestic violence was in the second level (140 crimes; 10.7%). It is really dangerous that the social acceptability of domestic violence has increased. According to the report of Youth survey 2010 by the Information Center, 2/3 of young men believe that domestic violence is justified in some situations. Rape was the second most common violent crime of the 98 documented cases with a rate 7.5%, followed by honor crimes (84 cases, 6.4%), then violence by security forces (29 cases, 2.2%), and then crimes of institutional violence (22 cases, 1.6%). Crimes of psychological violence are also problematic as they have the same dangers as physically violent crimes. Furthermore, information crimes which increase due to spread of modern technological methods that are been misused by many people. Finally, medical neglect is also included on the list as it led to women's death. Using women to increase the sectarian sedition is another kind of violence, since some Christian girls disappeared this year, in addition to disappearance of a wife of priest who appeared after that to affirm that she was guest of one of her relatives. While there were many protests of Muslims and Christians to support those Christians who disappeared by their will (except for Wafaa Qestenten who was forced to disappear), there were tens of thousands of women and girls livings in streets “daughters & mothers of the streets” or those whose homes were destroyed, who were left homeless, and subjected to all kinds of violence. Many Arab women are still subjected to violence and discrimination. In Khartoum, Sudan, a girl was beaten in a police station because she wore pants. In Saudi Arabia, fatwas (Islamic rulings) that deprive women of their most basic rights at work continue to be issued, such as the fatwa that bans women from working as a cashier, and marriage of female minors continues to be common. Despite all of this, Arab women did not give up and they participated in the legislative elections in many countries to claim their rights of political participation and decision-making. They also made progress in literary field as seven Arab female writers were included in the Arab version of the Booker Prize of 2011. On the global level, inhumane violence came at the top of list of violence against women in the Islamic world. In Iran, for example, a ruling of lashing woman until death was issued due for a woman who committed adultery. In Afghanistan, a nose of girl was cut as a punishment for her running away from home. Furthermore, there are many Islamic laws offending women and Islam are issued. On the other hand, women became at the top of the political scene in many countries and in Brazil and Costa Rica women became president. This report dealt with monitoring Egyptian women's status by extracting from national and international reports, daily newspapers such as Al Ahram, Akhbar, El – Gomhoria, Al Masry El Youm, Destour, Nahdet Masr, Wafd, El Shorouq, El Ahrar, and El Hayat, and weekly newspapers such as El Esbou, El Youm El Sabea, and one that discuss women's issues. BM
