CAIRO: Egypt's recently re-formed National Council of Women (NCW) board has elected former Ambassador Mervat el-Tallawy as the chairwoman of the council in its first meeting after the re-formation by the ruling military junta last week. The members of the board have also elected lawyer and head of the Egyptian Organization for Women's Rights (EOWR) Nehad Abul Komsan as Secretary-General of the council, MP Margret Azar as the aide to the secretary-general and TV host and writer Doria Sharaf el-Din as the spokesperson for the council, the state-run MENA news agency reported. Tallawy replaces the wife of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Suzanne, as the new chairwoman of the NCW. Farkhanda Hassan, the former Secretary-General, had said earlier that she is still in charge as Secretary-General of the Council and would not leave until the election of the president and a new secretary-general. Faiza Abul-Naga, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, said Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzoury met with the new board of the council and assured them that the government will be “fully supporting the NCW without limits,” during the coming period. Abul-Naga said that the National Council for Women has received a letter from the Grand Imam Sheikh Al-Azhar, Al-Ahmed Al-Tayeb, where he “confirmed his support for the role of women in defending their causes, in line with Islamic Sharia law.” Abul-Naga described the letter “as representing an important image of the role will be played by women during the next phase, and to shun any distorting smear campaign against it.” Ganzoury agreed to meet with the National Council for Women's on Egypt's National Woman's Day on March 16. The NCW was founded by presidential decree in 2000. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/DQZlQ Tags: Board, Council, featured, NCW Section: Egypt, Latest News, Women
