CAIRO: MP Ibtisam Habib called on Parliament Speaker Fathi Sorour to amend some of the principles of Article 47 on the State Council, namely changing the term "men of the State Council to "members of the State Council, state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported. In all the articles of the current law, those who are involved with judicial work are referred to as members of the State Council by the State Council, except Article 104 where they are referred to as "men of the State Council, she said. Habib highlighted the importance of amending the term to ensure the consistency between the texts of all the articles of the law. She also pointed out that the amendment will be consistent with the text of Article 40 of the constitution which stipulates the principles of equality, justice and non-discrimination. Last month, 380 judges took part in a general assembly vote, with 334 rejecting the appointment of females in judicial posts in the State Council, 42 accepting the motion and four abstaining. Political analyst Fayek Fahim said that in the Arabic language, the word "men is not exclusive to males only. From a linguistic perspective, he said, a group of people can be referred to as "men even it includes women. "Just like it is okay to refer to a group of children as 'awlad' (boys) even if it includes girls, Fahim. Regarding whether women should hold judicial positions, Fahim said that women who are qualified enough should not be stopped from being judges.
