CAIRO: Minister of State for Family and Population Moshira Khattab received the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic — the highest badge of honor in Italy — on Monday evening in a small ceremony at the Italian Embassy in Cairo. “Carrying this prestigious Order of Merit is an honor to my country as it is an honor to me,” Khattab said during the ceremony. Italian ambassador Claudio Pacifico said Italy had chosen Khattab for this great honor because of her strong commitment and her efforts in protecting women's rights, especially in regards to the international campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM). “The efforts exerted by Khattab during the last seven years were successful, as these practices [FGM] are not spread in a lot of villages like before, and these operations are considered against the law now,” Pacifico said during the ceremony. “Khattab was committed to changing the cultural and religious conception of female genital mutilation [by] encouraging a new view of these practices and raising awareness that it's a violation of the victims' rights.” Pacifico also hailed Khattab's contribution to issuing a law protecting minors in 2008, which he described as “completely coinciding with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.” “This award means a lot to me, and I don't consider it only for me,” Khattab told Daily News Egypt. “It's for the entire team, [for] which I am very thankful.” Minister of Legal Affairs & Parliamentary Councils Mofid Shehab attended the ceremony to support and congratulate Khattab. “I consider honoring Moushira Khattab an honor to all of us, that's why I'm very happy and I feel the same way I felt when I was given the same Order of Merit in 1994,” Shehab told Daily News Egypt. Khattab thanked Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak for supporting her efforts and attributed the Order of Merit to her. According to Khattab, there is a lot of collaboration between her ministry and Italy regarding human rights issues, including FGM, fighting illegal immigration, and protecting minors from drugs. “Moshira Khattab is the voice protecting women's rights in Egypt and the world,” Pacifico said.
