Egyptian women participated effectively in saving Egypt from extremism: Al-Sisi

The president honored martyrs' mothers and other leading female figures during Egyptian Women's Day celebration

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi participated on Tuesday evening in the celebration activities of the Egyptian Women's Day that took place on the occasion of Mother's Day. The celebration was held in one of Cairo's hotels in the presence of high-ranking state officials and the head of the Women's National Council.
During the festivity, Al-Sisi delivered a speech aired on state-run television in which he highlighted the great role played by Egyptian women over Egypt's long history. Moreover, he granted the "Order of Perfection" to women from different governorates, in addition to mothers of police and army martyrs.
The speech included praise of Egyptian women and their struggles throughout the different historical stages in Egypt, in addition to their sacrifices in Egypt's war against terrorism.
"Recently, Egyptian women were on the forefront of promoting revolutions that aimed at achieving freedom and dignity and played an important role in restoring Egypt from the rule radical groups that worked hard to kidnap Egypt," Al-Sisi said during the speech.
Moreover, Al-Sisi praised Egyptian women for bearing the hardships that stemmed from the recent economic reforms and proved their efficiency in different positions, such as being parliament members, great scholars, and judges.
Meanwhile, he announced several decisions that he considered to be consistent with his recent declaration that 2017 will be the Year of Women, including instructing the government and the Women's National Council to activate the Women Empowerment Strategy 2030 and execute all its projects within the upcoming years.
Also, Al-Sisi decided to instruct the Ministry of Social Solidarity to coordinate with all state institutions to launch a national initiative that seeks the establishment of microenterprises by receiving financing from the Tahya Misr fund and Nasser Social Bank (NSB).
"The initiative will receive funds that reach EGP 250m to achieve empowerment for women breadwinners through enabling them to launch microenterprises," Al-Sisi explained.
The decisions also included instructing the Ministry of Social Solidarity to provide subsidies to the families of women breadwinners and the neediest families through a financial support programme provided by NSB that reaches EGP 50m to help them in improving their daily living conditions.
Al-Sisi concluded his speech by highlighting the instructions he issued to the government to provide EGP 250m for the sake of affording state-sponsored care to children to allow Egyptian women to go out and work.