CAIRO (Updated) - Thousands of Egyptian women marked the International Women's Day with demonstrations to demand a greater role in politics and a call for equality as a veteran female judge urged authorities to allow women to run for presidency. Women in Egypt, the first in the Arab world to gain the right to vote in 1956 and to secure the right to higher education, played a prominent role in the Egyptian protests that led to the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year. Thousands of women have marched on to Cairo's Al Tahrir Square, which had become the hub of Egypt's protests, to demand reforms that would guarantee them more personal rights and an end to violence and sexual harassment. This year marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, which was first celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland and is now commemorated in dozens of countries. The women's rights activists are campaigning for more women in Egyptian politics after a committee made up only of men was selected to draft the country's constitution. "It was unfair to ignore women while drafting a constitutional change even if it was temporary," said Nehad Abul Qomsan, one of the organisers. Abul Qomsan, a women rights activist, added that one of their demands was to reconsider the constitutional amendments on what was related to women's participation in political life. "According to Article 75, the presidential hopeful should not be married to a non-Egyptian woman. This word 'woman' gives the impression that the candidate should be a man. This is fully rejected," Abul Qomsan told The Gazette by phone. The march also paid tribute to the women who helped overthrow Mubarak including the 12 women known to have died in clashes with police during the anti-regime protests. Social media was again used to organise the march. The even was mainly organised on Facebook. On Twitter, women were cited as inviting men to come and march along with them. Tahani el-Gebali, an Egyptian judge with the Constitutional Court, urged authorities to highlight the right of Egyptian women to run for presidency. "Political life in Egypt after the fall of Mubarak should give a greater role for women," el-Gebali told the German magazine Deutsche Welle. Meanwhile, United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay appealed on Monday to new governments in Egypt and Tunisia to ensure that full women's rights were enshrined in new constitutions in both countries. She also voiced concern that constitutional reforms in Egypt were being discussed with little participation from women and could entrench discrimination against them. And she called on men and women who took part in protests that led to the ousting of long-ruling presidents in both Egypt and Tunisia to ensure that women played a full role in shaping their countries' future. "In these moments of historic transition in Egypt and Tunisia, it is important to ensure that women's rights are not set aside as something to be dealt with after the crucial reforms are won," a statement from Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said. "Women's rights should be at the top of the new list of priorities," declared the former judge of the South African high court and international criminal court.
