Its story started in 2000, when President Hosni Mubarak established it directly under his patronage, as an autonomous institution, aiming at ensuring women's effective participation in all areas of development. Thirty of the members of the State-backed National Council for Women (NCW) were very prominent figures and specialists in women's issues. The NCW specialises in proposing the public policies of society in the field of women's development. It also gives its notes to specialised agencies to take into account. This council is not an executive agency, but its role is also to organise conferences and seminars tackling women's issues and representing women in international women's conferences. In other words, its has a consultancy role. This year marked the 10th anniversary of this State-run council and one wonders how many Egyptian women are aware of it. Is the woman who sells tissues and other modest goods on the pavement aware of it? Or the woman whose her heart is torn apart when she sells her child because they're so poor? Or the one who struggles alone because her husband has run away because he cannot afford to feed her and their children? Or the young lass forced to wed a rich old man to feed her family? And what about women in the countryside, mired in illiteracy? "What is this. Is it here in Egypt?" This is what a humble woman in the street says when asked whether she's heard of the NCW. Last week, the NCW celebrated its 10th anniversary with a cultural event at the Cairo Opera House. Farkhonda Hassan, the NCW Secretary-General, reviewed what the council has achieved in the past ten years. "We go to countryside and ask people what they want from the Government. They're amazed at this question, even though their needs are so simple," said Farkhonda. "For example, an uneducated woman demands that her children can go to a school near their home. Another one would like to see a clinic in her little village. We also talk to their husbands, many of whom would like a police station in their villages. Their requests are very similar and we try to oblige." Some Egyptian women are suffering in silence. In the streets, at work, in transports and even in their homes, they might suffer domestic violence. In some cases, a woman loses one of her relatives and she is deprived of her legacy by her male relatives. Maybe Egyptian women spend their lives demonstrating that they're not second-class citizens. Fighting this hidden enemy – the discrimination against women – is proving to be a long battle. The Egyptian Constitution of 1956, which was amended two years later, said: ‘Citizens are equal in front of the law. They are equal in their rights and duties. There is no discrimination because of sex, origin, language or religion'. The 11th item of Egypt's Constitution, enacted in 1971, says: “The State shoulders the task of matching the woman's duties towards her family and her social work, in addition to her equality with men in political, social, cultural and economic fields, without violating the principles of the Islamic Sharia.” "Despite this, most of complaints the council receives are about discrimination in work. If a woman can't work like a man, it's better to stay at home," Farkhonda added. Recently, Egypt's Constitutional Court backed the right of women judges to sit on the bench in the State Council, an influential court that advises the Government. The ruling follows a dispute within the State Council, the top administrative court, over whether women should be appointed. Last month, the body's general assembly voted overwhelmingly against female judges, reigniting a debate within the country over women holding senior governmental posts, particularly in the judiciary. However, the ruling was not “decisive” and debates within the administrative courts could still continue along the conservative-liberal fault line. President Mubarak appointed the first female judge to the Constitutional Court in 2003; four years later, 31 other female judges were installed. Despite seeing the beginning of the women's emancipation movement in the Middle East and being the birthplace of several historic activists for women's rights, Egypt has lagged behind other Arab countries like Tunisia in appointing women judges. Far away from female intellectuals, many women are breadwinners for their families. More and more husbands are running away from their homes, fleeing the spectre of poverty and leaving their wife and children without a piastre, say sociologists. According to local newspapers, there are more than 18,000 cases of this, while sociologists argue this figure could be too small. "This problem is not new, but now it's becoming a phenomenon," Farkhonda warned, adding that the NCW has helped 6,000 female breadwinners by giving them interest-free loans, albeit with conditions attached. "A mother must let her children go to school. She herself should have an ID and electoral card. The council of course helps her get these things." The NCW has succeeded in amending 13 laws as well, said Farkhonda, who is also a professor of geology at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and the Chairwoman of the Commission on Human Development and Local Administration of the Shura Council (the Upper House of the Egyptian Parliament). "One of them is the Nationality Law, Article 1 of which has been amended to include the right of citizenship to those born to either Egyptian fathers or mothers, in contrast to an earlier version excluding this right to children born to Egyptian fathers alone. "This amendment has realised the principle of equality between those born to an Egyptian father and an Egyptian mother, so they can enjoy Egyptian nationality with no restrictions," she explained. Last year, the Egyptian Parliament passed an amendment to the Legislature's Law, allocating 64 out of the 508 seats in Parliament for women. The amendment will come into force in the forthcoming parliamentary elections later this year, and will remain in force for two parliamentary terms, on the assumption that, after this period, there will no longer be any need for affirmative action. "It's not an easy matter to allocate 64 seats for women. They should know that and work hard to prove that they can handle this," Farkhonda said. She added that the NCW played a vital role in training women in the electoral process, "especially as the political parties in Egypt aren't doing this". She once thought that the NCW might never celebrate its 20th anniversary, as women would have their rights and wouldn't need a council to speak up for them. But last year the US, a developed country, created the White House Council on Women and Girls and she's changed her mind. "The NCW in Egypt will last forever. I hope that in 2020 illiteracy among Egyptian women will be a thing of the past," she said.
