Director of Arab Woman Organization Mervat Al Tellawy revealed that Egypt’s former Muslim Brotherhood (MB) regime was planning to cancel any organizations working to support the woman, including the National Council of Woman (NCW). He added that they planned to retaliate against the council for its position refusing their proposal to reduce the age of marriage and to cancel the punishment against female genital mutilation.
She added, in a statement to “Arabs Today”, that the woman should be empowered economically through allowing her to control her life and to take the necessary decisions related to herself and her family. She stressed that the woman should not only be allowed to enter the labor market, but also to achieve gender equality inside the market.
She added that the woman still suffers from discrimination, as the statistics reflect that the woman takes only 13 percent of the leading executive positions in the private sector companies. She blamed the cultural factors for marginalizing the woman in the Middle East.
She praised the woman presence in the governmental sector, stressing that she provides a major role in the government, as she occupies a number of ministerial portfolios and recently she took the position of governor in Egypt for the first time not only in Egypt but also in the Arab world as whole.
She underlined the role of woman, saying that she is considered an active element to protect the state and to qualify new generations for developing the country. She added that the Egyptian constitution provided the woman with unprecedented rights, calling the government for activating theses rights not only on the level of governmental sector but also the private sector.
She stressed that the woman has a major role to confront the current threats facing the Arab communities, including terrorism and extremism, as a large number of those women became refugees because of the current crises witnessed in a number of countries in the region.