Hagar Hosny

CAIRO — Egyptian member of parliament Hiyam Halawa announced Dec. 3 that she had finalized a proposal for the establishment of a Ministry for Women’s Affairs.

Egypt would not be the first Arab country to establish a Ministry for Women’s Affairs. Other countries, such as Tunisia, Lebanon and Palestine already took this step. But in Egypt, the National Council for Women (NCW) is the national mechanism regulating and addressing Egyptian women’s affairs. The council was established by a presidential decree in 2000 and is subordinate to the president of the republic.

The NCW proposes the general policy when it comes to the development of women’s affairs, empowering women to fulfill their economic role, integrating their efforts into comprehensive development programs, submitting proposals and observations to the competent authorities, and expressing an opinion on all conventions relating to women.

Halawa talked to Al-Monitor about her proposal. “The establishment of this ministry aims to create a single entity that includes all institutions concerned with women’s rights. It will be responsible for distributing their roles, developing their plan of action and addressing neglected women’s issues. The ministry will have its own administrative structure and enjoy all ministerial competences,” she said.

She added, “The ministry will work on all women-related issues and provide protection to women in the social, economic and political fields. It will see to the application of the constitutional provisions providing for equality between men and women in all rights and duties.”

She explained that the proposal took into consideration the state budget. A provision in the proposal specifies that the budget to be allocated to the new ministry would be secured from the budget already allocated by the government to women’s institutions such as the NCW, and that the proposal is so far under review and discussion.