48

Conditions of Rural Women in Egypt  

The LCHR has issued report no. 48 of the Economic & Social Rights series monitoring the economic, social, educational, health and political conditions of rural women in Egypt under the implementation of economic reform and the unified labor law, and their right to work. It presents the results of a field study in El Rahawa village – Giza governorate, studying 20 cases through making collective and individual interviews with them. The report consists of several sections as follows: The First Section presents political conditions of rural women, indicating the Egypt is not very strong in the field of enabling women's political participation. The percentage of women in the Egyptian parliament is 2.4%, 6% in the Consultative Council, 2% in the local councils, 17% in professional syndicates, 3% in labor syndicates and 9% in the possession of administrational positions. Women are marginalized in the different institutions. The field study indicates that 80% of the women inside the village don't have ID cards, 9% have electoral cards and 3% participate in the elections that happen in the village. The Second Section covers the economic conditions of rural women, indicating that working women represent 21% of the total working force in Egypt, 77% of them work in the agricultural sector and services, while the rest work in other sectors "industry, banking and commerce". Unemployed women are four times the sum of unemployed men. 82% of the studied women work to support their families, while the rest work to earn enough money to get married. The village depends on women in farming the land, as men work in digging wells, which provide them with more daily wages. The Third Section presents the social conditions of rural women and their right to education and health care. Women who have possession over land represents 5.27% of the total number o people having land possession. The report indicates that 15% of working women in Egypt support their families. Illiteracy among women reaches 62.5%, while it is 37% among men. 92% of the studied cases did not go school, and 8% have dropped out o school, and 77% of them got married before the age of 17. The studied villages don't have drainage systems or clean potable water, about 25% of the village people are infected with different diseases, such as kidney failure. The Fourth Section covers the effects o implementing the land law and the unified labor law on women's conditions, as working women are the most group effected by these laws, because they were evicted out of their lands and had to work in very bad working conditions with very low fees and without any social security nor health insurance, because these women are excluded of the labor law no. 12 for the year 2003. 91% of the studied cases asserted that they don't know anything about the labor law or anything about their working rights. The Fifth Section contains some case studies of working women and girls, presenting their deteriorating working conditions, the reasons for doing these types of work and the dangers that they face while working. The Sixth Section presents some recommendations that may improve the conditions of working women and protect their rights in Egypt, such as: • All Egyptian villages must have health units.
• Support the families whose children are dropping out of schools.
• Improve the conditions of working women in the agrarian sector and guarantee their participation in all Egyptian councils.
• Eliminate discrimination against women.
• Include women in all development projects and social activities.
• Establish adequate and suitable schools for young girls and elder women. The LCHR calls all CSOs to work on implementing the report's recommendations or any relevant recommendations to improve the conditions of working women working in the agricultural sector, and demand the members of the People's Assembly and the Ministry of Manpower to help these groups in obtaining their rights to working opportunities, safety and decent living. The full report will be published on our website as soon as we finish the translation.

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