81

Women and political participation

Dear sisters and brothers
Egyptian law as well as the Egyptian constitution recognize women right for political participation. The constitution guarantees equal rights and duties for all citizens (men and women). Yet, in application things are different. The gap between the text and the reality is huge. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that the deterioration of social conditions as a result of the application of unfair economic and social policies have largely affected political participation of both men and women and in particular those of lower income classes.
Political participation definition:
Political participation is a social process in which individuals participate willingly and deliberately in the political life of their society in order to influence the course of events and for the general interest of all. This participation reflects the citizen's views, rights and best interest. Political participationis one of the main bases of democracy and a functional necessity of a political system.
Factors underlining weakness of women political participation:
Customs and traditions still have the upper hand in running the society. In particular men who still refuse that women work in political fields. In addition to this there's a lack of support from family or encouragement from men to women joining the political life. All this renders gender equality and chances for women to participate in political life very limited.
Absence of clear mechanisms and programs for women participation in political life. Women associations, political parties and civil society organizations have not given this issue adequate attention in order to improve the political participation of women.
Weak participation of women in political parties. The misuse of religion and tradition by some of the political parties to mislead the population and conceal the truth of women weak participation in political life.
Weakness of women political and legal awareness, which makes them unaware of their electoral power, and their limits their ability to actively participate in decision making and participation in public life. Lack of self-confidence among women induced by the patriarchal society made them loose confidence in female candidates running for general elections.
Women inability to face the material cost of running for elections.
The weak participation of women in legislative, legal and executive bodies in the state.
In this part we will look closely at women participation in political parties, syndicates and local elections which illustrate women political participation in Egypt.
First: Women and political parties
Political parties in a democratic system are a key field for political participation. They are a place for expressing the opinions and interests of their members, suggesting solutions and alternatives. Practicing the right to attempt to reach power through elections (democratic methods). They are also a place to fight corruption and to pressure decision makers to seek the general interest. Hence, women participation at a large scale in political parties, starting at the grassroots level and up till the key positions is a main indicator for the extent of their integration in political life. In order to have a clearer understanding of the situation we need to have a close look at the political parties' situation in Egypt:
Number Party Establishment date Current status
1 Progressive National Unionist Party 1976 Active
2 Liberal Party 1976 Suspended
3 National Democratic Party 1978 Active
4 The Socialist Labour Party 1978 Suspended
5 New Wafd Party 1978 Active
6 Umma Party 1993 Active
7 Young Egypt Party 1990 Suspended
8 Egyptian Greens 1990 Active
9 Democratic Unionist Party 1990 Active
10 Egyptian Arab Socialist Party 1992 Suspended
11 People's Democratic Party 1992 Suspended
12 Arab Democratic Nasserist Party 1992 Active
13 The Social Justice Party 1993 Suspended
14 Solidarity Party 1995 Active
15 National Conciliation Party 2000 Suspended
16 Egypt 2000 Party 2001 Active
17 New Generation Party 2002 Active
Women contribution to political parties was and still is very limited if not entirely absent. Despite the fact that political parties in Egypt, of any political affiliation, have stressed the importance of women participation as an important part of their ideology, the reality goes in the opposite direction.
The parties usually stick to the slogans they repeat and the references included in their different programs to women role, without seeking a real change. For example El Wafd political partiy which is supposed to be a liberal party historically has only 2% of women, and El Tagamoa party who reserves 10 seats for women in its central committee has in reality only four female members.
The last election of the people's assembly showed the following:
Number of candidates
Party Total Women Percentage
National Democratic Party 444 11 2.48%
Al Wafd 272 8 2.94%
Al Tagamoa 51 3 5.88%
As for small parties such as El Ahrar, despite their informal presence on the political arena 7 female candidates have run the elections for this party. As for the Greens they have nominated 2 women for symbolic presence, and each of EL Omma and The Social Justice and The Muslim Brothers only one female candidate. Thus women ran elections as independents, with 75 female candidates (1.76%).
The sad thing is that this phenomenon these facts apply to the Upper Egypt goverrates where people are very conservative as well as to the Lower Egypt governrates (the Delta).
The parties explain their reluctance for electing women by their doubts with regards to women ability to lead successful electoral campaigns. This demonstrates clearly the negative idea that the society as whole have of women and their capacities.
Second: Women and municipal elections:
Women occupied around 10% of the seats in municipal elections in 1983 and this figure dropped to 1.2 % in 1992, and increased to 2.4% in the 2002 elections. In 2008, the number of women who obtained seats through elections or recommendation reached 4.4% (2335 women).
Despite this realtive increase, women still have a lot of progress to make since this figure is very low and the positions occupied by women are not key positions.
The following table shows the evolution in the number of women occupying seats in popular councils between 1983 and 2002.
Popular councils 1983 1988 1992 1997 2002
Total % women Total % women Total % women Total % women Total % women
Governorates 1789 15 2436 5,6 2508 4,4 3172 3,2 3227 3,5
Centers 6652 15,2 2752 1,8 9834 4,4 1270 1 1296 4,5
Cities 3245 11 3772 2,3 4112 1,3 5000 1,7 5146 2,9
Neighborhoods 656 10,7 978 4,1 1018 3,7 1254 4,5 1372 5,2
Villages 1540 5,6 1774 0,5 2016 0,6 2524 0,7 2492 1,3
Table (3)
Source : Information center of the Ministers' Council 2004
The differences between 2008 and 2002 figures are minor, where the highest percentages are in neighborhoods, followed by centers, governrates, cities and at last villages. We can observe the following tendencies from table (3):
• Relatively high representation in neighborhoods does back to the fact that these neighborhood are situated withing big cities where mentalities are less rigid and people are more open whereas in villages women representation is very low because of the rigid vision of women role within the society.
• The relative increase in the number of women occupying seats in popular councils goes back to a number of exceptional measures undertaken by the National Democratic Party, who fixed a percentage for women on its lists and most of the seats (70%) were occupied through recommendation so most of the women candidates actually did not go through the electoral battle.
• Fraud during the 2008 elections.
The following factors explain the weak presence of women in the popular councils by:
• Limited efforts to change mentalities and traditions in Upper Egypt and in rural areas where the prevailing culture is tribalism and it represents the main barrier to participation of women in politics.
• The large gaps within the strategies and programs that seek ti improve women conditions where they focus on certain sectors and certain priorities.
• Lack of political education initiatives which threatens to deepen this negative vision of women.
• Lack of awareness of women right among both men and women. • Families in rural areas often neglect to register their newborn girls which is one of the conditions required for voting.
• Civil registries are situated inside police stations which scares women usually from going there.
• Lack of dedication on political parties side regarding women training and support to run for elections or to occupy key positions within the party itself.
• The great importance of available finance as a factor for the elections.
Third: Women and Syndicates:
Women presence in Egyptian syndicates (unions and in trade unions) is very week and in particular in the 24 trade unions. Women managed to get no more than ten seats within the trade unions (24 with a total of 3.9 million members) according CAA figures for the year 2000. Membership of women in syndicates is highest in the Education professions syndicate 28.4%, 17.7% in Agricultural professions syndicate, 16.1% Commerce Women in trade unions were 26 thousands in 1981 and increased to 36 thousands in 1999, but the total percentage decreased from 25% to 17% between 1981 and 1999. In the Journalists Syndicate there was not one female member in the council during the last two rounds 99 and 2003. The last two rounds in the lawyers Syndicate did not witness any women elected for the council membership 2000 – 2005 and 2005 – 2009 even on the level of subcommittees. The period from 1975 to 2009 have witnessed only two female lawyers obtaining seats in the council.
On the other hand women managed to get seats in 9 unions out of 17 thousand unions present in Egypt. In one unions (Private education) women seats surpassed men. Women membership in unions is around 53% while the success rate in elections for membership of the council is about 1%!!
Reasons for weak participation of women in unions and syndicates:
Syndicates councils memberships are run mostly by the government through fraud of elections, corruption etc. They currently face a legitimacy crisis where social movements are growing bigger everyday a way from the councils membership. Those councils are controlled by an elite that wins its seats using their privileged relations with the government.
The law number 100 for the year 1993 is an important obstacle facing women representation in unions and in trade unions. It has practically stopped elections since and hence has paralyzed syndical life. It must be amended to allow for elections to take place. Women participation in running syndicates and unions shall allow to take into consideration humanistic dimension that its usually better expressed by women.
Legal aspects:
Some might think that this weak representation of women is due to a legal barrier. The surprising thing is that it is not. The Egyptian laws give equal rights to men and women. It is rather the absence of mechanisms to encourage women participation in political life in addition to customs and traditions that play a key role in this absent or limited representation.
The general atmosphere within syndicates in Egypt does not really help women get involved in this field. In addition, the scary regression in societal values and ideals due to the hegemony of the Wahhabi current in addition to other factors such as the deterioration in socioeconomic conditions of the largest part of the society made women unwilling to work in parties or in syndicates. Some voices are calling for women to stay home where is her natural place unless she is in need of an income to let unemployed men find a place!
The increasing gap between the law and the reality is catastrophic, where laws are dead letters that are not applied. In case, someone tries to, they utterly lack social support. The legal awareness being extremely low among both men and women makes people unable to understand women rights. The law exists but can not alone lead to a real change if people do not believe in it.
Recommendations:
These recommendation need the cooperation between all social partners in order to protect women rights to participation:
• Raising awareness among women of their role in public life, and changing the idea that only men can undertake leading positions.
• Taking urgent redress measure for women deteriorating conditions.
• Insuring women and youth representation in political parties through adequate legislation and insuring the application of article 11 of the Egyptian Constitution and the article 4 of the Agreement on Discrimination against women.
• Calling political parties to dedicate a percentage for women on their general elections lists.
• Integrating the call for respect of women rights to political participation in education curricula.
• Supporting women position within syndicates (trade unions and unions) and in particular in management positions.
• Raising women awareness of the import role of the civil society organizations working on empowering women and supporting their rights for political participation.
• Improving a number of related rights such as education.
• Providing training for women on how to participate in political life, communication skills and how to design and electoral campaign. • Defining a percentage for women within the seats in popular councils, syndicates, Shura Council (upper chamber) as was the case at the People's Assembly.
• Insuring transparency of elections and assigning an independent entity to monitor the elections.
• Activating the role of local Medias in changing the rigid thinking patterns within the society.
• Forming a mechanism on the national level responsible for coordinating efforts in this filed and for insuring gender equality in pp.