Quota system will change perception of women in society, say female candidates
A man passes by an electoral poster of parliament's National Party candidate Madiha Khattab in Cairo, Wednesday, Nov. 24. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
By Heba Afify /Daily News Egypt November 26, 2010, 8:56 pm
CAIRO: In spite of a new system allocating 64 seats in the People’s Assembly to women, the candidates are still battling stereotypes in the male-dominated political scene. But they are planning to change that once elected MPs by bringing a more compassionate view to laws and proving themselves.
Madiha Khattab, a National Democratic Party (NDP) candidate for the Cairo governorate and a member of the National Council of Women, stated that women have a deeper compassion for the problems that citizens face.
This compassion, according to Khattab, will enhance the supervisory function of the parliament and, as an added bonus, the calmer nature of women will likely decrease the intensity of the arguments that commonly take place among male MPs during parliamentary sessions.
Khattab added that the presence of women in parliament will be especially important because laws that will significantly affect women and families ― such as the social health insurance law and the personal affairs law ― will soon be discussed.
Abir Suleiman, independent candidate for the constituency of Daher and Azbakeya, said that a woman’s role in the parliament is equal to ― if not more important than ― a man’s.
“[A] woman is more able to channel the pulse of the streets to the parliament,” Suleiman said. “She is the one [who] raises the children and she is the one [who] plans the affairs of her household, which makes her capable of planning the affairs of her district.”
The women’s quota system was used in Egypt for the first time in 1979, but it was ruled unconstitutional and cancelled in 1986.
With the help of the National Council of Women, changes were made to the 2007 Constitutional Amendments in order to make the quota system constitutional, which was followed by a law passed by the parliament last February that officially reinstated the women’s quota system, awarding women 64 seats through 32 constituencies.
Mahmoud Sherif, chairman of the political participation committee in the NCW which hosted a press conference for female candidates, said that the quota system is necessary to change society’s views regarding the participation of women in politics, in addition to encouraging women to even run for the election in the first place.
Sherif stated that women’s participation was minimal in the 2005 elections because “parties wanted to win so they were nominating their most powerful men.” As a result, only four women were elected and five others were appointed.
This year, 1,009 women applied to be parliamentary candidates and 397 made the final list ― 320 of these candidates are running for seats reserved under the women’s quota, and 77 are running for regular seats.
