Amb Khattab hails women empowerment amid challenges

Ambassador Moshira Khattab, a Former Minister of Family and Population,said that 2020 has been a challenging year for humanity because of Covid-19

Ambassador Moshira Khattab, a Former Minister of Family and Population, said that 2020 has been a challenging year for humanity because of Covid-19.

Women have carried the big load when dealing with the pandemic; the lockdown of schools and workplaces, and having everybody home increase women's time burden and power, she highlighted.

She added, on a phone call to (The Daily Debate) programme, that she was honored to know that Egypt is the only economy that has scored positive progress despite the pandemic referring to the women's role in such gain. "The battle is still ongoing," she said, pointing to the fact that women bear a bigger share than anybody else in the society.

 In Egypt, ambassador Khattab mentioned, we are proud that women currently are enjoying the highest level of rights throughout our history believing that the women movement has been putting effort to empower women politically, economically and in terms of social protection.

She added that Egypt now has a constitution that grants women unprecedented rights. Women's representation in the parliament now is the highest, she said revealing that Egypt's cabinet has 8 female ministers for the first time.

The Ambassador stressed that now we have to ensure the implementation of the law believing that it will only happen when raising awareness of the society and demonstrating how much the entire society gains when women are empowered.

The National Council for Women is doing a great job in this respect in terms of reviewing legislation, formulating policies and strategies, she declared. We are heading in the right direction, she believed. However we still have gaps and discrepancies that we have to deal with, such as different kinds of violence against women.

Khattab hailed President Abdel Fattah e-Sisi's unwavering support for women giving him the credit for being the first president that speaks about women's rights and the need to empower women. Women have worked hard to fight for their rights, she illustrated, adding that they are doing well not only in Egypt but also globally. We still have gaps as women are not represented in the labor market properly. We still need to build the capacities of women to be more competitive at the labor market especially in the private sector.

She mentioned that the work-family balance is still a challenge for some women that's why they are more represented in the public sector as it is more convenient family wise but we need to push the number of women working in the private sector to be more competitive.

Globally we have many efficient well qualified women but not adequately represented in high positions or leadership managerial positions, Ambassador Moshira Khattab said, stressing the need for women to be better represented at the decision-making level.