17 - 23 May 2001
Issue No.534
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 17 - 23 May 2001 Issue No.534 |
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Sisterhood above party
The National Council for Women is backing women candidates in the Shura Council elections, yet some nominees are asking for greater support. Reem Leila reports
Twenty-two women, out of a total of 851 candidates, are running in the Shura Council mid-term elections that began yesterday. And the National Council for Women (NCW), dedicated to promoting women's participation in political activity and decision-making, is acting to support all of them, regardless of their political or partisan affiliations. The NCW is aiming at enhancing women's participation in political life and decision making.
Despite the NCW's declared support, not a single woman was nominated by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). In fact, 18 NDP members who decided to run independently were stripped of their party membership. Three opposition parties have nominated one woman each: the Wafd Party, in the Nile Delta constituency of Al-Mehalla, the Umma Party, in Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab district, and the Takaful Party, in Boulaq Al-Dakrour in Giza governorate. The other women candidates are running as independents.
Despite the NDP's reluctance to nominate women, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, head of the NCW, assured female candidates of the Council's support. According to Farkhonda Hassan, NCW secretary-general, if women are politically empowered, they cannot be denied any of their other rights. The NCW does not differentiate between the NDP candidates and those of other political parties. "The NCW is giving women its maximum support," she said.
Galila Goma'a, a former member of the People's Assembly, is running for election in Al-Tor, in south Sinai. She was dismissed from the NDP for running as an independent after the party refused to include her name on its list of candidates. "I was a member of the People's Assembly between 1979 and 2000. And yet my long political history was not taken into consideration and I was dismissed from the party's ranks unjustifiably," she said. Goma'a hopes that, following the elections, the NDP will re-accept the women it dismissed.
Gannat El-Samallouti, head of the NCW's political committee, describes the support extended by the Council to the female candidates as an "alliance." "Running for election is the only way of getting society to accept, and become accustomed to, women's participation. Women should contest the elections overcoming any obstacles standing in their way. This process is the only way that society will get used to, and accept their participation; not to mention that women candidates will be given training in electoral campaigning," she said. But she cautioned that the NCW does not have the authority to return the dismissed women candidates to the ranks of the NDP.
NCW support will mainly consist of organising public rallies to urge voters to vote for women candidates. As for financial support, Hassan revealed that, "the council does not have the means to provide financial backing. Women candidates will receive financial support via businessmen and businesswomen."
Some women candidates believe that the chances of their success would have been greater if there were fewer women candidates. They particularly object to the nomination of more than one woman in a single governorate. There are five women candidates in Ismailia, three each in Cairo, Sharqiya and Qaliubiya, and two in Gharbiya.
For her part, Hoda El-Komy, an Umma Party candidate, was hoping for greater support from the NCW. It would have been better, she said, had the Council played a role in determining the number of women candidates, and choosing who was qualified to run. "This would have served to focus the efforts of the NCW," she added. "Instead of backing 22 women, it would have been better to back only 12."
Gamila Ismail, a TV broadcaster who is running independently in Cairo, was also hoping for greater NCW support. "It would have been better if the head or the secretary-general of the NCW accompanied us on our electoral campaigns," she said.
The NCW has asked Justice Minister Farouk Seif El-Nasr to include female members of the administrative prosecution (the only women in the judicial authority) in the judicial committees supervising elections, particularly in constituencies where women are running.
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