21 - 27 March 2002
Issue No.578
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 March 2002 Issue No.578 |
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New mindsets for a new age
For Egypt to achieve its goal of modernisation, its people will have to adopt a completely new approach, a women's conference in Minya concluded. Dahlia Hammouda writes
The Third National Council for Women's (NCW) conference this week introduced a key concept for development -- modernising the country will require a full overhaul of the way of thinking of its men and women. Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, head of the NCW, said at the conference held in Minya on Saturday that our internal state of affairs and world conditions make it imperative that we face new realities with a new set of principles and givens.
The conference, entitled "Women and modernisation of society," held at the Suzanne Mubarak Centre for Literature and Arts at the University of Minya, was organised by the NCW for the third consecutive year on the occasion of Egyptian woman's day.
"I am pleased to be celebrating this day in the city of Minya, with its historical standing and civilisational role," Mrs Mubarak said. "In modern times, Minya has given us a number of symbols of modernisation -- Taha Hussein, Mustafa Abdel-Razeq, Ali Abdel-Razeq and Louis Awad. In addition, it has produced the leader of Egypt's feminist movement, Huda Shaarawi."
Mrs Mubarak being presented a commemorative plaque by the head of the donor organisations (photo: Mustafa Attia)
Egypt has witnessed extensive modernisation efforts in infrastructure development for services and production in the past 20 years, Mrs Mubarak said. It has also tried to raise the standard of living of the poor and complete its economic and social human development mission. However, the task of transforming the country into a modern one is still in its early stages.
"Because modernisation has become one of the country's prime needs, President Mubarak regards the task as both the basis on which Egypt's contemporary renaissance is to be built and its launching point into the field of international competition," Mrs Mubarak said. "This mission topped all others in the president's address naming the new cabinet in 1999."
Why modernisation now? "I think we all agree that we are now passing through a decisive moment in history," she said. It would be unthinkable to proceed to plan for a world that has witnessed so many changes holding on to our old way of thinking, principles and givens, she added.
"We are on the brink of a new age -- one that is invaded by a new kind of revolution, a revolution of thoughts and ideas. This revolution has thrust itself upon us, with all its information, cultures, knowledge and directions, and we have to assimilate and filter it all before we drown in it," Mrs Mubarak said. Amid all this, there are voices that talk about the clash of ideas and beliefs, and others that urge a dialogue between civilisations, preservation of property rights and an international call to protect heritages and the environment, she said.
"What we are required to do now is to find the right balance between falling barriers and the respect of sovereignty, between achieving security and safeguarding the principles of freedom and equality, between the flow of knowledge and the respect of individuality," she said.
The only way for a nation to successfully deal with these new realities is for its men and its women to embrace these new conditions with an enlightened and flexible mind. "And modernisation will never succeed if it is a mission confined to one group of people in society excluding others, or if its benefits extend to one social stratum at the expense of others," Mrs Mubarak said.
Farkhonda Hassan, secretary-general of the NCW, said the conference has recommended that the council draw up a comprehensive vision for women's role in the national modernisation programme based on the recommendations emanating from the conference workshops. The details of this vision would then be presented to the institutions concerned.
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