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A renowned German university has awarded Mrs Suzanne Mubarak a medal of honour in recognition of her efforts in championing Egypt's social causes. Dahlia Hammouda reports
"She is a woman who has established her place in public life through her intelligence, her self-assurance and her admirable energy. Because of her intellectual stature and her manifold social and cultural activities, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak represents our ideal of an exemplary First Lady."
With those words, Professor Jutta Limbach, head of the Goethe Institute Inter Nations, introduced Mrs Mubarak at an event held in her honour in Berlin yesterday. The Freie Universitat Berlin bestowed on Mrs Mubarak its golden Medal of Honour at the ceremony attended by the spouse of the German chancellor, Mrs Doris Schroeder, and Germany's former foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, a recipient of the same award.
"The particular areas of her activities demonstrate clearly that social justice and the protection of the weak continue to be responsibilities of women," Limbach continued. "Suzanne Mubarak's special engagement is devoted to children, to their education and in particular to helping them discover literature."
Limbach said the award being presented to Mrs Mubarak served to remind the Germans of their international responsibility by "pointing us to the international dimension of feminism". She said it would be wrong to limit one's view to the confines of one's own country.
"Feminism begins from the real lives of women and the lives of women are highly varied," Limbach said. "We have to be aware of the very diverse gender- specific problems that may be faced by women in very different political and economic circumstances."
In his address, Klaus Hufner, the former head of Germany's mission to UNESCO, outlined the challenges facing the developing world in education, saying that Mrs Mubarak had utilised her knowledge and personal dedication to take action at the international, regional and national levels to bring about better education and health for her country's citizens.
"She belongs to the most well-known and outstanding personalities who engage themselves in the social and cultural development work of the United Nations system," Hufner said.
He praised the Egyptian government for managing to bring down the adult and youth illiteracy rates. "Knowing that present external conditions have a negative effect upon Egypt's economic and social development, I sincerely hope that Madam Mubarak will have the strength to continue her efforts and her commitments, which are so important not only for her own country but for the whole world," Hufner said.
Mrs Mubarak delivered an acceptance speech in which she spoke of Egypt's social and cultural development experiences and the advances made to improve the status of women and children.
"Thank you for this honour, which is an encouragement for all the dedicated Egyptians who have laboured long and hard to assert that women's and children's rights cannot be abridged and to those who toiled selflessly to transform slogan into reality," Mrs Mubarak said. "How timely it is for all of us to gather here today to affirm our common vision of a culture of peace, freedom and justice -- at the centre of which lies education as a birthright for all."
She spoke of the widening divisions and conflicts around the world and how they can be avoided by the concerted efforts of individuals and states. "Despite frequent political declarations of commitment to peace, we find that military spending today is 14 times the total flow of official development assistance," Mrs Mubarak said. "Surely it does not reflect well on the priorities of the rich and powerful segments of humanity to see such patterns of spending at a time when half the human family lives a marginalised and highly vulnerable existence -- wracked by poverty, prone to disease and denied the blessings of education."
She said organisations such as UNESCO must focus on education and culture as the keys to bridging the chasm between "the present we endure and the future we seek".
"Peace, freedom and knowledge are inseparable," she said. "I firmly believe this and have dedicated a large part of my life to advancing the cause of education and emancipation."
Belief in education as a priority has been reflected in ongoing support of Egypt's educational reform strategy, which was initiated in 1991, through increased national budget allocations for education and the expansion of the business community and other sector input, Mrs Mubarak said.
She spoke of the institutions and channels the country has established to promote learning for all citizens, such as the Reading for All campaign and the Library of Alexandria. Mrs Mubarak also talked of the most recent national, regional and global initiatives in institution-building to empower women, promote peace and establish bridges of understanding that she has been personally involved in launching -- the Egyptian National Council for Women, the Arab Women's Organisation and the Women for Peace Movement.
"I believe that education is the doorway through which we shall enter a future full of promise -- a future we are creating together, through the strength of our dedication to shared universal ideals, the determination we bring to wage peace, the sensitivity we demonstrate to cultural diversity and the passionate commitment we make to the cause of rationality dialogue, learning and understanding," Mrs Mubarak said.
Freie Universitat Berlin was founded in 1948 under the motto, "Truth, justice, freedom", when most of Berlin was in ruins and its people were struggling to survive. Today, with 43,500 students in almost 90 programmes of study, 4,000 graduates and 1,000 doctoral candidates each year, the university is the largest in the German capital and one of the biggest in the nation.
On Tuesday, Mrs Mubarak and Ula Schmidt, the German minister of health and social security, discussed possible avenues through which Germany could support Egypt's health and social care projects.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 February 2003 (Issue No. 626)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/626/eg1.htm