Egyptians Demand a National Council for the Family

Egyptians Demand a National Council for the Family

 Dr. Mohamed Beltagy, Secretary-General of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Cairo, in his speech to the ‘Egyptian women, art of making the future’ Conference, said that although March 8 is the International Women’s Day, “Today, it comes with a new post- revolution Egyptian flavor”.


Dr. Beltagy said, “The people want integration and coordination of the roles of men and women, a shared responsibility, in accordance with a special Egyptian agenda, not an agenda imposed by the women’s office in the United Nations”. For his part, Counselor Abdullah Baja, President of the Family Court in Shibin El-Kom City (Nile Delta), in his speech to the Conference on Thursday, called for dissolving of both the National Council for Women and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, and the formation of a new council for the Egyptian family, with women represented by 60% of its members.

The conference was organized by FJP women’s committee in Al-Azhar Conference Hall, and was attended by about 1500 women. During the conference, Baja called on the People’s Assembly to redraft family laws to conform with Islamic law and deliver justice for all family members, as well as the expeditious completion of the law of independence of the judiciary and the restructuring of the Supreme Constitutional Court.

Moreover, Baja called for the establishment of an institute to train and prepare women leaders in all political, economic and social science spheres.

Meanwhile, Dr. Manal Abul Hassan, Chairwoman of FJP Women’s Committee in Cairo, said: "Some people see our vision on women as a departure from the West’s perspective. However, our vision on the status of women is certainly superior to and more comprehensive than the limited Western view".

The conference discussed the role of women in rejuvenating society, especially in political, economic and social fields, and especially the political participation of women in parliament, political parties, trade unions and NGOs, in addition to the role of Egyptian women in the drafting of the Constitution.

Speaking about the conference its organization, Hoda Abdel-Moneim, a lawyer and one of the conference supervisors, told Freedom and Justice newspaper that the conference has witnessed great cooperation between all FJP secretariats and committees in Cairo, pointing to the participation of the Youth Committee, the Media Committee, and professional associations, as well as women parliamentarians Azza Al-Garf and Hoda Ghaneya, and also Aida Nassif, representative of the liberal Free Egyptians Party.