Raising minimum wage among Sisi’s decisions on Egyptian Women Day

CAIRO - 30 March 2019: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi announced a number of decisions in Egyptian Women Day ceremony held on Saturday to honor women and ideal mothers.

The president declared raising the minimum wage to LE2,000 from LE1,200. The remaining decisions are pertinent to women precisely as indicated below.

The government will study mechanisms that will help women shift from the informal to the formal sector and enter nontraditional fields.

The government will draft legislations that combat violence against women including child’s marriage, deprivation from education and children allowance (by the husband) after divorce.

The government has to study thoroughly the phenomenon of low-income “indebted women” (dubbed in Arabic Gharemat) for its repercussions on Egyptian families. Those women go to jail for failure to pay back their debts incurred because of buying goods needed by their households or their daughters when getting married.

The government must take the necessary measures to promote financial inclusion among women and achieve women’s technology empowerment. That is in addition to providing more support for women-owned small projects.

President Sisi urged the government to draft amendments to the mandatory community service law to become a training program that qualifies young women to enter the labor force.

President Sisi said he looks forward to the outcomes of “Mawada” which is a program aimed at raising awareness on marriage responsibilities among youth. He also called for more political participation among women.