While celebrating Egyptian Women Day, President Sisi instructs governmental action, legal amendments to expand empowerment

CAIRO – 23 March 2022: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi attended Wednesday a ceremony held to celebrate Egyptian Women Day, honoring a number of women who optimally benefited from empowerment programs and made a change in their local communities as well as influential female professionals and public figures.

Figures on Women Economic Status

Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine al-Qabaj pointed out women make up just 23 percent of citizens subscribed to social insurance, while they constitute 66 percent of workers in the informal sector.

On the other hand, 74 percent of the beneficiaries of Egypt’s monetary subsidies program “Takaful & Karama” are women. Also, the Social Insurance Authority now grants new mothers 75 percent of their salary in the first 90 days after birth without requiring them to work during that period.

Further, poor female senior citizens are paid pensions worth a total of LE1.2 billion, which composes 6.3 percent of the total value of pensions disbursed in Egypt, Qabaj highlighted.

As for social help, the ministry aided issued on behalf of 500,000 women and female minors, mainly in rural villages, birth certificates, divorce certificates, and national IDs among other documents.

On her side, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala al-Said stated that economic women empowerment programs offered by the government created jobs for 1 million women.

A video, showing stories of women who had no national IDs and how the National Council for Women (NCW) collaborated with the Ministry of Interior to issue them documents, was streamed. As a result, they became beneficiaries of different programs, particularly in the area of self-employment and income generation.

Facilitators were assigned to teach those women how to run their micro businesses, and they were provided with sewing machines and material. Also, their products were marketed by the NCW, as they were displayed at fairs and events.

During the ceremony, the NCW launched “Tahwisha” app targeted mainly at rural women in a bid to promote financial inclusion and help transit into a cashless society, as the app enables women to save money and get loans.

On another level, President of the NCW Maya Morsi noted that this year Egypt celebrates the presence of female judges at the State Council, and female prosecutors.

New Presidential Instructions

In his speech, the president instructed the government to set an action plan to boost women excellence professionally, and to combat sexual harassment at workplace and on streets.

The chief of state also directed amending the penal code with regard to acquiring the testimony of witnesses of sexual harassment incidents, and protecting the data of victims.  

President Sisi equally urged expanding economic and social support offered to female breadwinners and female senior citizens in border governorates.

Instructions further include toughening the penalty of not registering newborns at the registry, as that deprives them of having an official status, and hence going to school and enjoying legal and governmental benefits.

In a similar context, women who adopt orphan children aged below six months would be eligible to four-month paid maternity leave, if they happen to be employed, the president said.

President Sisi expressed appreciation for women, lauding the tremendous efforts deployed by mothers. “The strength of women achieved the glory of this homeland,” the president said.

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"We expanded Egypt’s capacity to store wheat to become 5.5 million tons as it was just a third of that number," President Sisi said. He explained that such thing was achieved through the new silos introduced to substitute outdoor storage locations. That is because those caused the damage of part of the wheat stored, and hence its loss.

The president added that thankfully Egypt is no longer suffering from any shortages in any of the staples or fuel. However, he recommended the people to rationalize their consumption of food.