First lady: Egyptian women able to ‘cross with their families to safety’ amid global crisis

CAIRO – 23 March 2022: First Lady Entissar Amer said on Wednesday that the Egyptian women are capable of “crossing with their families to safety” in light of the current global crisis.

Amer made the remarks in a tweet as she and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi attended a ceremony to celebrate the 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.

Read more about the ceremony to honor Egyptian women today, from here.

 

“I was honored to attend the ceremony to honor the Egyptian woman and the ideal mother for 2022,” she said, adding: “I have long stopped before the inspiring models who honored us all at the ceremony. Their biography and experiences prove that Egyptian women are truly the key to life.”

“They have defied difficulties, faced the impossible, and conquered all circumstances, in the service of their children and their country,” Amer said, adding that “this ceremony came at a time when we are facing a major global crisis that has cast a shadow over us all, but the Egyptian woman, as we have seen, is able to cross with her family to safety.”

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

The president 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.