Head of the Natinal Council for Women (NCW) Maya Morsi expressed her gratitude for public figures who voice their support for the campaign – Press photo
CAIRO – 14 December 2017: In an official ceremony, the Egyptian National Council for Women announced on Sunday the launch of the "Because I'm a Man" campaign, which calls for equality between women and men.
The UN-sponsored campaign also aims at ending violence and sexual harassment against women.
Many public figures have announced taking part or supporting the campaign such as Liverpool forward Mohammed Salah; the national team icon shared an animated video teaching men to respect women and their rights.
“Because I’m a man who understands that a man and a woman have the same rights and responsibilities, I decided to support the ‘Because I’m a man’ campaign,” Salah wrote in posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Wednesday.
The animated video was produced as part of the campaign; it shows a man rejecting widespread stereotypes against the role of women in Egypt.
During the campaign's official ceremony, head of the Natinal Council for Women (NCW) Maya Morsi inaugurated the initiative to assert men's pivotal role in women's empowerment and the bolster of equality between both genders.
"A real man is one who holds the qualities of chivalry, engagement, and responsibility," Morsi stressed. "Men are partners for women, despite some men abusing the perception of manhood and viewing it as a mean of control and derogation of women and their rights."
Morsi also expressed her gratitude for public figures who voice their support for the campaign, including Salah, Tunisian actor Dhafir L'Abidine and several Egyptian TV presenters; she hopes the campaign would gain the support of at least 100 influential men by March 2018.
For her part, Deputy Regional Director for UN Women in Arab States, Blerta Aliko, considered 2017 to be a successful year for women in Egypt due to an initiative launched by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to empower women and support sustainable development in Egypt.
Aliko hailed the Egyptian government’s allocation of a special budget to take the necessary measures to establish equality between both genders.
The initiative comes within the frameworks of the 16-day campaign of activism against gender-based violence (GBV) that took place from November 25 to December 10. The international campaign aimed at ending all forms of violence against girls and women.
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