AIWFF grants Talawi Note for Achievement Award

CAIRO - 30 January 2020: The administration of the Aswan International Women's Film Festival has created a recognition award for women’s rights defenders, called the Note for Achievement Award.

The international award will be granted annually to a person who has made a significant contribution to combating problems and challenges facing women.

The festival's management chose Ambassador Mervat al-Talawi to be the first woman to receive the award due to her significant contributions in the field of women's rights at the local and international levels.

At the international level, Talawi adopted the 1974 UN Declaration that gave special protection to women and children in times of war and armed conflict. She also chaired the conference that issued the United Nations Declaration on Combating Violence against Women in 1992.

At the local level, Talawi focused during her tenure as minister of social security and social affairs on allocating a credit line to facilitate the access of rural and poor women to financial loans from Nasser Social Bank, in addition to issuing ID cards to poor women, which facilitated their access to many services.

During her long career, spanning over more than 40 years, Ambassador Talawi held various positions, where she worked as ambassador of Egypt to Japan and Austria, and served as minister of social security and social affairs from 1997 to 1999.

Talawy also held the position of under-secretary-general of the United Nations and was the first Arab woman to hold the position of executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) from early 2001 to 2007. Additionally, she was the president of the National Council, and the director of the Arab Women Organization.