Source: Bikya Masr
A group of Egyptian women’s rights advocates in Alexandria organized a protest on Saturday calling for greater participation for women in public and political life, coinciding with the anniversary of the human rights declaration.

The stand was organized by the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women in Alexandria and took place outside the Alexandria library.

The participants called for a parallel parliament for women, where their causes are presented and discussed away from the shortcomings of the current political system that helped eliminate female participation.

The women participating also called for the cancellation of all discriminatory laws and greater access for literacy classes in the Egypt.

They also demanded that female agricultural workers and domestic workers would be covered under social insurance programs to guarantee their rights.

The protest followed a roundtable discussion in collaboration with the law school at Alexandria University under the banner “women rights are human rights.”

Women in Egypt are facing a difficult time after their demands of equality are seemingly on the back burner of officials and party leaders.

A small number of women ran for the parliamentary elections, with very few winning seats after the votes were tallied. The Egyptian Center for Women Rights reported that only three women out of the 212 candidates won seats, or 1.4 percent.

The women rights organization called it “weak nominations leading to weak representation,” adding that parties nominated women out of “obligation and according to the parliamentary law that site at least one female candidate must be present on each list.”

And with the law not mentioning where the female candidate would placed on the list, women were placed last, which increased the difficulties of winning.

The center added that the recent win of the “religious” parties, it has pushed women to the bottom of the list, “making all winners men.”

The three winning candidates are Margeret Azer from al-Wafd party’s list in Cairo, Hanan Abou al-Gheit in Damietta and Sana’a al-Said from the Egyptian Coalition list in Assiut, south of Cairo.

• Egypt