Support women demanding an equal voice in shaping Egypt’s future

Egyptians will vote for a new parliament in September 2011, please urge the Egyptian Prime Minster not to sideline women ahead of the elections.

Women played an equal part alongside men in Egypt’s recent uprising. Today, women have an equal right to participate in shaping their country’s future. Call on the Prime Minister to make sure that women’s rights are respected and that women are not shut out of the process of reform.

Egypt’s '25 January Revolution' held great promise. Women and men stood together as equals and demanded respect for their rights. But less than a month later, women were excluded from a new committee set up to revise the constitution. The new Prime Minster’s cabinet, announced in March, included just one woman. The following day, International Women’s Day, women demonstrating peacefully were attacked by groups of men.

Women protestors, Cairo, 28 January 2011.© Sarah Carr

Real change will not materialize if women are discriminated against and left out. Equality and non-discrimination must be at the heart of the country’s reform process.