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Egypt

In-Country Activities
- Citizenship Campaign
- eCourse
- Institute and Training of Trainers
- Leadership Workshops
- Curriculum development in Arabic

Our Partner

Forum for Women in Development (FWID) Forum for Women in Development (FWID) is a network of Egyptian NGOs dealing with women's issues, launched in 1997 by 15 civil society organizations. FWID is made up of groups of activists, both male and female, from different social and professional backgrounds. They work together for women's emancipation and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in order to contribute to building a democratic, just, and egalitarian society. FWID advocates for the reform of policies and legislation that discriminate against woman.

Women's Status at a Glance

Country Overview

Government type: Republic
Total population: 71.3 million
Population under age 15: 34.3%
GDP per capita: $3,950 (purchasing power parity)
Life expectancy: 69.8 years
Ethnic groups: Egyptian 98%, Berber, Nubian, Bedouin, and Beja 1%, Greek, Armenian, other European (primarily Italian and French) 1%
Religions: Muslim (mostly Sunni) 90%, Coptic 9%, Christian and other 1%
Internet users: 44 per 1,000 people

Education and Health

Adult literacy rate
Female rate: 43.6%
Male rate: 67.2%
Maternal mortality rate: 84 per 100,000 live births
Total fertility rate: 3.3 births per woman

Political Participation

Year women received right to
Vote: 1956
Stand for election: 1956
Seats in parliament held by women
Lower house: 2.9% of total
Upper house: 6.8% of total
Women in govt. at ministerial level: 5.9% of total
Quotas: None

Against All Odds: Women Partnering for Change in a Time of Crisis



In Egypt, recent legislation has made it difficult for NGOs to function independently, limits freedom of association, and impedes their work for the promotion of human rights, explains Enas El Shafie during an interview with WLP. Ms El Shafie is executive director of the Forum for Women in Development, WLP's partner in Egypt.

Stories and Reports

Claiming Equal Citizenship: The Campaign for Arab Women’s Right to Nationality

University students in Lebanon support campaignIn 2006, WLP will stand in solidarity with partners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Gulf regions to call for women's equal citizenship rights, including equal rights to confer nationality to their spouses and children. In the majority of MENA and Gulf countries, only men have the legal right to confer nationality to non-national spouses and children.

"Nationality is a case in point of how citizenship in this region is gendered...whether or not you are a national will determine very much whether you're have the right to representation, whether you have the right to social entitlements, whether you're a full citizen or not. So when the laws in most countries in the MENA and Gulf regions say that a citizen is someone born of a father of that country only, this clearly says that the state considers that only men are real citizens," said Lina Abou-Habib, Director of WLP's Lebanese partner Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A), one of the organizations leading the regional campaign for Arab women's right to nationality.

WLP and CRTD-A Convene Middle East-Gulf Regional Learning Institute for Women’s Leadership

Participants at the InstituteOn November 18-21, 2005, 27 women's rights activists and leaders of women's groups from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Yemen gathered in Beirut, Lebanon to attend the Middle East-Gulf Regional Learning Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers.

Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) and Collective for Research and Training on Development Action (CRTD-A) convened the Institute to create an opportunity for women activists in the region to develop skills in participatory leadership, facilitation, communications, and advocacy, building their capacity as leaders. This intensive skills development was designed to support participants in their work to empower grassroots women in the Middle East-Gulf region to actively participate in decision-making processes within their families, communities, and societies. In addition, the Institute created an opportunity for women leaders to engage in dialogue and reflect on shared challenges, developing stronger national and regional linkages.

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