Conference: Towards Effective Participation of Egyptian Women in the Local Councils

On the 24th of April 2018, Tadwein for Gender Studies organized a conference titled “The Local Councils are Ours.

This conference aimed to shed light on efforts conducted by Tadwein for Gender Studies to create more spaces for women to effectively occupy political and public spaces, fight social stigmas regarding women’s presence and participation in political spaces, provide better representation of youth in the formal political channels and address issues of violence against women at the local level.

During the conference, a number of short films and documentaries on the participation of women and girls in the local elections were presented. The conference also discussed the legal organizational aspects of the upcoming elections.

It is worth noting that the opening session of the conference was attended by Ambassador Laura Kansikas Depress, Ambassador of Finland in Cairo, Dr. Fatima Khafaji, a founding member of the Arab Women’s Coalition for Equality and Equity, and Dr. Talaat Abdel-Qawi, President of the General Union of Non-Governmental Associations. The second session of the conference witnessed the official participation of the Conservative Party, the Free Egyptians Party, the Nation’s Future Party, and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party. Finally, the third session was attended by the spokesperson of the administrative prosecution, counselor Mahmoud Samir, the parliament deputy Nadia Henry, and the parliament deputy Mona Mounir.