Maat: Parliament committees elections are an embodiment of negative discrimination against women

Aqeel: The presence of women in the positions of committee chairing does not correspond to their representation in parliament

Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights expresses its strong reservations about the percentage of women’s representation in the Parliament’s Office of Quality Committees in its second session, as it announced the results of the elections and resulted in women obtaining only 6 seats in five committees out of 25 quality committees with a percentage of 6% out of Members of the Bureau of Special Committees, a representation that is not proportional to the size of women's representation in Parliament, which exceeds 15% of the total number of current representatives.

Maat also reserves reservations that no woman takes over the presidency of the qualitative committees except for MP Sahar Mustafa at the head of the Tourism Committee, according to one committee out of 25 qualitative committees, which means that women get only 4% of chairing the committees, which is surprising in light of the large representation of women in this council.

The Foundation believes that this result is a clear reflection of the conflict that took place over a week before the polls and the connections that Parliament witnessed between the geographical blocs and political forces, which did not take into account fair representation of women, and what is evidenced by the resolution of 14 committees out of 25 by acclamation.

This result also comes as one of the results of the failure to establish specific procedures within the Council’s regulations that allow women to have a fair representation within the Parliament’s specific committees commensurate with the total size of their representation in Parliament, at least.

The Maat Foundation calls upon the representatives to amend the Council’s bylaw in order to allow women to have a fair representation in the presidency and membership of the offices of Parliament’s specific committee bodies equal to at least the percentage of their representation in Parliament during the upcoming parliamentary sessions. It also calls on all parties, political forces and parliamentary bodies to work to empower women in Parliament and support them to reach For leadership positions, and appeals to the Parliament’s Bureau to provide them with the opportunity to use their supervisory and legislative tools.

In this context, Ayman Aqil, head of the Maat Foundation, stated that the representation of women in committee bodies is absolutely inconsistent with their presence in parliament, especially after women have clearly contributed to the success of the January 25 and June 30 revolutions, and their strong participation in the success of the referendum on the constitution and the presidential and parliamentary elections in which they reached The women's voting bloc of more than 50 who have the right to vote and its access to 90 seats in parliament for the first time.

Aqeel called on the House of Representatives to agree on a real mechanism that would allow amending the articles of the parliamentary list to suit the international charters and norms that Egypt has ratified regarding positive discrimination for women, even for a specific period, and for two parliamentary sessions only to allow them to have appropriate representation within the offices of the quality committees.