Progress Amid Resistance

EGYPT 107F The most pressing needs of the labor market should be identified, andthe government and education system should make a concerted effortto train and educate women so that they obtain the skills necessary tofill these gaps.F The government should proactively address the issues underlying thede mands of workers in sectors with large numbers of female employees,rather than merely responding to specific protests. Such underlyingissues include lack of financial transparency, lack of opportunities fordirect worker-employer negotiations, and an inadequate wage policy.F The ombudsman’s office, established by the National Council forWomen to receive women’s complaints, should be given enhanced powersto investigate and resolve economic grievances.F Civil society organizations and the National Council for Womenshould play a more active role in monitoring the implementation of ex -isting legislation to ensure that violations are punished and legal loopholesare identified.POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIC VOICEBoth men and women have been affected by the suppression of protestsagainst the government’s undemocratic practices. President HosniMubarak, who assumed control of the state after the assassination ofPresident Anwar al-Sadat in 1981, has since maintained a highly authoritarianregime. The Emergency Law (No. 162 of 1958) has been in effectwithout interruption since Mubarak assumed power, and the state ofemergency was extended in May 2008 for an additional two years. Severalelections have been held in recent years, but few female candidates or votersparticipated, and even fewer women were voted into office. However,a ban against female judges was officially lifted in 2007, and in June 2009the parliament passed legislation establishing a quota system for womenin the People’s Assembly, the lower house of the legislature.The upper house of the bicameral legislature, the Consultative Council,acts only in an advisory capacity. It has 176 directly elected membersand 88 members appointed by the president, all of whom serve six-yearterms; half of the seats come up for renewal every three years. The People’sAssembly has 444 directly elected members and 10 appointed by thepresident, although the total number will increase to 518 after the 2010