Progress Amid Resistance

112 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAF The government should pursue a nondiscriminatory policy for assigningfemale judges to all courts, including criminal courts.F The government should revise the Law on Associations to removebureaucratic obstacles and political restrictions that hinder the founding,funding, and daily operations of NGOs.F International donors supporting women’s empowerment initiativesshould ensure that funding is directed to women who have leadershipskills and activist backgrounds but have been marginalized from activismbecause of their socioeconomic class.SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTSEgyptian women face considerable challenges to their social and culturalrights at both the community and national levels, although recentap pointments of officials like the first female mayor and the first femalemarriage registrar were encouraging developments. Legislation that criminalizedFGM was adopted in 2008, but it is unclear how effective it willbe against such a widespread and socially accepted tradition. And whilewomen’s rights activists have been able to harness the media to addressproblems such as sexual harassment in recent years, the media continueto portray women in gender-stereotyped roles. To truly affect social andcultural rights, the government and civil society must develop social interventionsand processes that can elicit changes in values and beliefs at thegrassroots level.Women do not enjoy the freedom to make independent decisionsabout their general or reproductive health. Social norms and values oftengive husbands and other family members the right to interfere in suchdecisions and coerce women into conforming to certain patterns of behavior.For example, family members, particularly in-laws, often put considerablepressure on women to bear children immediately after marriage,and to continue to have children until they give birth to a boy. Class, notgender, is the main determining factor in access to health care, as soaringpoverty rates lead many women to prioritize the health of their childrenover their own. Women do not have the right to abortion except when themother’s life is in danger, and the prevalence of contraceptive use stands atabout 60 percent. 68Traditional gender-based practices, such as FGM and defloration, areserious problems in Egypt; they are most common in rural areas and in