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New report by the Land Center

This report is the number "80" of series of economic and social rights that addresses some of the manifestations of violence against women in legislation and the Egyptian laws, which takes place as a result of the gap between law making and enforcement. The report contains an analysis of this gap and the reasons that led to the occurrence.

The first section deals with the manifestations of violence, its types, causes and consequences, presenting stats for crimes of violence against women in the last period, of the latest report of land center, on violence against women in Egypt (2009) entitled "Violence against women in Egypt murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and dumping of balconies the normal punishment against women killed 301 women in 2009 ". It is witnessed through the monitoring that- for sorrow- there are (256) cases of assault against women, whether sexual assault, murder, beatings, neglect leading to death. The most regretting cases are the cases of murder and death, which amounted to (129) incident, which means that half of the abused women have been murdered, which was an indicative of the increasing cruelty and violence towards women, which lead them being killed.

Section II deals with Law of Political Rights and practice for women, which begin with the definition of the concept of political participation and the reasons for the low political participation of women in Egypt. And it addresses the development of women's political participation in international conventions and the constitution, which is, in theory, a good position, where women have the right, in the law and the constitution, to exercise of political life and share. However, this doesn't take place.

Then, the report moves to handle the volume and nature of women's political participation in: unions, municipalities, local councils, the judiciary and the legislature (both houses of parliament) and political parties. For example, we find that over the past years, the number of women who succeeded in gaining seats in the membership of unions have not exceeded the 10 cases, although the trade unions with a membership of nearly 3.9 million members in 24 union ''according to the census the CAA in 2000''. In addition, greater percentage of women's membership in the Union of Professional Education 28.4%, followed by the union agricultural occupations by 17, 7%, then the trade union rate of 16.1%, and reached the number of women in trade unions 26 thousand in 1981 and rose to 36 in 1999, but the proportion of the total contribution declined from 25% of the total members in 1981 to 17% in 1999.

It has also been witnessed that women's membership in local councils in Egypt has a dramatic declines in recent years; it has been representing approximately 10% in 1983 down to 2.1% in 1992 and then rise in the 2002 elections to 4.2%, and then in the 2008 election was the number of women who won seats in local councils or elected by acclamation in 2335 a woman by 4.4% of the total members of local councils.

Although the number of women serving in the ministries and the parliament has increased in recent years, but the number is still small representation to a large extent in the judiciary. In 2003, the sole judge in all courts of the Egyptian judiciary was Tahany Jabali. She was appointed by presidential decree in the Constitutional Court. The Supreme Council of Magistracy for women does not allow work for women as judges in criminal courts. In 2007, the Council chose to eliminate the top 31 women to serve in positions of judges of family courts. Despite the criticism of the decision by religious conservatives, however, was the appointment of women under the presidential decrees and still they are continuing struggle in their work.

And recently the Constitutional Supreme Court's decision on 03/14/2010 permitted the appointment of women judges in the State Council, after a controversy continued for months.

The report wonders if the prominent of the judiciary, who are representatives of justice, are allowed to take discriminatory decisions against women, as this decision would be contrary to the text of Articles 2.40 of the Constitution that stipulates that all Egyptians are equal in terms of rights.

The report stated that since the Parliament of 1957 (which saw the first participation of women) and even the Parliament of 2005 (current), the total females who won a parliamentary seats were 144 women only, of whom two women were Syrians (during the period of unity between Egypt and Syria), 125 of them won the election and 19 were appointed.

The report presents the case of Dr. Shahinaz Nagar, the resigned representative from the district of Menial. The resignation was approved by the council of the Egyptian people, after she had submitted a request to accept the resignation of the Council, without giving specific reasons. "

As for the political parties, we find the contribution of women in party work is still very limited, if not absent. We find that women's membership in different parties does not exceed 3% in some provinces, and not more than 15% in the governorate. And although the programs of the Egyptian political parties - in their different beliefs - stated the need to provide the proper climate that helps women to exercise their freedom and rights, practice of parties still goes on in the opposite direction to massage.

At the end of this part, the report provides an analysis of the gap between the law that gives women the right to participate in political life and the reality in which diminishing participation of women in political life in surprising, and is considered as a big gap between the law and its application, a gap that the report provides an analysis of it at the end of this part.

The third section talks about Women and the labor law. It provides an overview of the current situation of women in the labor market, where it states that about two-thirds of women work in the developing world in the informal economy, most of them work in the farms and houses, streets, and is characterized by irregular work insecure and weak protection, wages, and even at work official women remain less likely than men to get equal pay for equal or different forms of protection, even though most of the legislation that promote equality in wages and opportunities for decent work.

In addition, percentages of women are almost equal to percentages of men in most countries of the world; while the percentage of women 40 women per 100 men in the Middle East countries, and unemployment rate in this region among women are nearly 16.5%, and women are usually paid less than men.

The number of women forms about 60% of the working poor living on less than one U.S. dollar a day, who number around 550 million people, the percentage of women workers, about 40% of the workers in the world, who number about 2.8 billion workers. But in Egypt there are more economic activity rates for women 20%, while reaching the same percentage for men was 73.8%, at the same time depriving the women working in the agricultural sector of the legal protection of the text of the Labor Act No. 12 of 2003, despite the fact that more than 70 % of the agricultural activity is based on the work of women.

Then report speaks for women's rights to equality, decent work, and also rights of women in Egyptian law.

Then, the report makes a presentation to the current situation of rural women, and to the Labor Code, and it refers to the exclusion of women workers in the agricultural sector from legal protection. It states that the Egyptian Labor Law excludes women workers in agriculture from protection of the law, although they deserve the most care because of the deterioration of working conditions in agriculture, where they were ousted from the scope of its application, and thus leaving these women work under the poor operating conditions, in terms of deterioration of their situation and their rights to fair wages, vacations, social and health insurance and union action (Article 97). On time when most women in Egypt work in agriculture, in spite of multiple claims to amend the provisions of the law to protect women's rights and workers in the agricultural sector, the Egyptian government did not heed all proceedings launched by several civil society organizations

The report also provides a case study of some of the girls working in reaping the fruits. They are seasonal unorganized labor that does not have any rights, after analyzing the gap.

Section IV talks about women and personal status law in Egypt, where the personal status of women in Egypt are derived from Islamic law, which sets the rules of marriage, divorce and inheritance. This differs from the rest of the legal structure of the Egyptian legal system which is based on French civil law. Although the Government has amended some of the worst materials, in terms of lack of redress for women in personal status law, women still face discrimination. The report mentioned some forms of discrimination against women in law, where it illustrated: early marriage, and the legacy of women and submitted in each of the size of phenomena and to the legal protection available, and the actual reality of the application of the law as it presented a study of some cases and finally provides an analysis of the gap

We find that pertaining to respect to early marriage, we find that the data of the general census of the population in 2006 indicated that about 11% of females in the age group (16-19 years old) are currently married or have been married.

The official statistics indicate that the rate of 2.18% of the girls in the period from 2000 2002 married at an early age, while the rate was 3.40% in the period from 1980 to 1985, the researcher said that the rate of early marriage in urban areas up to 5.9% while it is in the countryside 3.26% and the proportion is in Upper Egypt to 9.28%, while up to 9.16% in Lower Egypt.

That 26 thousand children suffering from family disintegration as a result of divorce of their parents, explaining that divorce leads to the disintegration of the family, which required a change in personal status laws and raising awareness of the ramifications of divorce in Egypt in order to spare the suffering of these children whose parents are divorced.

The report then continues to enumerate the causes and consequences of early marriage and harmful effects and legal protection available, which is evident of weakness and disproportionate to the offense committed against those little girls, causing all the damage that girls live the rest of their lives suffer from.

As for inheritance, women in the community do not have the audacity to claim the right to inheritance as a respect for customs and social traditions, even if the customs and social traditions deny women their natural right and legitimate.

We also find that in rural communities, customs and traditions are stronger than law. In addition, social attitudes towards women who resorts to court, complaining about a request to her heirs, is seen as a rebel and is liable to be pre-accused, whispered, defected and accused of breaking the tradition. In addition, there is the fear of women and their desire not to the disintegration of family members or causing any conflict between them, let her waive her right to claim her inheritance right. The sad and disturbing fact is the division of the inheritance between brothers and the girl who is still "single" or small doesn't have any share. This means they must live with the brothers, and to be patient on these social conditions and when she gets older, she finds no share for her. Also the report points out the need to pass a law that women's right to inheritance and to punish anyone who prevents them from getting it.

The end of this section provides an analysis of the gap between law and practice that result in women live life free from safety and deprived of their rights

Section V of the report speaks on women and the Penal Code, through illustrating the phenomenon of spousal abuse, and female genital mutilation.

The report makes it clear that, according to demographic and health survey in 1995, which included 14 779 women, it was found that 42-46% of married women are illiterate and women with primary education are subjected to beatings. Also, 14% of women with higher educational levels have been beaten in their marriage.

And that one of every three married Egyptian women has been beaten at least once since her marriage.

And 45% of them were beaten by the husband at least once in the previous year, and 17% of them were beaten at least three times in the previous year. And 39% of the latter group needed medical care because of the beating, and one third of women who are beaten are beaten during pregnancy.

As for the circumcision, it is usually embedded in the roots of the customs and traditions of the Egyptian people. Habits and traditions are stronger than law in most cases. It is impossible to change the traditional practices that dominate the view and direction. Despite the efforts of the authorities, NGOs and international agencies to eradicate the phenomenon of "female circumcision "in Egypt; the phenomenon is still this topic usually widespread and it is still performed at all levels. There are many doctors who still commit this act, even after the criminalization. Report speaks about the extent of this phenomenon in Egypt, the violations, and the legal protections available. The practice was illegal because it lies under the penalty of criminalization according to the Penal Code which involved the crimes of three counts of crimes is
o physical abuse or injury induced
o indecent assault
o the exercise of the medical work without a license

The report also provides the view of law in the process of circumcision conducted by the doctor, and the United Nations position of the circumcision.

And the report, in the conclusion, shows a comprehensive analysis of the gap between law and enforcement, and the role of society, customs and traditions in the creation of this gap, then expanding it through adherence to this customs and traditions. Moreover, there is the absence of will to change, especially that women in the society do not have the audacity to claim their rights under the law because it conflicts with the law of customs and traditions

The solution will come only by law, and with the parallel strategy of social and cultural change concepts, and this strategy should take all directions, beginning of the clergy in the villages, because their words are heard, even more than the Grand Mufti, in addition to NGOs, small villages, where you should begin this strategy from the bottom base so the highest, in order to achieve a real change in society.

At the end of the report, a number of recommendations has been submitted to relating to each section of the report separately, and, then, it presents a vision of how to achieve the recommendations in this topic, where it requires cooperation of all official and unofficial blocs in their respective fields so that we can implement the recommendations and achieve their objective.
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