News Analysis: Women role likely to rise in Egypt amid highest female representation in new parliament

The female role is expected to rise in Egypt's male-dominated society and political life, as the recently elected new parliament witnessed the highest representation of women in the country's history, said Egyptian experts and parliamentarians.

Egyptian women managed to garner at least 89 out of the new parliament's 596 seats, as they won 75 seats in the elections and will have no less than half of the 28 seats that will be appointed by the president.

"This shows a political will to activate the role of women in the country, as the election party lists were designed to provide a chance for those of low representation including women, Copts and people with special needs," said Noha Bakr, a professor of political sciences at the American University in Cairo.

She told Xinhua that the government supported women by magnifying the penalty for sexual harassment and by providing social programs in favor of women.

"Women played a vital role in the past uprisings that toppled two heads of state and they as lawmakers are expected to enrich the parliament with the issues they raise and to well perform their monitoring role," Bakr added.

For the first time women have secure 15 percent of the total seats in the Egyptian parliament, which is expected to enlarge the female participation in the country's vital political, economic and social issues, and to somehow help change the typical concept of female inferiority in the most populous Arab state.

"Women have been struggling for two centuries to get fair representation in the parliament whose average was 2.9 percent over the past few years and proudly jumped this year to 15 percent," Nashwa al-Deeb, a female parliamentarian, told Xinhua.

She continued that the new female lawmakers will work hard on the issues of social justice, economic development and all the pains and worries of the Egyptian citizens, "as woman by nature is a searcher for security and stability."

"Being part of the nation and the people, female parliamentarians will tackle sensitive issues including anti-women discrimination, violence and inequality, which are national issues in the first place," the new lawmaker told Xinhua.

Women represent a little less than half of the country's more than 90 million population, according to the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.

Women have traditionally been suffering less support in taboo issues like sexual harassment and female circumcision, and have been missing in key official posts, but things have eventually improved as a recent cabinet had five female ministers, thanks to the efforts of feminists supported by the National Council for Women.

"Women are considered the largest bloc in the new parliament, as there is not a political party that has secured this number of seats," said Mervat al-Tallawi, chairwoman of the National Council for Women, stressing "this has not come all of a sudden but it is the result of earnest struggle and effort."

Tallawi boasted that securing about 90 seats in the House of Representatives reflects the growing status that women are gaining in Egypt's male-oriented society, expecting female lawmakers to make a difference in social justice and development issues.

"Once a parliament speaker is elected, the National Council for Women will demand an office inside the parliament to assist the female parliamentarians and to be a link between the council and the parliament," she added.

Some women legislators even expressed hope that their representation in the parliament might one day reach 50 percent to cope with their proportion in the population.

"The success women scored in the parliamentary polls will make them more powerful and influential," Coptic Upper Egyptian female lawmaker Elizabeth Abdel-Masseih told Xinhua, expecting the achievement to encourage women to strongly participate in the upcoming local councils' polls.

The first parliament session will offer an unprecedented event in the history of the Egyptian parliament, for the regulations state that until a speaker and his two assistants are elected, the first session is to be run by the oldest lawmaker who is assisted by the youngest two, in which case all happened to be ladies. Endit