North Africa and Middle East

Egyptian women today still suffer from cultural, social and political discrimination with no indication from policymakers for progress. Though women attained the right to political participation in 1956, significant development has been minimal. The January 25 and June 30revolutions marked a significant change as women were at the forefront throughout.

The Ministry of Solidarity, Women, Family and Social Development, and UN Women signed, Wednesday in Rabat, a partnership agreement to promote the institutionalization of the principles of gender equality in the public policy making process in Morocco.

Nadine Moussa, Lebanon’s first female candidate for the presidency, insists that Lebanon needs a “new social contract,” with women holding half of all parliamentary and governmental posts.

“I know what Lebanese women are capable of, and I know how much they can contribute,” Moussa told The Daily Star.

Moussa, a lawyer who has worked to promote women’s rights for over a decade, is the first female to officially run for president of Lebanon.

A group of around 800 Moroccans, mostly women, staged a march in the capital Rabat on Sunday demanding that a constitutional guarantee of gender equality be applied in the kingdom.

The march from the city centre to parliament was led by the Civil Coalition for the Application of Article 19, which is reportedly made up of some 500 NGOs, and was joined by civil society organisations, lawmakers, rights groups and lawyers.

Unlike many women she does not hide her age but actually has a tendency to flaunt it, in April she will be fifty: “ The age of the Algerian revolution” she says. This is how she likes to present herself, Louisa Hounane, proud and touching spokesperson for the Workers’ Party, the only political party in Algeria to be led by a woman.