Mervat al-Tallawy, head of the National Council for Women (NCW) and a member of the 50-member Constitutional Committee, praised the newly amended constitution, saying it guarantees more than 20 articles to insure women rights.
Tallawy criticized the previous constitution that was passed under the administration of ousted President Mohamed Morsy. “Political Islam restricts the role of women to maternal and child care in the inactivated constitution,” she argued, noting that the NCW was against the 2012 Constitution.
The new constitution, Tallawy explained, provides that the state shall ensure equality between women and men in all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, and the state shall also work to take measures to ensure adequate representation of women in the parliament as issued by law.
Tallawy’s statements came at a press conference during her participation in the activities of the sixth session of the Women's Committee of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia ESCWA, held in Kuwait on 4 and 5 December.
The ESCWA sessions discusses issues with priority to Arab women, including violence against women and violence based on gender, in addition to the integration of gender issues in the governmental institutions in the Arab countries after 2015.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
