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Arab Women Investors Union honours Sisi for ‘supporting women’

October 4, 2017 at 2:08 pm

Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation [FlickR]

The Arab Women Investors Union honoured Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Monday for his alleged efforts to empower women in the country, according to Daily News Egypt.

The award, presented at the Arab League’s “Towards Sustainable Development” conference in Sharm Al-Sheikh, was received by Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation.

Nasr spoke of the numerous reforms that Al-Sisi had implemented and argued that changes, such as increasing the provision of social safety nets, had alleviated the pressure Egyptian women faced.

In return the Arab Women Investors Union announced its intention to pump some 1.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($96.4 million) in new joint investments in the country.

Read: Egypt seeks to lower fertility rate in Upper Egypt

Egypt is currently making numerous economic reforms as part of a conditional loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These have included cuts to numerous public services, including electricity and water, and imposing more taxes. Such changes have often severely impacted women who, following a rise in the price of cooking gas cylinders, have found it difficult to feed their families.

Last November Al-Sisi’s government also floated the country’s currency at the request of the IMF resulting in its depreciation to half its value, causing inflation to reach its highest level since 1986, at a staggering 33 per cent. Many millions of Egyptians living below the poverty line have complained of being unable to afford basic necessities since the price jump, adding to the daily pressure of simply getting by.

Egyptian women are also subject to state violence and imprisonment if they criticise government policies or are perceived to be supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has designated a terrorist organisation.

In 2011, Amnesty International presented evidence that the Egyptian army, spearheaded by Al-Sisi who was then Director of Military Intelligence, forcing female protestors to submit to virginity tests in military prisons, a practice that caused international outrage and was subsequently ruled illegal but continues to happen in prisons.

Last month the New York based NGO Human Rights Watch released a 63-page report detailing the systematic torture of prisoners in Egypt, thousands of whom are female, alleging it could amount to “a crime against humanity”.

Read: Egypt: 82% of women are harassed on public transport