“The status of women in Egypt is linked to the status of the homeland. The more the status of women grows, the more the situation of the homeland grows with it, and the more the status of women hides with it the status of the homeland.” With these words, Professor Dr. Mahmoud Sharif, the former Minister of Local Development, summed up the importance of the presence of rural women and their participation in achieving development. His speech at the closing conference of the project “Empowering women to govern in the Egyptian village” (Wusul), which was implemented by Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights in cooperation with the Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAID), on Sunday, May 29, 2011. The aim of the “Wusool” project is to enhance women's participation in local governance in the Egyptian village, by building women's capacities to run in local elections, raising awareness of the importance of women's participation in local governance mechanisms, and building effective community mechanisms in support of the fair representation of women in elected local popular councils. Previously, in three Egyptian governorates, which are Sharkia and Helwan and Sixth of October, before the decision to annex them to Cairo and Giza. The conference was held with the participation of a crowd of representatives of civil society organizations, media professionals, members of the local popular councils in the targeted governorates, and feminist activists, in addition to a number of party women leaders. Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Sharif, former Minister of Local Development, and Dr. Iman Baybars, a regional expert in development, spoke at the conference. Social and gender issues, Professor Mohamed Anwar Sadat, President of the Reform and Development Party and the Australian Ambassador in Cairo, Mrs. Stephanie Schwabsky, Professor / Ayman Aqil, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Maat Foundation. The conference proceedings began with the presentation of a documentary film about the project and its activities and live testimonies from women leaders and rural women who worked on the project to raise their awareness of the importance of participating in elections and the importance of the presence of women in local decision-making mechanisms. Then Mr. Ayman Aqil spoke, noting in his speech that the project to empower women from Governance in the Egyptian village is a natural extension of Maat Foundation’s work in the field of promoting democracy and good governance over the past five years. Aqeel said that the project is a natural response to the requirements of the next phase and has become of great importance after the events of the January 25 revolution, which proved that women were side by side with men. There is one demand in Tahrir Square, and it is its right to take its true position in society, as it is one half of it and responsible for the other half. After that came Dr. Iman Baybars’s speech, in which she welcomed Maat’s initiative in implementing the arrival project and its direction to work in the issue of decentralization, localities and empowering women, in which she expressed her happiness in implementing a project with a new idea that shed light on the most marginalized community groups, which are rural women. They are excluded from development programs and far away. Regarding rehabilitation and educational education programs, she emphasized that Egyptian women have acquired a number of gains that they cannot lose after the Egyptian revolution, and they must be preserved, and that women's participation in decision-making centers has become indispensable and participation in representative and popular councils. Baybars praised the hearings held by the project, stressing the need for men to participate in activities and events related to women. She added that women participated in the January 25 revolution side by side with men in the same demands. Then came the speech of Mr. Muhammad Anwar Sadat, in which he talked about the conditions of the Egyptians before the January 25 revolution and explained that it is not only women during that period who were marginalized, but men were also marginalized and that is why there is a great burden on the shoulders of women after the revolution because there are a number Among the challenges it faces, in addition to the presence of pending and pre-existing issues, such as appointing women as judges, laws related to the family, divorce and vision laws, as well as the abolition of parliamentary quotas, and the political empowerment of women in the next stage acquires special importance because Egypt is on the verge of more than one legislative election. Sadat suggested an ideal solution to eliminate this marginalization and those challenges that women may face in elections, except that women join and enter the membership of political parties, especially since the elections will take place, some of which will be based on the proportional list and some of them will be through individual elections, in addition to reviewing some laws to empower women. In his last speech, Sadat called on rural women to form special development associations that work to create job opportunities for women, especially breadwinning women and youth. Then came the speech of Prof. Mahmoud Sherif, who expressed his happiness at the beginning of the conference, noting that the development of rural women has existed since the era of the Pharaohs because the ancient Egyptian agricultural civilization was built on the shoulders of rural women. Sherif added that women in Egypt need participation, inclusion, empowerment and equal opportunities, but the realization of these principles faces many problems and challenges. Development cannot be achieved without serious participation of women, and that real participation starts from the decision-making stage, and that participation in local councils is the beginning of women's participation in decision-making. Community level In addition to the fact that local councils are of great importance within the local community because one of their most important roles is to respond to the needs of citizens. Al-Sharif talked about the quota and explained that the quota is not an Egyptian heresy, but it is present in the legislation of many countries and that it has two basic types, which are legal legislative quotas and political quota for parties, and he said that he was among those who demanded the existence of a local quota, but the current trend was more inclined to abolish its existence In the Egyptian legislation. At the end of his speech, Sharif demanded a real presence of women in the boards of directors of civil societies, unions and political parties, because this might guarantee their presence in parliament and also local popular councils. The Australian Ambassador "Stephanie Schwabsky" delivered a speech at the conference during which she expressed that Australia is proud to fund this project because it helps to achieve human rights and women's empowerment goals within her community in a practical way, which is one of the most important priorities that the embassy seeks and that the Australian government, like most countries in the world, wants to You see Egypt is moving towards the better and that change must be achieved with the participation of women and men, not just men, and that there is a political term that is said: “Think locally and work at the national level.” So we must start by empowering women at the local level, and then empowerment will take place at the national level and that To remain a head of state you have to remain a member at the local level. The Australian ambassador indicated that the primary goal of the Australian government is to support development, political participation and the promotion of human rights, and that increasing the percentage of women’s participation and representation at the local level converges with the required change after the events that Egypt went through and its glorious revolution. She expressed her hope that she would see more women in The upcoming local people's council elections. In the interventions of the attendees at the conference, the discussion revolved around the application of decentralization in the next stage and the work to pass a new law for local administration that guarantees the implementation of decentralization and the approval of the right to question members, as well as the inability to dissolve the popular councils. At the end of the conference, a specialized workshop began, in which more than thirty natural and popular leaderships, experts in development and social service, doctors and various party leaders from women’s committees, members of local popular councils and leaders from civil society organizations concerned with women's issues participated. During the course, the field study prepared by the project entitled “The Reality and Trends of Women's Participation in Local People's Councils of Villages” was presented, which dealt with analyzing women's attitudes and their awareness of these councils by designing questionnaire forms for rural women about local popular councils and women's attitudes about participation. Participants were divided into five groups. Each group made a number of recommendations, the most important of which were: - Allocating a legal quota for women in the new law for local administration of not less than 30 % - Opening literacy classes for women while providing job opportunities for distinguished women through the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Manpower - Cooperation of local people's councils With NGOs in conducting seminars and educational courses for women and helping them acquire electoral skills and campaign management. Opening girls-friendly schools to eliminate school dropout and illiteracy. - And the need for government initiatives to stimulate the audiovisual media in spreading the culture of participation in women and the importance of their presence in decision-making centers, especially after the abolition of the quota - Emphasizing the role of religious institutions in raising awareness and education of the importance of the role of women and their participation in society - Activating the role of school activities in social upbringing and comprehensive development Especially for girls and students - the need for internal bodies to monitor the stages of the electoral process “election - nomination” - the necessity for political parties to represent women in their party lists by a percentage of not less than 30% and to pay attention to the permanent development and preparation of women’s popular leaderships. - Displaying the woman’s image in a way that is consistent with her role in society and not disrupting her pioneering role and her continuous giving