Although community leaders are the most influential community parties in the local community, they cannot work in a society in which the rate of illiteracy of women is large in a way that may affect their political participation and make the support of local leaders for them limited and restricted, this is the most important obstacle that community leaders face in The Sharqawi community is in addition to another obstacle that is no less important than the first one, which is the lack of awareness of many men of the importance of women's participation and their role in political life, as explained by the first round table held by the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights within the framework of the project to empower women to rule in the village. The Egyptian (Wusul), funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), with the participation of popular and local leaderships in Sharkia.

The first round table was held at the headquarters of the National Council for Women in the Zagazig Center, Sharkia Governorate, on Thursday, November 25, 2010, and the round tables aimed at mobilizing the energies of society to support the participation of women in local popular councils, with the participation of more than 30 popular and local leaderships, and included members of local popular councils and women secretaries. With the political parties and also with the participation of Dr. Fatima El-Sherbiny, head of the National Council for Women in Sharkia.

The discussion dealt with a number of problems and obstacles that hinder women's participation in local governance, and the participants agreed that the most important problem is the spread of illiteracy among women, which may prevent many of them from participating, especially with regard to their lack of information and skills related to participating in local government mechanisms or participating in elections. They are optimistic about allocating a quota for women in the People's Assembly and that it is necessary to benefit from the quota set for the People's Assembly and to ensure its success, because it may represent a test balloon for the possibility of allocating a local quota in the event of amending the Local Administration Law, and that its success means that it can be applied in the local people's councils in the upcoming elections in 2012.

Al-Ma'idah revealed the leaders ’desire to provide training programs for men and raise their awareness of the importance of women's political participation and make them an important community cadre. They considered that one of the most important pillars of positive participation of women in local governance is to support husbands and women to participate effectively in local decision-making. The primary goal of these programs is Changing the traditional concept of women's political participation among men and how to support them and make them important cadres in the local community.

The leaderships participating in the table recommended starting the training of women on the work of the local popular councils and running the electoral process well before the date of the local elections, and they demanded an increase in those training and unification of the efforts of civil society organizations in this regard.