“How can we participate and we do not find, we ate the first and then we will vote” This sentence was said by one of the women participating in the discussion session in Birk El-Khiam in the 6th of October Governorate, expressing her opinion on the importance of women's participation in local governance.
This came during the third discussion session in the “Wusool” project, which was held in the village of Barak El-Khayyam in the Governorate of October 6 on Wednesday, December 8, with the participation of more than 50 women and girls from the villages of Nahia and Bark El-Khiam in the Kerdasa Center, which aims to educate women and girls in the targeted areas of the importance of participation. Political women in local government.
The panel discussion comes within the framework of the project to empower women to govern in the Egyptian village (Wusul), which is implemented in partnership between the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and seeks to enhance the participation of women in local governance in the Egyptian village, through building the capacities of women. To run in local elections, raise awareness of the importance of women's participation in local government mechanisms, and build effective community mechanisms that support the fair representation of women in elected local popular councils.
A long discussion took place among the women participating in the panel discussion about the importance of women's political participation in local governance, as some of them expressed the futility of women's political participation in light of the control of men over these councils, and others added that the local popular councils themselves have no importance and they do not feel in the development of Their local community, but there were a number of women who had another opinion, which is that the political participation of women is very important, but there are a number of obstacles and challenges that prevent them from attaining membership in local popular councils, and the first from their point of view is favoritism and mediation in running for elections to ensure that they win local seats. Many women aspiring to participate in local governance lack sufficient experience to play the role required of them to participate in local decision-making.
In addition to the poor living conditions of many women and their preoccupation with raising children in light of the family's deteriorating economic situation, which has become the preoccupation of every Egyptian family, far from political participation. They emphasized that economic empowerment is required first, in order to achieve political empowerment and increase the effectiveness of women's participation in local governance.
At the end of the session, they asked to know how to obtain electoral cards, because many of them do not have a voting card, but rather vote with an ID card, and because providing electoral cards may motivate women to go to exercise their right to vote. As well as intensifying training courses to raise women's awareness of the importance of local councils, their role, and the method of submitting complaints to local councils regarding basic services.