The Local Councils are Ours: TADWEIN

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

Tackling governance, leadership and political participation from a gender transforming perspective involves considering women as responsible individuals, capable of taking decisions and indispensable for their society’s democratization processes. Full equality between men and women in all aspects of life cannot be achieved if equality between men and women is not achieved in the area of governance and political representation. Women have been constrained from entering local level politics by the lack of finances, time constraints needed to manage domestic responsibilities, or because of social pressure as husbands and families are reluctant to see their “women” occupying public spaces and especially political arena which is widely perceived as “dirty” and not a place for decent women. Article 180 of the current Egyptian constitution offers a tremendous opportunity for women to be members of LPCs by securing 13,500 seats for women. Potentially, women’s representation will exceed set quota, as female candidates can be identified under the 25% of youth. This is considered a huge step, knowing that only 2335 women were elected in the 2008 LPC, totalling 4.4% of the total local council members. Tadwein’s proposed concept follows the journey of selection, orienting, training and coaching of women to take an effective role in national council and will be documented for future reference and guidance. It will enable women to project a clear and informed voice by defining the outlines of political participation beyond its classical definition and integrating it with a gender transforming perspective. Women, both individually and collectively, become aware of the power relations operating in their lives, thus building trust among themselves and acquiring the necessary strength to change gender inequalities in all areas.