4 Min Read
CAIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When 83-year-old Farida El Choubachy ran for parliament in Egypt last year, she did not expect to win, let alone become the first woman in 42 years to preside over its opening session.
Her speech to parliament on Tuesday made history in Egypt for a second reason - more than a quarter of its 596 members were women, after a record number of female lawmakers were elected in last year’s parliamentary polls.
“It was a historical moment. I never expected it, but it shows how the role of women in political and parliamentary life is being transformed,” El Choubachy, a well-known journalist and political writer, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
When 83-year-old Farida El Choubachy ran for parliament in Egypt last year, she did not expect to win, let alone become the first woman in 42 years to preside over its opening session.
Egypt: Lift Like a Girl - Documentary Celebrates Egypt s Female Weightlifters allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
INTERVIEW- Lift like a girl : Documentary celebrates Egypt s female weightlifters Reuters 12/22/2020
By Menna A. Farouk
CAIRO, Dec 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - On a busy street corner in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, an open-air training camp for female weightlifters has been inspiring women to reach the top of the sport for two decades - smashing taboos in the process.
It also inspired Egyptian filmmaker Mayye Zayed to spotlight women s success in the male-dominated sport in Lift Like a Girl , a documentary that has won acclaim at international film festivals in recent months.
Zayed said she hoped her film would raise awareness about weightlifting among women and girls, and encourage more to follow their dreams - even if that means challenging gender stereotypes in socially conservative countries like Egypt.
Egypt fights sexual harassment on the train with commuter campaign
Egyptian protesters take part in a march against sexual harassment at Talat Harb Square, on February 12, 2013 in central Cairo, Egypt. [Ed Giles/Getty Images] December 14, 2020 at 6:56 pm
Sexual harassment is so common on Egypt s railways that many women avoid travelling by train, but a new initiative aims to make female passengers feel safer and embolden victims of abuse to report it.
Billboards reading The Railway is Safe have been installed at Cairo s main rail terminus, a complaints hotline has been set up and from now on dedicated conductors will be on trains to handle complaints of groping or sexual harassment.