Image courtsey of Ahram Online
The National Council for Women (NCW) has been one of the sites of both the hopes and frustrations of feminist groups over the past year. The case of Ahmed Bassam Zaki, the Fairmont rape case and the wave of arrests of female Tik-Tok users have garnered a series of actions and inactions from the NCW, prompting valid questions of whether the Council is merely another arm of the state. These questions derive not only from the NCW&rsquo;s seeming lack of influence, but also their decisions where they have not only brushed off, but actively aligned themselves with an increasingly strict stance which holds women accountable for public morality, and thus puts them in danger.
Concern over the effectiveness of national machineries tasked with the promotion of the status of women is neither new nor exclusive to Egypt&rsquo;s case. National Women&rsquo;s Machineries (NWMs) similar to the NCW have been established all over the globe, and are meant to serve as mechanisms for formulating, advising on and evaluating all government policies on women, and monitoring the implementation of international agreements and conventions. For NWMs to be effective, they need to reside in the highest level of state hierarchy, (Outshoorn &amp; Kantola, 2007), however this high-level position can also make NWMs more aligned with the state and more easily controlled by it (Goetz, 2004), which is arguably the NCW&rsquo;s case.
Shirin Rai argues that the potential effectiveness of the agencies can vary according to factors including their mandates, level of authority they are granted, links with civil society and the sufficiency of financial and human resources (Rai, 2003). With this in mind, this commentary will examine key incidents throughout the past year which have raised the NCW&rsquo;s profile to assess the NCW&rsquo;s effectiveness, points of weakness and possible ways it could better harness its position.
<h3>Tik-Tok Women, Inappropriate Cupcakes, and the Violation of Family Values</h3>
Egypt first saw an NWM in place within the Ministry of Social Affairs in the 1970s. The machinery was later moved to reside under the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood in 1994, and finally became an entity of its own by presidential decree in the year 2000 (Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia [ESCWA], 2019). The 2014 constitution legally acknowledged the NCW along with other national councils. Progress was made in 2018 when Law 30/2018 was approved by parliament, officially granting the ouncil power to review laws from a gender perspective and propose amendments to ensure that they are free of discrimination against women and girls.&nbsp;
April 2020 brought with it a wide campaign of arrests of middle- and low-income women for uploading videos on the social media platform Tik-Tok that &ldquo;violate family values&rdquo;, citing article 25 of Law 175/2018, known as the Cybercrime Law, which inhibits the use of technology to &ldquo;infringe on any family principles or values in Egyptian society&rdquo; (El-Dabh, 2020). The absence of specificity regarding the term &ldquo;family values&rdquo; leaves much space for guesswork and elasticity of use. Most recently,&nbsp; the same law was used in the case of a group of women eating genital-shaped cupcakes deemed inappropriate; the baker of which was arrested and released shortly afterwards. The law has been used to punish women specifically, an issue that clearly falls within the NCW&rsquo;s mandate and thus may have been avoidable had the Council exercised its right to review and amend the law.&nbsp;
The NCW&rsquo;s silence here does not seem to be one of passivity. In fact, in June of 2020, the Council used up a fair share of its media monitoring report to criticize the portrayal of women using foul language and smoking in Ramadan TV shows, and later that year the Council repeatedly publicized and celebrated article 25 of the Cybercrime Law on their social media platforms. The Council seems to be adopting the state&rsquo;s stance in punishing citizens, disproportionally women, for their &ldquo;immorality&rdquo;.&nbsp;
The Council&rsquo;s inaction regarding the public&rsquo;s anger over the Tik-Tok arrests and the Cybercrime Law points to not only the disparity between public opinion and the NCW&rsquo;s position or lack thereof, but also to a lack of mechanisms to hold the Council accountable.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Cooperation with civil society and women&rsquo;s organizations is essential to ensure that NWMs are deemed legitimate in the eyes of the public. Although the NCW established a civil society forum, including 90 NGOs, for this purpose, its effectiveness is questionable.&nbsp; This in part stems from the restrictions placed on NGOs by the NGO Law 149/2019, curtailing their autonomy, as well as the fact that it is unclear how NGOs in the forum are chosen, and whether NGOs with ideologies different to that of the Council could be included.&nbsp;&nbsp;
The NCW&rsquo;s stance towards applications of the Cybercrime Law could also stem from a lack of adequate and informed human personnel; by feeding a tendency to blame the victim, the NCW is contributing to the same culture that complicates cases such as the Fairmont rape case which the NCW would eventually take on.&nbsp;
<h3>The Fairmont Rape Case &ndash; the Arrest of Witnesses and the Council&rsquo;s Inaction&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
In June of 2020, the Complaints Office at the NCW received praise for supporting the cases of those who came forward with accusations of assault and rape against Ahmed Bassam Zaki. The NCW celebrated an amendment of the Criminal Procedures Code, that protects the anonymity of those reporting sexual violence cases and guarantees the confidentiality of their personal information. A month afterwards, the Council encouraged victims and witnesses of what came to be known as the Fairmont rape case to come forward with their testimonies, assuring them that they will be protected. Some witnesses were later arrested and placed in pre-trial detention.
Law 30/2018 grants the Council the right to refer complaints to relevant authorities; work to solve the case with the authorities; provide necessary legal assistance and inform public authorities of any violations of women&rsquo;s rights. Despite this enshrinement in the NCW Law, the Council fell silent after the victim and witnesses paid the price of coming forward to testify. Unlike the previous case concerning the Tik-Tok women, the Council here initially seemed keen on using its Complaints Office to bring about justice. While it is unclear what led to their silence, judging from their initial commitment to the case and subsequently, their sudden abandonment of it, the ability of the Council to follow up on their initiatives and their power to hold the state accountable is questionable.&nbsp;
<h3>Football Tournaments and Handmade Crafts: A Confused and Scattered Mandate</h3>
As anger lingered over the Council&rsquo;s silence, a post on their social media with pictures of a male football tournament infuriated followers who saw it as ineffective and irrelevant, highlighting the lack of prioritization of the Council&rsquo;s time and resources.
The Beijing 1995 Platform for Action calls on states to give NWMs a clearly defined mandate, and many countries either exclude project implementation or limit it to demonstration and pilot purposes only. Law 30/2018 identifies 15 main roles that the Council should specifically take on, which include proposing national strategies and coordinating with different parties to monitor and evaluate their implementation; reviewing laws and following up on commitment to international conventions; receiving and following up on complaints from women; and spreading a culture conducive of the protection and empowerment of women.
Despite this, many NWMs, including the NCW, are still heavily involved in project implementation, whether or not this is meant to be a main part of their mandate. This is often either because of a lack of government funds provided &ndash; which pushes some agencies to turn their focus to more developmental, highly visible projects of a short-term nature, with outcomes more easily reportable to donors &ndash; or because of a lack of authority and influence on policy that gives agencies no other option than to turn to project implementation (Rai, 2003). Law 30/2018 stipulates that the council is entitled to funding from the national budget, and is allowed to receive grants from donors, however, as the NCW&rsquo;s budget is not readily available, it is difficult to assess how reliant it is on donor funding.
While the NCW&rsquo;s 2020 end of year report does document the Council&rsquo;s progress in areas&nbsp;relevant to its role as stipulated in Law 30/2018, such as a list of laws it has drafted or contributed to its review, it also points to a scattered mandate &ndash; with some activities more fitting for NGOs, and others unfocused and of unconvincing impact, ranging from charitable giveaways to training women on income-generating crafts such as sewing and crochet. A scattered mandate can lead to NWMs functioning instead like NGOs, which defeats their purpose. The Council&rsquo;s position needs to be utilized, and their mandate focused to give them the space and resources to focus on more strategic work.&nbsp;
<h3>&nbsp;Moving Forward</h3>
Given the NCW&rsquo;s embeddedness within the state, its legitimacy in the eyes of its constituency has to be earned. It is important to recognize that an active and independent civil society is directly linked with whether the NCW can serve its function. A less restrictive NGO law is an essential condition for the Council&rsquo;s proper functioning; the lack of which should be seen as a direct threat to the Council&rsquo;s legitimacy. Moreover, the NCW&rsquo;s responsiveness to critiques against it over the past year, while accordingly taking actions in line with that, would have also been a positive step forward in gaining legitimacy.
Formalized and clear mechanisms that grant civil society opportunities for input in reviewing and assessing policies and laws should be set in place. Globally, this has taken on many forms, such as inviting NGOs to participate in public hearings and nominate their members to the NWM&rsquo;s committees, cooperation with alliances of national and international NGOs and consultations with NGO representatives. The success of these collaborations are again dependent on civil society&rsquo;s influence and independence&nbsp; and the acceptance of diverse opinions therein.&nbsp;
Moreover, the NCW needs to focus less on project implementation and developmental work and more on strategic wins. A publicly available and fixed budget needs to be provided by the state and the NCW should refrain from resorting to highly visible and short-term activities. This recalibration of priorities will also make it easier to staff the Council with specialized personnel skilled in analysing policies and laws from a gender perspective and monitoring the state&rsquo;s commitments to them.&nbsp;
<hr>
References
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia. (2019). Cultivating Resilient Institutions in the Arab Region: National Women&rsquo;s Machineries in Challenging Times. ESCWA, Beirut.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;El-Dabh, B. (2020). Egypt&rsquo;s TikTok Crackdown and &ldquo;Family Values&rdquo;. The Tahrir Institute For Middle East Policy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. (2020).&nbsp;EIPR calls on the "National Council for Women" to protect the complainants and witnesses in the "Fairmont Case" and for the Public Prosecution to clarify their legal position. Retrieved 24 February 2021, from <a href="https://tinyurl.com/rzpnyp5y">https://tinyurl.com/rzpnyp5y</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Goetz, A. M. (2004). Advocacy Administration in the context of Economic and Political Liberalisation. United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women Conference, Rome, 29 November-2 December.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Nazra. (2018).&nbsp;After the modification of its powers: a feminist commentary on the new law governing the work of the National Council for Women. [madha ba&lsquo;d ta&lsquo;dil salahiatih? ta&lsquo;liq nusawiyin &lsquo;ala al-qanun al-jadid li-&lsquo;amal al-majlis al-qawmi l-il-mar&rsquo;a] [In Arabic]. Available at &nbsp;<a href="https://tinyurl.com/2axx6evv">https://tinyurl.com/2axx6evv</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Outshoorn, J., &amp; Kantola, J. (2007).&nbsp;Changing state feminism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rai, S. (2003). Introduction in S. Rai (ed.)&nbsp;Mainstreaming Gender, Democratizing the State? Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women. Manchester: Manchester University Press.</li>
</ul>

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