Socio-Political Status of Women in Egypt during President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s Rule

Abstract

Egypt is considered to be the birthplace of the feminist movement in the Arab East, because the first women's activists began their activities in this country, and later the first women's organizations were founded. The events of the Arab Spring of 2011 had a significant impact on the entire region of the Arab East: some Arab countries embarked on the path of democratization, including in the field of solving the “women’s issue”. After the political changes of 2011 2014 Egyptian women have also faced numerous difficulties and obstacles in various spheres of life. In this paper, the author examined the socio-political status of women in Egypt under the current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The paper analyzes the legal foundations of women's participation in the activities of state bodies and political parties, namely international documents and articles of the Egyptian Constitution of 2014 related to this topic. Moreover, comparative statistics on the number of women in the national Parliament are provided. The article also described the activities of gender-oriented institutions in the context of the political empowerment of Egyptian women, including the goals and directions of the “National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030: Vision and Pillars”, additional annex to the country's strategy “Egypt Vision 2030”. The author drew conclusions about the role of the Egyptian women, the degree of their participation in the socio-political life of modern Egypt, as well as about the main difficulties, among which, first of all, in society stood out the problems of low awareness of the population about gender issues and insufficient funding of programs. In conclusion, suggestions were made about the prospects for expanding the female presence in the political sphere of the country.