Middle East: Situation of Women

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Thursday 7th November 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, it is a privilege to welcome my noble friend Lady Hodgson to your Lordships’ House, particularly after such a thoroughly knowledgeable and passionate speech. As a former president of the Conservative Women’s Organisation, she joins an illustrious group of women on the Conservative Benches who have previously held that position: my noble friends Lady Byford, Lady Seccombe and Lady Anelay, who are with us this afternoon. I know that in that role she founded the Conservative Women’s Muslim Group, whose events I have had the privilege of attending. She is also known for her encouragement of many women in the preparatory stages of standing for election to the other place. Among her other roles outside your Lordships’ House, my noble friend Lady Hodgson is patron of the Afghan Connection and a member of the Association of Oxfam. I understand that she not only listens to women’s concerns but has unfortunately got a little too close to the action on occasion in Afghanistan. Of course, she is known for her expertise in gender issues and international development and will make a worthy contribution to your Lordships’ House, but I also know from having worked alongside her in Conservative Campaign Headquarters that she brings with her a natural warmth and kindness to everyone she meets.

For many women in the Middle East, the Arab spring has brought little change in terms of the law but not in terms of courage. The simple act of a woman driving a car in Saudi Arabia is a protest and putting such footage on YouTube is courageous, as every computer is, I believe, traceable by the regime. That shows how much we women sometimes take for granted in the UK but we should not be too complacent as Tunisia’s Parliament now has 27% women and the UK has only 23%. However, all eyes in the Arab world are on Egypt, which is currently writing its new constitution, and it is Egypt that I wish to focus on this afternoon.

The position of women in Egyptian society since the military intervention earlier this year has now arrived at a tipping point. Previously, under President Mubarak, women were sparse in the political arena and were not really visible. The protests in January 2011 included mass protest by women, and it looked as though the tide was turning. However, under the period of rule by SCAF and then President Morsi matters started to decline again.

In my own visit to Egypt in October 2011, I found women in Alexandria scared to go out in public. This was not only because the lack of a police force meant a decline in law and order, but because they felt under increased pressure to veil themselves whenever in public. Christian families were reportedly asking their daughters to wear headscarves so they could not be picked out in any way. The radicals were empowered as women were objectified. There were reports of acid attacks and other assaults, and the security forces did nothing.

However, I believe that two factors halted this declining trajectory. The Morsi regime tried to hand power to the Al-Azhar University, but the university refused to take it. Its members did not want to be the ultimate interpreters of the constitution in Egypt, which is what President Morsi offered them. They would not allow him to remove the Grand Imam, and I understand that in future that post will not be appointed by the President. These were key moves towards a theocratic state, and they were thwarted. As the only pan-Sunni institution to have survived the fall of the Caliphate in 1924, Al-Azhar’s influence extends across the Sunni world. I believe women across the region will in future be very grateful for the institutional independence and courage shown by Al-Azhar. I do hope that Her Majesty’s Government have thanked them too.

The second matter is the women themselves, who could see how this trajectory would affect them and their daughters in the future. A fear barrier was broken in 2011 and it was not going to be resurrected. Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, who was in Egypt during the anti-Morsi protests this year, recalled to me that he saw a young veiled woman in Tahrir Square holding a placard of Morsi with a red cross through it. This action would have been unthinkable three years ago, as would the current presence of women in the Egyptian media as talk show hosts and political commentators, and—due to the cost of living in Egypt—as an increasingly vital part of the labour market. Women have been given a platform and have risen to the occasion. Feminism is not being seen as some kind of foreign import but increasingly as an Egyptian value. Egyptian women were not going to allow the revolution of 2011 to be taken from them.

In Parliament last month, it was a privilege to hear from Mrs Mona Zulficar, vice-president of the Egyptian constitutional drafting committee and an international corporate lawyer. The very fact that a woman is in such a prominent and influential position is remarkable in itself, and her passion to ensure the rights of all Egyptians was matched only by her keenly felt responsibility on behalf of women across the Middle East and north Africa. Women’s rights groups from across the region have been contacting the Egyptian constitutional committee to say, “You have to get this right—you are our hope”.

Therefore I believe that the UK and the EU’s efforts for human rights and democracy need to focus urgently on Egypt. The immediate humanitarian crisis is of course Syria, but for the human rights and democracy brief and budget within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Egypt should be the focus. Egypt is pivotal to change in this region.

I hope that my noble friend the Minister can indicate what projects Her Majesty’s Government fund in the democracy and human rights programme, and how these prioritise women’s rights. Television, particularly satellite television, has a huge influence in Egypt. Has Her Majesty’s Government considered funding programmes that would reinforce the role of women in society?

Much of UK taxpayer support to Egypt goes through the European Union. The disturbing reports of €0.5 billion of aid being unaccounted for are concerning, not least because this should have included at least £70 million of UK taxpayers’ money. As Karel Pinxten, the European Court of Auditors member responsible for the report into EU aid to Egypt, said:

“In the past, the Commission set forward some conditions for giving aid to the country in terms of human rights, in terms of democracy, in terms of public finance management, in terms of fighting corruption”.

If EU money from female UK taxpayers is to be invested in Egypt, at the moment it should be ploughed into projects that will support the courage of Egyptian women. Respecting the rights of women should be a condition of EU support.