In a remarkable gesture, President Hosni Mubarak responded to the demands of the Egyptian intellectuals and opposition parties to amend articles of the now-35-year-old Constitution, drafted under conditions totally different from those existing at present.

This is a historical occasion and a festival of democracy. President Mubarak's proposals included empowering women. It is imperative, therefore, that women participate in debating those amendments. Women as half of society should put their stamp on the new Constitution.

Previous constitutions gave women their political rights. They failed, however, to protect them. That women have abstained from contributing to political life is not because of their genetic characteristics but rather because of socially-imposed conditions.

These conditions are unlikely to change unless women reject and fight them. This is the National Women's Council role. It is its job to address fellow-women in schools, universities and factories. Constitutional amendments empowering women should be protected by other decisions to avoid such bitter experiences as the male/female discrimination experienced with the law on nationality, which deprived women from passing their nationality on to their children from non-Egyptian husbands.

Iqbal Baraka
Al-Ahram
January 18, 2007