Dr. Heba Hagrass

Head of Women with Disabilities’ Committee at the National Council for Women

Heba Hagrass, former member of the Egyptian Parliament, is an international disability consultant as well as an independent researcher both in the field of disability and gender since 1989. She is an advocate for Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Egypt, the Arab Region, and worldwide since 1989.

Hagrass helped draft Article 6 in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and was lead Consultant in drafting the National Strategy of People with Disabilities for Egypt. She also took part in drafting the Convention of the Rights of People with Disability as a representative of Arab civil society.

The AUC alumna relayed the importance of including the needs of people with disabilities among the priorities laid out in the Egyptian government’s sustainable development goals. “The key objective of the SDGs is for no one to be left behind, and so these objectives lead us to start with marginalized groups,” Hagrass said.

Hagrass is a Member of the Egyptian Parliament. She also a Member of the National Council for Women and the National Council for Disability.

Prior to this, Hagrass worked as Head of the Development of Disability in Ministry of Social Solidarity in 2014 and a Consultant for Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. She was also a Founding Member of the Inclusive Education Foundation in Egypt (IEF) and a Technical Consultant in the field of disability for many international and national organizations.

She got her bachelor degree in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo in 1982, then her master’s degree in Sociology from the American University in Cairo in 1998. She earned her PhD in 2010 in Sociology and Social Policy from the University of Leeds, UK. She was nominated for the Frank G. Wisner Award for Scholarly Excellence in Social Science