MasterCard Releases “Lasting Legacy” Book Celebrating 25 Inspirational Women

MasterCard unveiled its new book, “Lasting Legacy: Honoring 25 Visionaries to Celebrate 25 Years of Priceless”.

MasterCard’s global “priceless” platform, which for a quarter of a century has been a bridge connecting people to their passions.

The MasterCard book includes a collection of inspiring stories of women scientists, political figures, pioneers, businesswomen, and artists worldwide.

Among those powerful leaders, Dr. Maya Morsi, President of the National Council for Women; Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Emaar Development Company; Raha Moharrak, adventurer and mountaineer; Jessica Kahawaty, entrepreneur, humanitarian activist, and model; Sarah Beydoun, Founder, and Creative Director of Sarah’s Bag.

The book also highlights the careers and positive influence of a group of women, including Nona Gaprindashvili, chess legend and the first woman to be awarded the title of “Grand Master” of chess;  Nouzha Alaoui, Founder of Meshed Group; Ambrine Moussa, Founder and CEO of Souqalmal.com; Laila Mustafa Abdul Latif, Director General of the Emirates Nature-WWF; Jennifer Blandos, Managing Partner, Female Fusion Network; And Ola Younis Doudin, Co-Founder and CEO of BitOasis.

The book recounts their success stories and glimpses of their inspiring career in several fields, such as arts, sports, politics, hospitality, financial services, and others.

This step represents MasterCard’s latest initiative to celebrate the role of women in society and open the doors of opportunities for them as part of the company’s commitment to building a more equitable and just society.

That can be seen in the book, as it underlines the pioneering role of women in shaping our world, to be a source of inspiration for its readers to take effective steps in their lives and societies to bridge the gender gap and build a more inclusive future in which equal treatment and work prevail.

The book is available as of March 14, 2023, and can be found online, in libraries, universities, schools, and on BooksArabia.com.

Egypt Took Remarkable Strides in Women Empowerment

A member of the National Council for Women and rapporteur of the council’s Political Participation Committee, Sana al-Saeed, said that women’s empowerment in Egypt witnessed an unprecedented boom locally and internationally over the past few years.

The 2014 constitution entails 20 supporting articles, and the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women 2030 was launched in parallel with a women’s observatory established to ensure the follow-up of its implementation.

During her participation in the conference on women’s human rights between reality and aspirations, Saeed said that women represent a prime pillar in both the national strategy for human rights and the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women 2030.

She indicated that Egypt took the lead as the first country to issue a policy paper on responding to the special needs of women and girls during the coronavirus pandemic and launched a mechanism to monitor the implementation of these policies.

She added that Egypt also ranked first in the Middle East, West Asia, and the Arab region in the report of the United Nations Women and the United Nations Development Program on measures to support women during the pandemic.

Women Professional Summit 2023 Honors Female Government Ministers for Supporting Gender Equality

In its second edition, the Women Professionals Summit honored a group of female ministers, including Dr. Hala Al-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation,and Dr. Maya Morsi, President of the National Council for Women.

Notably, in the early hours of its activities, the summit honored Dr. Nevine El Kilany, Minister of Culture, among the top 50 most influential women, considerably one of the most important and prestigious annual awards in Egypt.

The ministers received the “Ambassadors of Change and Gender Equality” award for their vital role in supporting the Egyptian Vision 2030, promoting women’s empowerment, and providing opportunities for all groups to build the Egyptian person.

The new session of the summit, organized by the Top 50 Women Forum in partnership with the National Council for Women (NCW) and Amwal Al-Ghad Economic Magazine of the United Media Services Company (UMS), kicked off on Sunday under the slogan (Empower Women to Empower Egypt).

Its activities focused on women’s leadership and empowerment, supporting and consolidating the role of Egyptian women in public life in general, exchanging experiences and views on best practices and corrective measures to put issues of importance to women on national, local, and media agendas, as well as universities, schools, civil society institutions, and think tanks concerned with culture and arts, in light of global developments and conditions that require enhancing the acceleration of the sustainable development goals.

 

WPS: Maya Morsi Expects Women’s Participation Rate in Parliament to Reach 40%

During the Women Professionals Summit, held on Sunday, President of the National Council for Women (NCW), Dr. Maya Morsi, said she expects the next session of the House of Representatives will witness an increase in the participation rate of women from 28% to 40%.

Morsi made her remarks during the ministerial session, Iconic Success of an Egyptian Women at Women Professionals Summit (WPS), taking place in Cairo, under the auspices of Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.

The Egyptian official added: We currently have a significantly bigger women representation in the Egyptian Parliament of up to 28%, compared to only 2% in 2012, but there’s always room for improvements.

She added that during the past decade, Egyptians had witnessed many changes in the Egyptian state concerning the status of women and their access to all places, as there are women who hold the position of governor, and 31% of Conservative MPs are women.

In her speech, Morsi noted that it is possible to reach 50% of women in government positions, stressing that this is not far from the Egyptian will. She went on to explain that if women’s labor participation rate matched that of men, Egypt’s GDP would increase by 34%.

The Minister finally stressed that under the current leadership of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, there is no limit to dreams, noting that the council is currently going to the governorates to provide a database of young women who can become leaders.

The First Training of the Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Project for Women in Egypt

The National Council for Women organized the first training component of the project on intellectual property and entrepreneurship for women in Egypt, in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization.

This training came within the framework of cooperation between the Council and the World Intellectual Property Organization in working to empower women entrepreneurs in local communities through intellectual property, by increasing their awareness of the need to protect the intellectual property of their companies, and establishing links between women entrepreneurs and the National Intellectual Property Office in order to facilitate the task of establishing intellectual property rights by the local community.

The training includes several stages, including identifying targets, raising awareness, building the capacities of beneficiaries on intellectual property, providing them with practical tools for business (3 training components), and support in terms of drafting regulations related to collective trademark registration, design, and registration, specialized support for a number of selected women entrepreneurs, and the registration of a collective trademark.

The main goal of the training is to educate the targeted women on intellectual property rights, support and facilitate the registration of the trademark (collective mark), the gained return of its registration, and help them market it.

 

 

NCW President participates in the ministerial meeting of the African Union Technical Committee on the Empowerment of Women

Dr. Maya Morsi, President of the NCW, participated in the ministerial meeting of the Seventh Specialized Technical Committee of the African Union on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. Thirty-four countries participated through video conference technology, as the meeting aims to expand the scope of procedures related to the obligations of member states to reinforce gender equality and empower women.

This meeting comes after the two-day meeting of experts to discuss and study all the issues before presenting them to the ministerial meeting.

It is worth mentioning that the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment meets every year to evaluate the implementation of the recommendations issued by previous meetings, and evaluate the progress made in each country concerning the strategy implementation for women’s empowerment.

Additionally, the Union identifies the difficulties and obstacles they face, and reviews appropriate solutions for ensuring gender equality and the empowerment of women within each AU member state, besides formulating common African decisions, policies and positions, following up progress on commitments made by member states, advocating for the ratification, implementation and localization of AU legal and political instruments to achieve benefits and rights full of African women, advocating for the protection, promotion and respect of women’s human rights.

According to a recent statement issued by the National Council for Women, the aforementioned meeting included the adoption of decisions on the African Women Trust Fund and the African Union Fund for Youth, as well as the results of the Second African Union Conference of Men on their positive role in ending violence against women and girls, the Women and Youth Initiative for Financial and Economic Inclusion 2030, and the AU Gender Observatory as a reporting mechanism and background information.

Maya Morsi: Egypt is the first country to issue a rapid response policy towards the situation of women in the Corona pandemic

Maya Morsi: Egypt is the first country to issue a rapid response policy towards the situation of women in the Corona pandemic

Dr Maya Morsi, President of the National Council for Women, participated in the meeting organized by the World Bank entitled “Policymakers Work with Communities to End Violence against Women – Panel Discussions with the Change Maker” via video conference technology, where Egypt presented its achievements in the file of protecting women from violence and policies laws and protection measures.

She referred to the National Strategy for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2015-2020, which was launched by the Council in coordination and cooperation with the various concerned state agencies as a basic mechanism that would contribute to the protection of women and girls from violent practices against them, in addition to the “National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030” launched by the Council within the framework of Sustainable development goals, in line with Egypt’s Vision 2030, and include four main axes: political empowerment and leadership, economic empowerment, social empowerment, and protection from all forms of violence.

The National Council for Women, in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), conducted a study on the economic cost of violence against women, which estimated that 7.9 million Egyptian women suffered from all forms of violence at a cost of at least EGP 2.17 billion.  Egypt was the first country in the Arab world to conduct this survey.

Maya Morsi also explained that Egypt is the first country in the world to issue a rapid response policy towards the situation of women during the Corona pandemic, as it helped in developing the national response to the pandemic, which included the response to confronting violence against women associated with the outbreak of Corona, and the first country in the world to issue a mechanism To monitor the actions taken by the state in response to women’s needs.

Today… Organization of the Women’s Media Rights Symposium within the 16 Days Campaign against Violence

Today… Organization of the Women’s Media Rights Symposium within the 16 Days Campaign against Violence

Today, at 6 p.m., the Media Committee of the National Council for Women is organizing a symposium entitled Women’s Media Rights. It is the committee’s second activity within the framework of implementing the 16-day campaign to combat violence against women.

The symposium aims to activate the media code in all media, including dramatic materials on issues of concern to women, reduce the rates of violence within Egyptian drama against women, and shed light on the bright models of Egyptian women within drama and all media and media content.

Within the framework of the efforts of the National Council for Women through the Women’s Complaints Office to support women and assist them legally and psychologically, the Council launched during the coming period a series of dramatic cartoon episodes inspired by real stories from the files of the Women’s Complaints Office in the Council, entitled “We are with you”.

The episodes will be shown every Thursday, starting today, on social media platforms, and discuss different and varied issues for women who have resorted to the office, such as domestic violence, personal status issues, underage marriage, electronic extortion, and other issues and problems that were reported to the Women’s Complaints Office and the office’s role in resolving them.

The National Council for Women: an unprecedented leap achieved by Egypt in the field of gender equality

Dr Maya Morsi, President of the National Council for Women, confirmed that Egypt has made an unprecedented breakthrough in the field of women’s empowerment and gender equality locally and internationally in recent years.

This came during its participation in the twentieth meeting of the Executive Council of the Arab Women’s Organization; To discuss developments in the situation of women in Arab member States.

During the meeting, Maya Morsi reviewed Egypt’s efforts in the women’s empowerment file over the past period, explaining that Egypt has launched two major development programs in its history, “Decent Life- Haya Karima”, which is the largest development program in Egypt and the world, and places women and their needs at the core, targeting 58 million citizens, 50% of whom are women.

The second program was the National Project for the Development of the Egyptian Family, aimed at improving the demographic characteristics and quality of life of families in more than 20 governorates and thus more resilient communities at the local level in Egypt.

Maya Morsi also reviewed Egypt’s efforts to combat violence against women, which includes many efforts. Among them is the establishment of safe markets and cities for women, 27 digital offices within the family offices of the Public Prosecution Office, 29 units to combat violence and harassment within universities, and 8 medical response units within university hospitals, in addition to awareness campaigns on the social media platforms “Facebook and Instagram”.

Concerning the issue of climate change, she presented the international proposal of the Arab Republic of Egypt on women, the environment and climate change, praising the outcomes of the COP27 Climate Summit, which Egypt hosted from 6 to 18 November in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Ministry of Interior receives delegation from National Council for Women

The Ministry of Interior received a delegation from the Health Committee of the National Council for Women at the Medical Complex in New Cairo to sign a medical examination for women in police hospitals free of charge until December 10, 2022.

The Ministry of Interior said that it is keen to uphold the values of human rights, build bridges of communication with all segments of society and contribute to providing all aspects of support and care to female citizens, and on the occasion of the 16-day campaign to combat violence against women.

She stated, The medical services sector at the Ministry of Interior continued to receive women in police hospitals nationwide for free in the evening period from 5 to 8 pm, which is scheduled to continue until December 10, in outpatient clinics and signing a medical examination on them and disbursing the necessary treatment for them for free, and the initiative was highly acclaimed by the recipients of the medical service.

The Ministry of Interior received a delegation from the National Council for Women with the participation of officers from the Ministry’s Human Rights Sector at the Medical Complex in New Cairo during the activities of the initiative, where the women who visited the hospital expressed their deep thanks to the Ministry of Interior and praised the medical service provided to them.

This comes within the framework of the efforts of the Ministry of Interior to provide humanitarian aid to all citizens, provide them with treatment and help them ease life for them, by receiving a delegation from the National Council for Women with the participation of officers from the Ministry’s Human Rights Sector at the Medical Complex in New Cairo.