Egypt

To read the full article, please choose one of the following options:

Mufid Shehab, Egypt's Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, has stated the country's parliament approved a law on June 14 that will provide a quota of 64 seats in the lower house to female MPs. He added that the new law will mean women will hold over 12% of seats in the expanded parliament after the next election, scheduled for 2010, taking the total number of deputies to 454. Although Egypt has a strong tradition of women's involvement in all aspects of professional life, increasing social conservatism may mean that it follows the example of some of the Gulf states,