Moushira Khatab, Secretary of State for Family and Population, said that US President Barack Obama during his speech in Cairo referred to the election of women in Muslim to lead the country.
This made Moushira compare this reference with Egyptian women struggling for a good representation in parliament, and women in several Muslim countries that have reached the helm of the State and government.
Obama said in his speech that our countries have a Muslim majority like Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia where "women are elected to assume leadership of the country."
The Minister said in a statement to Al-Masry Al-Youm that she recalled the development of Egyptian women's struggle and the struggle to improve their quality of representation in parliament.
She noted that owing to the reluctance of the parties for election, the State has decided to resort to allocating additional seats for women. She said this decision was good as it will be a temporary measure in order to avoid repeating what happened in the eighties when seats were allocated for women, peasants and workers, and then eliminated for women only.
Moushira saw that Obama, when speaking about women and education, was well aware that women's education is the main touchstone in view of the fact that America is based on competition, stressing the need for the education of girls as the State's first priority.
She noted that after the end of the US President's speech she met for 10 minutes with one of his advisers Valerie Garrett, who explained to her that the education of girls and the importance of cooperation between Egypt and the United States not only to provide education for girls, but also for the quality of education.
Moushira expressed admiration for the great addition by President Obama when he spoke about the issue of the hijab (headscarf or veil), and linked between rejecting discrimination against women who wear headscarves, and discrimination against women who are deprived of education.
She pointed out that he used the same arguments that the Turkish Justice and Development Party used to defend the veil issue when it was raised in Europe, and France who rejected the hijab, and she cited the freedom of wearing the veil by his assertion.
She described the overall speech as "excellent," saying it proved that Obama has a large group of experienced advisors, adding: "But we should not be eluded by the speech as words alone do not change anything."
She added that the choice of US President of Egypt as the place from which to address the Muslim world could give them a chance to lead the Islamic world at least during Obama's administration.
