(AFP File Photo)
The Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU) announced Sunday the initiation of a 16 week campaign to raise EGP 30m to support female candidates running for the 2014 House of Representatives elections.
The campaign’s aim is to help 100 female candidates. The House of Representatives is expected to be formed in April 2014.
EFU Chairwoman Hoda Badran said that the campaign targets females in every governorate of Egypt and will “attempt to employ the 30 million who went out [in protest] on 30 June in donating money to the campaign.”
An eight point plan is devised to apply the campaign, which entails employing campaign managers for the candidates, setting criteria for women to ensure that they are qualified, creating a database for the candidate, creating an online campaign and limiting the number of female candidates in contention.
Badran said that the campaign is an objective one, where all political affiliations may be included; however, if the “candidates’ political stance clashes with qualities we are trying to promote, we will not provide our help”.
The EFU said that their goal is to display the effectiveness of the elected female candidates through providing the supply of information required to perform their parliamentary duty, such as passing legislation and partaking in parliamentary debates.
Sixty-four seats belonged to women in the Mubarak-era parliament. After his ouster, only 12 females obtained seats in the 2012 parliament.
A controversy arose within the Constituent Assembly after the quota for female representation was not reinstated. State media reported that a parliamentary quota for women may be 10%.
Badran added that the 2012 parliament was “appalling” due to the high misrepresentation of women. “Only 12 women reached parliament in 2012, that’s 2% of the whole parliament…women do not represent only 2% of society.”
She clarified that they are not promoting sexist ideologies, but evenhanded representation, which has been “dispossessed from women for so long.”
EFU announced that volunteers are currently being accepted from governorates around Egypt.
