Egypt’s Sisi targets women’s vote in presidential campaign
Supporters of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi staged their first mass campaign rally on Friday, with a focus on motivating women to vote at this month’s election.
Workers draped large banners with the image of Mr El Sisi and the word “Yes” over buildings in the capital.
With only one nominal opponent – Moussa Mostafa Moussa, leader of the Ghad party – remaining as contender, the re-election effort now appears increasingly to be a referendum.
The president’s campaign for the March 26-28 election is squarely focused on increasing turnout beyond the 47.5 per cent participation rate of the 2014 presidential vote.
“The participation rate of women will be unprecedented in this election,” said Manal Al Absi, president of the Arab Academy for Leadership Development, a Cairo non-profit organisation that provides executive skills training.
“We support the president for providing real solutions that get done by the promised deadlines.”
Ms Al Absi, chief organiser of women for Friday’s rally, said the 11,000 supporters of the president who showed up at the Cairo Stadium would go on to organise a campaign in all of Egypt’s 27 governorates.
“The women of Egypt have increased their political activity since the January 25 Revolution and we have to pay him back to preserve our land and guard our national security,” she said.
The president’s supporters often compare what they regard as Egypt’s relative stability with the carnage caused by wars and terrorism in Syria, Iraq and neighbouring Libya.
“When we look at the countries around us, we say, ‘Praise be to God. We are much better off than them’,” said Ayda Hassan, 39, an administrator at a girls’ school in northern Cairo.
Women’s inclusion has been a consistent theme of Mr El Sisi’s first term. He has declared 2018 the Year of Egyptian Women.
“Unfairness is what causes most of Arab women’s problems,” he said at a November public forum.
And four days before his January 19 candidacy announcement, the president added two women to his 33-member cabinet, bringing the total to six.
With a percentage of female ministers at just over 18 per cent, Egypt passed the gender ratio of neighbouring Israel, which stands at four out of 23, or 17 per cent.
“El Sisi is the only president who showed this value for women,” said Ibtesam Abdul Ghany, 49, an office manager from the upper Egyptian city of Minya.
Ms Abdul Ghany said the president’s law and order emphasis also appealed to her and other Egyptian women.
“I was robbed by a gunman in 2012 [when former president Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was in power],” she said. “El Sisi has given us security.”
During his one-year administration, Mr Morsi’s deputies cited “cultural specificity” when they rejected a draft UN declaration calling for an end to all forms of violence against women, and some deputies tried to cut the minimum age of marriage for girls from 18 to 9.
“The president understands that we women are half of Egyptian society,” said Maysa Nagya, a petroleum executive and volunteer organiser for Mr El Sisi’s campaign in suburban Giza.
But outside the gates of the stadium dissent could be heard, with younger Cairo residents especially dissatisfied with the lack of choices on the ballot.
“It doesn’t matter if the ministers are men or women – they are like any other government employees who are just there to obey orders,” said Mariana Bassily, 32, a hotel sales manager.
Also on Friday, police arrested a woman who accused officers of torturing her daughter, while the human rights lawyer who revealed her detention has gone missing.
The public prosecutor ordered the detention of Mona Mahmoud Mohammed, known as Umm Zubeida, for 15 days pending investigations into her statements made in a BBC report. The report addressed torture and disappearances under Mr El Sisi.
She is being investigated over accusations that she had spread false news, and for joining an illegal organisation, prosecutors said.