Women's Rights - Surprising Support in Egypt

[Hafiz]

A recent Gallop Poll in the region shows surprising support in Egypt for equal rights for women. The results for Egypt are higher than for all other countries including Tunisia.

In countries polled there is generally high support for equal access to education but lower support for equal employment rights for women.

A striking result is the level of Egyptian support for the right for women to initiate divorce.

However, almost one half of men in Egypt support Sharia as the sole source for legislation.

Comments on this forum seem to show that Upper Egypt is more conservative than the average in Egypt. Voting patterns show the same. Therefore these results may come as a surprise for Luxor locals. Would be interested in reactions about how experience of opinion in Luxor stacks up against the overall Egyptian results.

A brief commentary on the poll is at: http://menablog.worldbank.org/gallup-po ... rebuilding

The PDF full report is at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/155306/arab- ... lding.aspx

The Pew polling organization has measured attitudes in the region for a while and also come up with surprising result and trends: http://www.pewglobal.org/search/EGYPT/

The use of western poll techniques in the region has been criticized, is new and finding its way. Therefore results may not be reliable but are the best available - other than voting.

[Dusak]

I personally think that woman's rights in any country is of paramount importance, but unfortunately I can not see it happening to the grater extent in upper Egypt. Every one says the same, they are out of sinc with the rest of Egypt by fifty years concerning the attitudes of the men folk towards women. All my thinking adult life I have firmly believed that women should be treated as equals in all aspects of life, but sadly this is not so. Go into any shop in Egypt and nine times out of ten it will be the female member of the family stuck behind the counter for hours on end looking after the shop while the men folk, commonly, rest before taking over in the more pleasant temperatures and easy times in the evenings. I have spoken to some of these women over the years, especially the ones in the shops that i frequent more regular and they say the same, its a boring job, they don't take any money over some 12 hour's but what can I do, its my fathers shop and I have to do it. The lucky ones at least get a T.V to pass the time.