Dr. Manal Abul Hassan: We Denounce Suzanne Mubarak’s Council Meddling in Women’s Rights

Dr. Manal Abul Hassan: We Denounce Suzanne Mubarak’s Council Meddling in Women’s Rights

Mervat Tellawi, Chairwoman of Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW), and Counselor Tahani Al-Jabali failed to attend a debate which was scheduled for last night at the Cultural Salon of the Cairo Opera House to discuss the controversy over the new formation of the NCW. The audience, who had waited for them for more than an hour and a half, felt insulted by the main speakers’ disappearance act. Hence, the debate turned into a demonstration denouncing the NCW.

 

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had recently issued a decree appointing for the new NCW friends, confidants and associates of the deposed president’s wife, which was rejected by the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

 

Dr. Manal Abul Hassan, the FJP Women’s Committee Chairwoman, and one of the scheduled speakers, said: "Tellawi and Al-Jabali’s failure to attend the debate is a declaration of victory for the popular will to abolish the NCW", explaining that the antics and policies of the defunct former regime are still very much in evidence, as the Opera House management turned off the lights while the audience was still in the hall expressing anger and resentment for non-attendance of scheduled speakers.

 

Dr. Manal Abul Hassan added that the Egyptian people will not allow any person to humiliate or disrespect them, considering Tellawi and Al-Jabali’s no-show evidence of intellectual and political bankruptcy and a deliberate insult to attendees, which prompted her to withdraw from the debate out of respect for the audience.

 

Dr. Manal Abu Hassan said that she attended especially to say "No" to Suzanne Mubarak and her friends and projects, since the NCW is their own pet, and all those who had been appointed in the NCW’s new formation are close friends of the deposed tyrant’s wife.