CAIRO - Many women candidates, standing for the Parliament, are mothers and therefore aware of the family's economic and social difficulties.
They are likely to fare better in the coming elections than their male
rivals. Having apparently been persuaded to abandon macho tactics, which could lead to violence, mud-slinging and imagedestroying rumours, female contenders pledge to improve and upgrade public services and utilities in their constituencies.
Many also confirm that education and healthcare will be their priorities as soon as they are elected to the next legislature.
Reliable sources in different constituencies emphasise that the popularity of male candidates has begun to wane.
Seriously reconsidering the track record of former male MPs, voters appear to have realised that they had given lip service over the past five years.
One of the women candidates, campaigning for properly equipped schools and provincial health units, is Gamalat Rafie in Qaliubia, north of Cairo. Rafie, an independent candidate who knocked out her male opponents in the 2005 parliamentary elections, is likely to repeat her dramatic success in 2010, say her supporters.
When canvassing, she asserts her voters that she has already obtained official endorsement to build new schools and healthcare centres and that construction will start soon ��" regardless of her election result.
Rafie also pledges to replace the dilapidated sewage systems in neighbouring hamlets.
Like Rafie, candidate Hiyam Omar of the Belcas constituency in the
Nile Delta province of Dakahalia is waging war against increasing unemployment in her community.
Omar, who won as an independent in the 2005 elections, promises
that the nightmarish suffering of jobless young people would end when small businesses become the rule in their communities.
Social services and family welfare are featuring high on the agenda of Zeinab Radwan, currently the deputy of the People's Assembly (the Lower House of the Parliament).
Running in Cairo's northern constituency, Radwan is also determined to introduce 'remarkable' amendments in the Personal Affairs Law to end the economic and social trauma of divorcees.
Meanwhile, Madiha Khatab, the Chairman of the Health Committee in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), is deeply concerned about the floundering health insurance system. In addition to slogans on education and health, Khatab is preparing to mobilise the next Parliament to fight poverty.
Like her colleagues, Sahar Osman, a candidate in Cairo's northern area, is sure that poor education and the crumbling health service are the main demons in Egyptian society.
She also promises her voters that she would campaign to reduce unemployment among single and divorced mothers, who are their families' breadwinners.
“Jobs should be available to these women to help them overcome economic hardship in the absence of a partner,” she declares.
Osman has also told victims of domestic violence that their sufferings would end when NGOs receive more financial and logistic support and that the hotline of the Family Affairs Office is improved to run its task more effectively.
In the Hewlan constituency, south of Cairo where Minister of Military Production Sayyed Mashaal is one of the major runners, Fayeza Mohamed Ibrahim, also known as Fayeza Hassabo, has pledged to eradicate slums and replace them with high-rises.
She is also determined to help reduce the number of school dropouts in villages belonging to Helwan.
The women candidates' morale in tomorrow’s elections got bolstered when they were allocated 67 seats in the next Parliament. The bigger quota was recommended as part of a decades-long national campaign to increase the Egyptian woman's human rights in political, social and economic terms.
