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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #2262/01 3011454
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O 271454Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0725
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS CAIRO 002262 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM AMBASSADOR SCOBEY FOR U/S DOBRIANSKY AND G/IWI SENIOR 
COORDINATOR BOTTNER 
DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR NEA/ELA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KPAO KWMN EG
SUBJECT: NOMINATION OF NEHAD ABOUL KOMSAN FOR THE 2009 
SECRETARY'S AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE 
 
REF: A. STATE 99729 
     ¶B. CAIRO 2251 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Nehad Aboul Komsan, Embassy Cairo's 
nominee for the Secretary's International Women of Courage 
Award, deserves USG commendation for her tireless campaigning 
on behalf of women's rights in Egypt in an often hostile 
public environment.  Aboul Komsan's efforts as Chair of the 
Board of Directors of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights 
(ECWR) range from providing training for female political 
candidates to raising societal awareness of the growing 
problem of sexual harassment and assault, to providing legal 
assistance for impoverished women.  ECHR is a small, 
independent NGO that receives funds from the EU, MEPI and 
private foundations.  Aboul Komsan has courageously pressed 
for advancement on women's issues in the face of government 
policy that is often indifferent to women's concerns and 
sometimes obstructionist.  A lawyer by training, she has used 
her skills to provide legal aid to impoverished women, and 
legal representation for the plaintiff in the October 21 
landmark ruling against a perpetrator of sexual assault (ref 
B).  She has used her political skills to provide training 
for female candidates who successfully ran in 2005 and 2008 
elections that were marred by government interference.  Aboul 
Komsan has deployed her public relations skills in ECWR's 
campaign to raise awareness of sexual harassment and assault, 
and to publicize the dangers of female genital mutilation 
(FGM) -- playing an important role in the passage of the June 
2008 Child Law that criminalizes the practice.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Training for Female Political Candidates:  Aboul 
Komsan and the ECWR have been at the forefront of providing 
training for female candidates in the 2005 Egyptian 
parliamentary and 2008 local council elections.  The ECWR 
worked to train 16 female candidates in campaigning and 
organizational skills for the 2005 parliamentary elections, 
and succeeded in helping 2 of these candidates win seats 
despite government violence and intimidation.  Leading up to 
the 2008 local council elections, Aboul Komsan and the ECWR 
provided training that enabled 100 women to win seats under 
challenging circumstances, including voter intimidation and 
fraud.  Not content with this effort, the ECWR also works to 
provide ongoing political and legislative training for the 
female members of parliament and the local councils.  Aboul 
Komsan and the ECWR have supplemented these efforts with 
media outreach to emphasize and explain the necessity of 
women's political participation, and with gender-sensitive 
election monitoring during the 2005 and 2008 elections to 
describe government practices that discriminated against 
women.  Aboul Komsan and her organization have drafted a 
proposed amendment to change Egypt's current electoral law to 
prevent discrimination against women, and have formed a 
coalition to actively lobby on behalf of the amendment. 
 
¶3. (U) Campaigning against Sexual Harassment and Assault: 
Aboul Komsan's public campaign against the prevalent and 
destructive problems of sexual harassment and assault in 
Egypt is one of the ECWR's flagship efforts.  The campaign 
has aggressively worked with media outlets to raise societal 
awareness of these problems, and to publicize the results of 
ECWR's recent research survey that details the pervasiveness 
of sexual harassment and assault in Egypt.  Aboul Komsan's 
campaign against sexual harassment and assault has included 
distributing detailed cards and pamphlets instructing women 
how to file complaints in police stations against assailants, 
and how to respond to indifferent or hostile police officers. 
 In addition, Aboul Komsan has been lobbying for improved 
street lighting, better police protection and community 
vigilance to deter assault and harassment. 
 
¶4. (U) Campaigning against Sexual Harassment and Assault 
(continued): As the only organization in Egypt waging a 
public campaign against harassment and assault, Aboul Komsan 
deserves significant credit for the October 21 landmark court 
decision sentencing a perpetrator of sexual assault to 3 
years in prison for the first time in Egyptian history (ref 
B).  Moreover, Aboul Komsan's organization provided legal 
representation to the plaintiff in this important case, which 
has the potential to be catalyst for changing attitudes on 
the Egyptian street and paving the way for additional women's 
rights.  Aboul Komsan has drafted new legislation that would 
specifically criminalize sexual assault and harassment, which 
are currently prosecuted under a general statute prohibiting 
the "Corruption of Morals."  The legislation would address 
the problem of Egyptian women's reluctance to come forward to 
testify in assault and harassment cases by allowing a court 
to convict an assailant based on witness testimony alone. 
 
Aboul Komsan's draft statute would also empower police 
officers to file immediate reports on the spot, instead of 
working through the current time-consuming bureaucratic 
procedures. 
 
¶5. (U) Legal Empowerment and Aid:  Aboul Komsan and her staff 
provide direct legal assistance to impoverished women to help 
them with divorce and domestic violence cases.  Aboul 
Komsan's legal empowerment program has succeeded in 
encouraging poor women to be active participants in their own 
legal cases and in passing on their new knowledge of the 
legal system to others, thereby fostering a culture of 
self-sufficiency and autonomy.  ECWR has worked with 
coalitions of other women's rights groups to achieve 
milestones such as improving Egypt's nationality law to 
benefit women and instituting "khul divorce" in Egypt, a 
Sharia concept now part of Egyptian civil law which permits 
women to divorce their husbands without establishing fault. 
 
¶6. (U) Combating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM):  Aboul 
Komsan has spearheaded efforts in Egypt on the "Stop FGM" 
regional campaign funded by the Italian Foreign Ministry 
through UNICEF.  She has publicized information about FGM in 
Egypt, thereby playing an important role in advancing the 
June 2008 passage of the new Child Law that criminalizes FGM. 
 FGM is a deeply entrenched cultural practice in Egypt -- 
affecting both Muslim and Christian women -- and Aboul Komsan 
played an important role in the bill's passage by raising 
public awareness of the issue. 
 
¶7. (U) Initiative for Small NGOs and Women:  Building on her 
philosophy of creating self-sufficiency and autonomy in 
women, Aboul Komsan has implemented a project which has 
selected small NGOs to assist poor women in establishing 
businesses to generate income.  ECWR trains the NGOs on 
assisting the women establish small businesses, administering 
small grants, keeping financial records and tracking the 
women's progress.  The project has been successful in 
alleviating the poverty of these women, a step which Aboul 
Komsan sees as essential to promoting women rights. 
 
¶8. (U) Biographical Data: 
 
Full Legal Name: Nehad Aboul Komsan 
 
Job Title:  Chair of the Board of Directors, the Egyptian 
Center for Women's Rights 
 
Date of Birth: o/a 1968 
 
Country of Birth:  Egypt 
 
Passport Number: N/A 
 
Citizenship:  Egyptian 
 
Address:  The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights 
          135 Misr Helwan El-Zeraay, 2nd floor, suite 3 
          Hedayek El Maadi 
          Cairo 
 
Telephone:  20-22-527-1397 
 
E-mail:  ecwr@link.net 
 
¶9. (U) Ms. Aboul Komsan has confirmed to post she is honored 
to be a nominee for the 2009 Secretary's International Women 
of Courage Award. 
SCOBEY