VZCZCXYZ0013
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #2223/01 3351501
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011501Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4361
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS CAIRO 002223 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR S/GWI AND NEA/ELA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM KWMN KPAO EG
SUBJECT: POST NOMINATION FOR THE 2010 SECRETARY'S AWARD FOR 
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE 
 
REF: A. STATE 111471 
     ¶B. 08 CAIRO 2262 
     ¶C. 08 CAIRO 2251 
 
¶1. KEY POINTS 
 
-- (U) 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. 
 
-- (U) 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 problem of sexual 
harassment and assault, to providing legal assistance for 
impoverished women. 
 
-- (U) She has used her political skills to provide training 
for female candidates who successfully ran in the 2005 and 
2008 parliamentary elections. 
 
-- (U) 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. 
 
¶2. (U) ECWR is a small, independent NGO that has received 
funds from the EU, MEPI and private foundations.  A lawyer by 
training, Aboul Komsan has used her skills to provide legal 
aid to impoverished women, and legal representation for the 
plaintiff in the October 21, 2008 landmark ruling against a 
perpetrator of sexual assault (ref C). 
 
¶3. (SBU) Training for Female Political Candidates: Aboul 
Komsan and the ECWR were 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. 
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. 
 
¶4. (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. 
 
¶5. (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, 2008 landmark 
court decision sentencing a perpetrator of sexual assault to 
3 years in prison for the first time in Egyptian history (ref 
C).  Moreover, ECWR provided legal representation for 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. 
 
¶6. (U) Legal Empowerment and Aid: Aboul Komsan and her staff 
provide direct legal assistance to low-income women to help 
them with divorce and domestic violence cases. Her 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. 
 
¶7. (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 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. 
 
¶8. (U) Initiative for Small NGOs and Women: Building on her 
philosophy of creating self-sufficiency and autonomy for 
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 to establish small businesses, administer 
small grants, and keep financial records. The project has 
been successful in reducing the poverty of these women, a 
step which Aboul Komsan sees as essential to promoting women 
rights. 
 
¶9. (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 
 
Languages: Arabic (native speaker), English 
 
Telephone: 20-22-527-1397 
 
E-mail: ecwr@link.net 
 
¶10. (U) Ms. Aboul Komsan has confirmed to post she is honored 
to be a nominee for the 2010 Secretary's International Women 
of Courage Award, and would be willing to accept the award. 
 
¶11. (U) Embassy POC: Political Officer David Berns. 
Tueller