Women rising to high political offices across Mideast

The appointment of two more female ministers this month to the new Egyptian Cabinet means women now fill eight out of 34 positions, the highest number in the modern history of Egypt.

Hala Zayed is the new health minister while Yasmine Fouad takes over as environment minister.

Both women replaced men and join culture minister Inas Abdel-Dayem, tourism minister Rania Al-Mashat, Nabila Makram (immigration minister) Ghada Wali (social solidarity minister), Hala El-Saeed (planning minister) and Sahar Nasr (minister of investment and international cooperation).

The appointments by Egypt’s new Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly have been welcomed as forward thinking by social and political commentators.

Four out of 15 new deputy ministers are also women and women now hold 15 percent of the seats in Parliament. The rise of women to high political office in the Arab world is by no means restricted to Egypt.

Jordan also has a record number of women ministers after Prime Minister-designate Omar Razzaz appointed seven women to the 29-member Cabinet sworn in last week.

In the UAE, women hold nine out of 31 ministerial positions, and one of them, Minister for Youth Shamma Al Mazrui, is also the world’s youngest minister, appointed in 2016 when she was only 22.

This makes the UAE Cabinet nearly 30 per cent female, which is higher than India, almost equal to the UK and far ahead of the US, where Donald Trump has just four women in his Cabinet.