Page 5 - Issue 34

ELITE Vol.1, issue 34, August 2021
Vol.1, issue 34, August 2021

Presidential diplomacy is one of the new features of

Egyptian diplomacy and is characterized by efficiency

and speed compared to its traditional counterpart

in turn made my transition from school to FEPS easy, since One of the remarkable stages in your rich career has been
the latter also incorporated character building, public service your presidency of the Arab Women Organization
and student activities. (AWO). Tell us more about this experience, how it
I’m also naturally grateful to my husband who accompanied influenced you and what your contributions to the
me on my scholarship to Canada. I’m similarly grateful to Organization have been.?
John Ziegler, my advisor who cared about his students to the
extent that he invited me to stay with his family for a month to I was honored to be nominated by Egypt for this position. The
finish an important part of my dissertation. This was because Arab Women Organization (AWO) was established in the
he thought that if I had returned to Egypt with my husband early 2000s as an intergovernmental organization working
and son as I had intended to do, I would not have finished my within the framework of Arab joint action, with the aim of
dissertation. enhancing the capacities of women and improving their
I’m really grateful to all my professors at FEPS and to Dr. conditions across seven areas, including education, health, the
Mofid Shehab who appointed me as Egypt’s cultural environment, the economy, the legal sphere and others.
consultant to the UK and director of the educational Being the state’s nominee entailed a huge responsibility. As
delegation. This was a rich experience for me that allowed me such, this position was a challenge for me, especially
to see a different side from academia. And since a part of my considering that when I joined the AWO, there had been no
job there was to organize cultural events, I was able to draw programs yet; only the charter and bylaws existed. And I was
upon my event management experience from my time at not a prominent figure in the Egyptian women’s movement; I
FEPS as Vice Dean for Student Affairs and for Community had been a member of the National Council for Women for a
Affairs, under the leadership of Dean Dr. Ali El-Din Hilal short while during its first cycle and I had written a lot of
who was the first to expand the range of student activities edited volumes on issues of women’s political participation.
offered. But I was mainly nominated for AWO based on my academic
and diplomatic experience. What also added to the pressure of
the job was the need to interact institutionally with a large
number of Arab states; and I had a lot of people telling me

4