The Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, represented by the Community Service and Environmental Development Sector, celebrated International Rural Women's Day under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Meteini, President of the University, Prof. Dr. Ghada Farouk, Vice President for Community Service and Environmental Development, Prof. Dr. Hanan Kamel, Acting Dean of the Faculty and the supervision of Prof. Dr. Rasha Al-Deedy, Vice Dean for Community Service and Environmental Development, and the coordination of Prof. Dr. Somaya Sami Sabry, professor of English at the Faculty.

The celebration included holding a symposium entitled: “The Essential Role of Rural Women in Egypt” in cooperation with the Rotary of Mokattam, in which Engineer Hanan Zaki, member of the National Council for Women, Giza Branch, Assistant Governor of the Rotary Region - Rotary of Mokattam, and Dr. Nancy Nair, Director of the Physicians and Hospitals Affairs Unit at the Ministry of Population Sector, gave a lecture, in the presence of Prof. Dr. Hoda Abaza, Professor of French and Former Faculty Vice Dean, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Qasim, the professor in the Department of History, the director of the literacy unit, the director of the Studies, Consultations and Training Center at the Faculty, and Dr. Nabila Saeed, a teacher in the Department of Psychology at the Faculty.

Prof. Dr. Rasha El-Deedy started her speech entitled: Empowering Women from a Psychological Perspective and congratulated Egyptian women on the occasion of the International Day of Rural Women, which is the day set by the General Assembly on the fifteenth of October, in confirmation of the effective role played by rural women in promoting agricultural and rural development and improving the level of food security. and the eradication of poverty, stressing that rural women are an ideal model for defining mental health, which Sigmund Freud defines as the ability to love and effective productive work, as she participates in the development, helps men, and achieves self-sufficiency for her family, and has the ability to adapt the environment and the available capabilities as a contribution to it Crisis management and disaster prevention. Women represent an essential partner in the national economy, especially in the agricultural sector. They have a leading role in community development and also need more care and attention to maximize their role in the field of community development.

The symposium touched on the role of rural women and girls in building resilience to face climate change to highlight the important role that rural women play in limiting the effects of climate change in the context of preparing for the World Climate Conference “COP 27” scheduled to be hosted by Egypt on November 6 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Engineer Hanan Zaki also reviewed the role of the National Council for Women in supporting rural women, in light of the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030, which includes the axis of economic empowerment by providing sources of funding for women's projects and providing them with a decent life. Like in social participation along with men.

The strategy also aims to improve the livelihood of the rural population, reduce poverty rates, narrow the gender gap, develop human resources, support the role of women in agricultural development, provide productive employment opportunities in the field of agriculture, activate the role of women in various rural activities and achieve a higher degree of food security.

It also called on female students and males to participate in the service of their community through voluntary work, which is based on continuous giving to serve the community and achieve belonging, as youth are the mainstay of the nation and the locomotive of development for this nation.

She also introduced the development programs for rural women carried out by the National Council for Women, and called for browsing the council's website and subscribing to its official page on social networking sites to learn about the various activities and services it provides in cooperation with community and service institutions, with the aim of empowering women economically and socially, by helping them In cooperation with Nasser Social Bank, obtaining soft loans for the work of small projects, as well as holding workshops and training programs to learn how to recycle agricultural waste, in addition to training on harvesting, communicating with rural women pioneers and enhancing their role in the local community, by unifying efforts of partnership and participation. In the project: "One Village.. One Product".

The council also supports the program to empower African rural women economically and socially, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Partnership for Development.

The council also launched a "conscious" initiative to support distinguished rural cadres and to educate Upper Egypt women about the need to claim their legitimate inheritance rights.

She also shed light on the "Mastoura" initiative, which targets women from 21 to 60 years of age, to grant them a loan of 4000-30 thousand pounds to establish micro-enterprises, as well as the "Forsa" project, which contributes to teaching women a handicraft or skill that they can develop into an economic project. The beneficiaries of this project participated in the “Our Heritage” exhibition, which was recently held by the Ministry of Social Solidarity, and their projects were very popular in the exhibition.

Prof. Dr. Somaya Sami Sabry, professor of English at the Faculty, participated through her speech on rural women between the United Nations and documentary films, by showing a documentary film explaining the difficulties faced by rural Egyptian women, in 1995 by presenting a real problem for a girl trying to confront domestic violence that she has been exposed to since small, and how she faced this through the art of painting and reviewed the efforts made by the state to raise awareness of combating violence against women.

While Dr. Nancy Nair, Director of the Physicians and Hospitals Affairs Unit in the Population Sector and the Ministry of Health, gave a detailed presentation on Egypt's efforts in developing rural women through the Ministry of Health, in which she addressed the difficulties faced by rural women such as ignorance and circumcision and highlighted the efforts made in providing mobile clinics and family planning services, and in training Rural women pioneers in providing health awareness to their peers, and the discussion touched on some positive statistical indicators in the demographic survey 2021.