Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Egyptian Government on equality for and the rights of women.

We regularly raise the importance of human rights, including for women, with the Egyptian Government at all levels. Our Special Envoy for Gender Equality visited Egypt in September 2017 and met Parliamentarians, civil society representatives and business leaders. Our Ambassador and other officials regularly meet with the Egyptian Government’s National Council for Women. We have deployed a Regional Gender Adviser to our Embassy in Cairo, who co-chairs a Gender and Development working group. This is attended by international partners and the Egyptian Government is represented by the National Council for Women.