Egyptians Protest Woman’s Nomination

Villagers chanted slogans against President Hosni Mubarak’s governing party and blocked a major highway to protest the nomination of a woman to the local mayor’s job, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Al-Ahrar, voice of the opposition Liberal Party, said several hundred people took to the streets Saturday in the village of Al-Ayat, 15 miles south of Cairo.

They were opposed to the nomination of Raja Hassan as village mayor, the paper said.

Mayoral posts in Egypt are socially prestigious jobs which include some local management responsibilities. It is unusual for women to agree to take such positions in Egypt’s conservative rural communities, where men dominate social and political activities.