Iranian, Egyptian women to exchange information, capabilities

A senior advisor to the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO) of Iran announced on Wednesday that a delegation of Egyptian female elites is due to visit Tehran in the next few months to widen social ties and exchange of information and capabilities between Iranian and Egyptian women. "A delegation of Egyptian women are scheduled to visit Iran in the next few months to exchange views on the Islamic Awakening in the region, specially in Egypt, and discuss the capabilities and potentials of Iranian women," Sediqeh Hejazi, the ICRO advisor for women affairs, told FNA. She referred to Iran and Egypt's abundant religious and civilization commonalities, and said after the collapse of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, restriction on the relations between the two countries have been removed and the two sides should, hence, plan to broaden the ties between the Iranian and Egyptian elites and activists in women affairs. After the collapse of Hosni Mubarak's regime, the Iranian and Egyptian officials voiced their interest in the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries and Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi officially invited the then Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Al-Arabi to pay a visit to Tehran. The Iranian foreign minister and his former Egyptian counterpart also held a meeting in Bali, Indonesia in August to discuss rapprochement steps. During the meeting which took place on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the two diplomats conferred on ways to promote the bilateral relations between Tehran and Cairo, and stressed the need for continued consultations in this regard. Also, a delegation of Egyptian revolutionary youths, thinkers, intellectuals and religious scholars paid a weeklong visit to Tehran in June. After the end of the visit, the Egyptian delegation pointed to its negotiations with the Iranian officials on the expansion of trade, commercial, industrial, agricultural, tourism and educational relations between Tehran and Cairo, and said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials have announced their eagerness to reinvigorate relations with Cairo and Egyptian officials should now respond to this tendency properly.