ECWR received the news that 30 men and women activists were detained on Friday 15/1/2010. We are deeply saddened and appalled by the worsening state of freedom in Egypt, where there are repeated violations against women and human rights activists, reminding us of the atrocious events of the "Black Referendum" Day of 2005 in which women's rights activists and journalism activists were assaulted by security forces.

In a recent study published by the Ministry of Family and Population, three districts of the “6^th of October” governorate were analyzed, which revealed that the rate of underage marriage has reached 74%.  The study –published by The Ministry of Social Solidarity (MSS) in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)- also showed that the number of underage marriage cases of Egyptian women has increased to 40,000 women and that their subsequent children total around 150,000. The overall percentage rate of underage marriage in Egypt is 11%.

ECWR organized an awareness event as part of the Sexual Harassment program “Making Streets Street Safe for All" for 150 ladies at the Kortam Cultural Forum in Maadi. The event took place on Wednesday, December 30^th from 11:00am to 02:00pm. 

ECWR conducted a civil society Cadre School program entitled "Josoor" after which we held a closing ceremony for the graduates at El Sa'eed Association in Daher on Tuesday, December 29^th. All of the program's students attended the event as well as a number of the participating NGOs from the program. The program and