Candidate for UNESCO Director-General Moushira Khattab at MGIMO

Candidate for UNESCO Director-General Moushira Khattab at MGIMO

23 January 2017

January 23rd, Moushira Khattab, an official candidate for the position of Director-General of UNESCO, and former Minister for the Family and Population of Egypt (2009-2011) met with MGIMO Rector Anatoly Torkunov and spoke to students of the University.

Moushira Khattab is an expert and an activist in the sphere of human rights who served her country as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia then to both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 1994, she became the first Ambassador of Egypt to South Africa and in 1999 Secretary General of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood. In 2009, she took on duties as Minister of the Family and Population and in 2016 was nominated Egypt’s candidate for chief of UNESCO.

The Egyptian delegation was greeted by MGIMO Rector Anatoly Torkunov together with Vice-Rector for Graduate and International Programs Andrey Baykov, Vice-Rector for Research Evgeny Kozhokin and other faculty members. The sides discussed prospects for cooperation in education and research, and Moushira Khattab promised to do all in her means to develop a partnership between Cairo University, from which she graduated, and MGIMO. The Russian side offered to translate into Arabic the publications, which would be of interest to Egyptian experts.

During her visit, Moushira Khattab delivered a lecture which dealt with a myriad of topics including Russian-Egyptian relations, how to promote stability in the Middle East, the work of UNESCO, world terrorism, the preservation of art and culture, the promotion of education, gender equality and the protection of the environment. Upon completion of her talk, the speaker took questions from the audience.

See the MGIMO web-site for more photos and russian version.