Amid the launch of Egypt\u2019s National Strategy for Occupational Safety and Health, agricultural labourers\u2014constituting approximately 20% of the national workforce, with women comprising around 45%\u2014remain largely absent from the priorities of preventive policies.<\/p>\n
The majority of them work without legal protection or access to social insurance.<\/p>\n
Women, in particular, bear the greatest share of socio-economic vulnerability, shaped by the intersection of gender and geographical location.<\/p>\n
Female agricultural labourers face multiple risks, exacerbated by several structural factors, most notably the exclusion of women’s voices from policymaking processes, the marginalisation of trade union roles, and the neoliberal policies adopted by the state, which have systematically reduced the role of public social protection, thereby placing additional burdens on women.<\/p>\n
The use of unsafe and inhumane modes of transportation exposes women to sexual violence, including harassment and threats, as well as social stigma.<\/p>\n
Both male and female labourers are at risk of transportation accidents that can lead to serious injuries or fatalities.<\/p>\n
According to monitoring by the New Woman Foundation, between January 1 and April 23, 2025, 25 transportation accidents were recorded, resulting in 305 injuries, including 81 minors, with injuries ranging from contusions, fractures, internal bleeding, and brain concussions, alongside 44 deaths, including 12 minors.<\/p>\n
Continuous exposure to high levels of pesticides severely affects women’s reproductive health, leading to reduced fertility, miscarriages, and congenital anomalies.<\/p>\n
Moreover, such exposure is associated with an increased risk of cancer and chronic diseases.<\/p>\n
The absence of regular medical screenings, limited awareness and training, weak protective measures, and restricted access to personal protective equipment all exacerbate the serious health consequences of pesticide exposure.<\/p>\n
Heat stress is not merely an environmental issue; it constitutes a matter of social and gender justice.<\/p>\n
The failure to address it exacerbates the precarious conditions faced by rural women and reproduces economic violence through new forms of marginalisation.<\/p>\n
Under these circumstances, climate change itself becomes a tool for perpetuating class-based and gender-based exploitation, necessitating urgent action to integrate climate justice with social and gender justice.<\/p>\n
Heat stress leads to a range of symptoms varying from mild to life-threatening conditions and is further exacerbated by the widespread prevalence of anaemia among women in rural areas.<\/p>\n
In addition to the aforementioned factors, the absence of childcare facilities, the lack of anti-violence policies, and the inadequacy of social protection programmes impose further burdens on female agricultural labourers.<\/p>\n
This report affirms that safeguarding the rights and wellbeing of female agricultural labourers cannot be achieved solely through rhetorical commitments to \u201cdecent work\u201d; rather, it necessitates a genuine transformation of socio-economic policies, with the recognition of climate justice as a fundamentally feminist issue.<\/p>\n
Marginalized Lives: indecent Work Conditions for Women Agricultural Laborers Abstract Amid the launch of Egypt\u2019s National Strategy for Occupational Safety and Health, agricultural labourers\u2014constituting approximately 20% [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[627,624],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12012"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12029,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12012\/revisions\/12029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}