A committed advocate in her native Egypt, telecommunications engineer Zeinab Bashier is dedicated to women’s empowerment and raising Egypt’s international profile. We met in Cannes with an enthusiast for international exchange.
Who is Zeinab Bashier? What motivates your many initiatives?
First and foremost, I am a telecommunications engineer. I am Egyptian, but I maintain many relationships around the world. France is particularly special to me, thanks to the strong French–Egyptian ties that have flourished for so long. There has always been a very special relationship between the Egyptian and French people. We are always delighted to welcome our French friends. They enjoy their time in Egypt because they greatly appreciate our culture, just as we hold French culture and the French people close to our hearts. I therefore regularly support the strong political relationship between these two wonderful countries.
You do a great deal for your country, particularly through your foundation.
I co-founded We love Egypt for Development, which I chair, to highlight my country’s development, support women’s empowerment and education in Egypt, and showcase the new projects taking shape in our beautiful country. Egypt’s economy has made considerable progress, and security has also improved significantly. I would like to strengthen Egypt’s social, scientific and cultural relations with every other country. With that in mind, I established cooperation between Egyptian and Saudi women in Riyadh to demonstrate women’s empowerment in Egypt, southern Arabia and throughout the Middle East.
Through this foundation, do you also want to bring women to the forefront of Egyptian life?
I would like to highlight women’s role today in every sphere. From the smallest scale to the largest, women play a truly significant role. Our current president recognises this and works to give them visibility and the positions they deserve. We have many women ministers and many women in Parliament. Women of all ages hold important positions. In Egypt, there is strong support for women who take initiative.
We are currently in Cannes, where you hope to develop several projects with the city council. Could you tell us more?
Cooperation with Cannes City Council would be very welcome! Egypt and France have a very close relationship, and I would like to extend it to Cannes and the Egyptian seaside cities of Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada. We could organise trips for Egyptians coming to Cannes, exchange experts and, of course, develop cooperation in many fields between these cities. I would very much like to organise an Egyptian event, ideally in Cannes. It would give the Provençal city an opportunity to experience Egyptian culture. Holding a celebration in Cannes would be a first for our country, which is already offering new events such as the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM. It is intended to become the world’s largest museum and will open its doors in the coming months. The whole world will be watching, and Egypt has redoubled its preparations. All the mummies have been transferred, and the museum will be able to accommodate up to 100,000 ancient objects!
Between the foundation, promoting women and cooperation with France, you are active on every front! What comes next after this wave of projects?
I enjoy supporting women’s empowerment in many ways — in Egypt, France and around the world. With the Mayor of Cannes, however, my focus is more on tourism and building connections that strengthen our respective cultures and create a positive environment for exchange. This would benefit tourism in both Cannes and our Egyptian cities.
