Egypt renews interest in heading UNESCO after unsuccessful 2009 bid

Egypt has nominated former family and population minister Moushira Khattab to contest for the director-general position of the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO.

This is the second attempt by Egypt after it nominated former culture minister Farouk Hosni who lost the election in 2009 to Irina Bokova.

Egyptian Moushira Khattab seeks to be the next woman director-general after Bokova, and also be the first from the African region.

She is a human rights advocate known for championing women’s and children’s causes. Khattab is also on the board of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

She is among nine nominees aiming for the top job which has had only ten directors in its 72-year history, seven of whom have come from Europe or North America.

The nominees include: Saleh Mahdi Al-Hasnawi (Iraq), Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari (Qatar), Audrey Azoulay (France), Polad Bülbüloglu (Azerbaijan), Vera El-Khoury Lacoeuilhe (Lebanon), Juan Alfonso Fuentes Soria (Guatemala), Pham Sanh Chau (Vietnam) and Qian Tang (China).

The elections will be held in October.