Family Attorney

Debates surrounding reform in the Middle East have addressed the issue of gender and women’s empowerment. Experts like Marina Ottaway, who talk about the “women’s rights trap", have argued that a country cannot be democratic if it discriminates against half of its population. Yet the real obstacle to democracy in the Arab countries is not discrimination against women but the fact that the entire population has only limited political rights. The problem has less to do with giving women the same rights as men, more with reforming the political system in such a way as to grant the entire population the full gamut of civil and political rights as delineated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and relevant conventions. In the majority of cases, when women are treated equally or assigned important policy and legislative positions in non-democratic countries, they fail to make progress towards democracy; they tend to only exert themselves in the effort to preserve their own positions, and to maintain the status quo in order to remain in power. There is no guarantee that in giving women positions of importance, any given society will bring about democracy. In Egypt women occupy several important positions in the media, yet they have failed to bring about major changes in media policies. Nor have they managed to alter stereotypes of the woman in the media. To put it in a nutshell, while a country cannot democratise so long as it excludes women, it would be delusional to think that giving women the same (limited) rights as men in an autocratic setting will bring a country closer to democracy. The two battles – for women’s rights and for democracy – are equally important, and they must be fought together.

This line of thinking seems to be particularly true of Egypt. The majority of women’s rights advocates in government and civil society have focussed on analysing gender gaps and calling for bridging them in health, education, the economic and political spheres. Their point of reference concerns what men have, and their aim is to help women have the same. This has done little to mobilise men who themselves have little to say for themselves – an objective that requires evidence of women bringing about good governance. In Egypt as in comparable countries, competition among women at the top tends to be fierce, with the older chasing the younger as if to mark territory, and no effective mechanism to control corruption – of which many women of status are in fact beneficiaries who actively ignore the battle for democratic reform.

The legal sphere provides both positive and negative signals. The current Constitution, issued in 1971, provides for equality between men and women in all fields whether political, social or economic. It stipulates that all citizens are equal before the law, and holds the state responsible for supporting women in combining their reproductive and productive roles.

On the other hand Egypt ratified the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1981. But it still refuses to sign the Optional Protocol of CEDAW. It had four reservations on CEDAW. The first concerns Article 2 on gender equality, on which Egypt stated that it is willing to comply provided that such compliance does not run counter to Islamic Sharia. The second concerned Article 9, paragraph two, which gives women equal rights with respect to the nationality of their children; new jurisdiction has since rendered the reservation null and void, however. The third reservation, on Article 16, concerns gender equality in matrimonial and family relations both during a marriage and on its dissolution. And the fourth reservation, on Article 29, concerns the submission to an arbitral body of any dispute that arises between states concerning the interpretation or application of the convention. In 2001, Egypt presented its third and combined fourth and fifth reports to the CEDAW Committee. The concluding remarks of the committee recommended lifting reservations on CEDAW, intensifying awareness raising programmes, eliminating negative stereotypes of women, especially in the media, affirming the multi-dimensional and cross-cutting nature of HIV/AIDS, raising the number of women at all levels of decision-making and addressing issues like violence against women.

There have been positive amendments to some discriminatory laws in the last few years. The rape law was amended to punish the rapist even if he is willing to marry the victim. Women can leave the country without their husbands’ approval. And the khul’ grants women the right to divorce irrespective of the husband’s consent, providing that they forgo their financial rights. The family court law was also issued to facilitate procedures and implementation of court rulings concerning the family. However, there are still a number of laws that constitute gender discrimination and violate women’s rights such as the penal law governing adultery and prostitution. Likewise there remains a need for stronger laws to prohibit domestic violence, crimes of honour and similar problems.

The legal system in Egypt is contradictory in that it guarantees women’s rights in the public arena, restricting them in the private. The personal status law, for example, permits not only male polygamy but the right of the husband to divorce his wife for no good reason, and the expulsion of a divorced woman from the marital residence providing she has no children or her children are beyond custody age. Family law prioritises the reproductive role of woman, assuming that men alone are responsible for providing for the family. It places the protection of the family unit above individual rights within the family, giving men privileges to go with the role of sole provider. Likewise women are not treated as individuals but rather as wives, mothers and daughters expected to obey the patriarch; and their role, especially in the case of divorce, will bring no perks of its own.

Economic rights are further determined by the woman’s position within the family. Because the family remains the basic unit of Egyptian society, family structure and relations play a significant role in determining women’s economic opportunities (what kind of jobs they should take, how many hours they can work, how close their workplace should be to their homes, whether they can take jobs that require travelling, etc.) Women are expected to have jobs that do not contradict their role as wives and mothers. A deeply embedded belief that the woman’s most important role is that of mistress of the household limits women’s opportunities in the public sphere. Though the government has declared its commitment to increasing educational and work opportunities for females and expanding the scope of their political participation, the personal status law works in a contrary manner, perpetuating the status quo and thus making it difficult for women to combine productive with reproductive roles. Based on erroneous interpretation of religious precepts, such laws reflect cultural beliefs and tend to have a power preservation nature.

More : weekly.ahram.org.eg