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In Arabic [Cairo- 2 July 2008] Egyptian Center for Women's Rights is planning a high-profile press conference to release the results of a research on sexual harassment. Data was collected from Egyptian women and men, as well as foreign women. The findings will be used as a basis for analysis of the problem and the further development of ECWR's advocacy strategy ECWR continued work on a Million Signatures Campaign, addressing the need for criminalization of sexual harassment in the Arab world. To sign the petition, please visit our website at www.ecwronline.org or email us at [email protected]. Egyptian Family Law: The Egyptian legal system is based on civil codes as well as Islamic shari’a. Coptic Christians have a separate law. In 1985; Personal Status Law, which was based on the earlier Family Law. The Personal Status Law was amended in 2000, adding a provision for a khola’ (no fault divorce), which allows women to initiate a divorce from their husbands without having to prove harm. It was amended again in 2004 adding a provision for a Family Insurance Fund, a bank entity through which women can collect court-ordered child support and alimony payments from the State, if the father refuses to pay alimony. Currently the minimum legal marriage age in Egypt is 18. Women often do not have the opportunity to negotiate their marriage contracts, due to family traditions and the woman’s level of awareness about her rights. The marriage contract can incorporate any conditions, including those that are favorable to the woman, such as an equal right to divorce. Therefore, although the writing of the contract is an important moment in the couple’s marriage, many ma’zun (the person responsible for writing marriage and divorce decrees) do not inform them of their rights for fear that it may lead to the marriage being ruined. Suggested Reforms (ECWR): Eighty-five percent of women who seek legal assistance from ECWR ask for a divorce, according to Fawzeya Abdelall, our attorney. This high rate of divorce reflects that marriage and divorce rules have become a serious problem in Egypt. It is a problem that NGOs, including ECWR, hope to bring to the attention of the government. ECWR will be holding a conference on the topic in the near future. ECWR proposes to specifically advocate for changes in the amount of time it takes for a woman to successfully obtain a divorce; to advocate that all women receive alimony through the Family Insurance Fund, not just those whose husbands work in the government (as is currently the case); and that divorced women have an equal right to decide whether their children should be in school—which is currently the purview of men. Recently, the Church changed the bylaws that lay out the reasons for divorce, increasing the number of reasons from two to three: adultery, undisclosed pre-existing terminal illness, and change of religion. The Coptic Church issues annulment of marriages, and not divorces. While Christians may be able to obtain civil divorces, those divorces may not be recognized by the Church. Because of the limited conditions for divorce, some Christians will temporarily convert to Islam. The Church has been asking for recognition of changes in the Coptic Bill of Personal Affairs since 1978, but it has continually failed to receive the support of the government Foriegn women react to ECWR survey on Sexual Harassment “I would love to fill in a questionnaire about sexual harassment. We were just talking about sexual harassment. I could write an essay about it!”, was the reaction of Jane* when ECWR volunteer researchers asked her if she wanted to fill in a questionnaire about sexual harassment. Most of the foreign women we asked to fill in questionnaires about this problem in Egypt were very willing. ECWR is making an effort to stop sexual harassment by distributing surveys for research, holding press conferences, legal reform and public outreach, including awareness days. ECWR hopes that by increasing awareness about this problem, women can break their silence and pressure decision-makers and society to face it. (Names are changed for privacy reasons) Legal empowerment & Aid: Improving Women' Access to Justice: ECWR will address weaknesses in the legal system and women's access to justice in the coming term through a new phase of its Legal Empowerment and Aid program. The program will use the following activities as tools to monitor and record women's status in Egypt, on paper and in real life, analyze it and come up with strategies to target weaknesses. Further Information: ** Egypt: Margins of Repression, State Limit on NGOs Activism [Human Rights Watch] ** ECWR Update [April 2008] ** More information about Egypt
Suggested Reforms: In a May 14, 2008 article in Daily News Egypt, the Network on Women’s Rights Organizations (NWRO) stated that the Personal Status Law that governs divorce and child custody in Egypt is outdated and needs to be reformed. They contend that the Law is harmful to women and men. Women are threatened with abuse, having their children taken away, and losing their home when the children come of age. For men, the current law potentially weakens the bonds with their children because they see them in forced settings. They argue not to abolish fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), upon which the Law is based, but to have it evolve to bring it in line with modern realities. They point to changes in the family laws of Morocco, Oman, and Kuwait which have been changed to grant women more say in marriages, second marriages, and legal recognition of children born out of wedlock. Scholars point out that Islam does not encourage polygamy, and does give children born out of wedlock paternity rights. NWRO has put forward several proposed changes to the Law, including allowing women to add clauses to a marriage contract (in practice, though it is already the case in law), requiring that men get the approval of their first wife before proceeding with a second marriage, and raising the marriage age to 18 for women (this was accepted).
Coptic Personal Status Law: The Coptic Church has a separate set of bylaws regarding both marriage and divorce, which were set in 1938. Only in the case of inter-religious marriages do national courts decide divorce cases and apply shari’a law in making their ruling. Furthermore, inter-religious marriages can only happen between Muslim men and Christian women—Muslim women are not allowed to marry outside of their faith.
Sexual harassment is, as we all know, a big problem in Egypt. To find out how big the problem really is, ECWR started to distribute questionnaires among Egyptian women (1010 questionnaires completed), Egyptian men (also 1010) and foreign women (100).
ECWR volunteers noticed that foreign women are very willing to help and to talk about their experiences. It is a problem that is very much alive and many women suffer from. Jane wasn’t the only one who was “just talking about this problem”. Another foreign woman who wanted to fill in the questionnaire was also just talking about it and she took her time to fill it in. Many women are glad that “finally someone is doing something about it”.
A foreign woman who completed the questionnaire via email said, after living almost a year in Egypt, “I left Egypt early because I couldn’t stand living in a country anymore where I got harassed every single day. I hope I’ll never have to return to Egypt again in my life”. This is an example that shows how much sexual harassment can infect someone’s life and view about Egypt.
One man who joined the foreign women filling in the questionnaire was disappointed because this particular survey was for women only, “I also suffer from sexual harassment!” he said.
Another foreign woman shared her story with us about an Egyptian man who flashed her while she was in the gym. When she asked for help, no one was willing - men and women weren’t taking her seriously. She gave the gym an ultimatum; him or her as a member. They wouldn’t kick him out so she left.
Not only is sexual harassment a problem, but also the ignorance of it. When women ask for help to other people, like police officers, family, judges etc. they are often not willing to face this problem and protect women who are suffering daily. Instead, foreign and Egyptian women are often blamed or laughed at. ECWR has reports from many foreign women who don’t want to return or live in Egypt because of harassment here, hurting Egypt's tourism economy as well as its reputation and relations with people abroad. Some Egyptian women even don’t want to leave their houses because of harassment in the street.
1. Trainings for activists, lawyers and media on the importance of knowing the law, human and legal rights, the justice system, national women’s machineries, the role of the media in promoting legal and human rights, advocacy and public/media campaigns, the importance of pro-bono work
2. Strengthening the legal units of 2 NGOs and forming a coalition
3. Monitoring the legal system by providing Legal, Family Advice and Legal Services to 6000 women, recording and analyzing data and publishing a report that will be publicized
4. Assisting 200 women with lawsuits, recording and analyzing the experiences, and adding this information to the monitoring database
5. International outreach following the publication of the report in order to raise awareness nationally and internationally about the successes and failures of the legal system compared to Egypt's obligations under international agreements