The law now recognises women's right to seek divorce from an urfi marriage and the children of such a union can be issued birth certificates. Reem Leila says the state is making life easier for the couples involved and their offspring The Administrative Court has ruled that children born to parents married according to an urfi or unregistered contract are eligible for birth certificates. Coupled with the new personal status law which recognises women's right to seek divorce from an urfi marriage, and the result is a rescue effort by the government in what it acknowledges is a hugely controversial issue. There are hundreds of thousands of illegitimate children in the country, with some 14,000 paternity cases currently being tried in Egyptian courts. Mona Zulfiqar, an active feminist and a lawyer, says 9,000 such cases result from so-called urfi marriages which are not registered with the authorities. These marriages, which require only a contract and two witnesses, are becoming increasingly common among young people unable to afford the high cost of marriage and seek to legitimise sexual relationships. The mothers of urfi children must also deal with social stigmas. In many cases, young women who become pregnant from urfi marriages must choose between illegal abortions, abandoning their children or be an unwed mother, which is socially taboo. There is also the possibility that "may be her father or brother will kill her if she has a baby out of wedlock," Zulfiqar said. "Accordingly, the court's ruling will save many mothers and children from the social stigma." Zulfiqar said that before the year 2000 an urfi marriage was not even recognised. But it has become increasingly common, especially among young people and university students, although no official statistics exist. "Law 1/2000 recognises that women can produce proof of an urfi marriage in court and can ask for a divorce although they are granted no alimony or child support," Zulfiqar said. Since no official records are kept, urfi marriages can put women in a particularly precarious position. Stories of men destroying or hiding an urfi contract are not uncommon. Without the contract, a woman cannot prove she is married. She cannot get a divorce and might find it risky to remarry should her first husband produce the document later on, in which case she would be accused of bigamy. Without a birth certificate, a child has no access to state-run healthcare or schooling. He cannot get a passport and consequently, is forbidden from leaving the country. Egyptian law requires that fathers or any parental relative have in their possession their children's birth certificates. Therefore, children of urfi marriages "grow up without a name and without being cared for by the government unless the father recognises the child and registers him," says Fawzeya Abdel-Sattar, professor of law at Cairo University. Zulfiqar says an urfi marriage is an unofficial but legitimate arrangement. She says it is acceptable under certain conditions -- a man whose wife is ill and who wants to get married without upsetting his spouse; a widow who wants to get married but without embarrassing her grown-up children; a widow who collects her husband's pension but wants to remarry. Despite the Administrative Court's ruling, women must still clear legal and administrative hurdles. "In case the father refuses to issue a birth certificate for his child, which is the norm, the mother then files a suit asking the court to grant her official recognition of her child. The mother then goes to the Civil Status Organisation for a birth certificate for the child," Abdel-Sattar said.
