Women in Egypt have been striving for decades for their rights, many of which have been gained over the years. Today, the National Council for Women (NCW) is working on providing women with better rights by arguing for amendments to the personal status law on child custody, visitation rights and alimony. The amendments are to be presented to Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb as a first step towards their endorsement. Mervat Al-Tellawi, the head of the NCW, said the amendments aim to improve women's status and lift the burdens laid on them. The legislative committee of the NCW has engaged in intensive internal discussions on articles of the personal status law, in order to provide women with better visitation rights and to speed up procedures on alimony after divorce for women and children, she said. The draft amendments will be presented for discussion to different NGOs concerned with women's rights. “Their comments will be taken into consideration before sending the final version to the cabinet,” Al-Tellawi said. Recent data issued by the Ministry of Justice have revealed that women are suffering because of rights that have been lost, she added. “According to the data, there have been 368,296 personal status cases filed in court since 2011, among them 352,895 alimony cases for divorced women. These form 80 per cent of the cases as a whole,” she said. The council is working on re-activating Law 25 of 1929 to provide women with temporary alimony until a court issues its ruling. “Some cases remain in the courts for more than 15 years and women are unable to get anything in the meantime. This is very unfair,” Al-Tellawi said. Women should be provided with a temporary amount and eligible for an annual increase so they can meet life's challenges, she added. According to Justice Ministry data, there were 898,000 marriages in Egypt in 2011, increasing to 922,000 in 2012, an increase of 25,000. There were 152,000 divorces filed at the Ma'zoun (legal registrar) in 2011 and 155,000 in 2012, along with a further 22,572 cases filed in court. “The annual percentage of divorce cases is 17 per cent of marriages. But the overall percentage is less than one per cent, not 20 per cent as alleged,” Al-Tellawi said. According to Al-Tellawi, custody cases make up five per cent of all cases taken to court and visiting rights 4.8 per cent of filed cases. According to the current law, mothers have the right to custody of their children, both boys and girls, until they reach 15 years of age. “Due to this law several problems regarding visiting rights have emerged. In many cases mothers, usually the custodial parent, ban the non-custodial parent, usually the father, from visiting his children. The council is working on this part of the law in order to guarantee better visiting rights for the non-custodial parent,” Al-Tellawi said. Non-custodial parents have complained about visiting rights under the personal status law, as they feel these are unfair and damage their relationship with their children. Dorreya Sharafeddin, a member of the NCW, said the law regulating visiting rights was issued in 1929 and is still in force today. “I believe it is time to amend it in way that puts the welfare of the child first and then that of the parents, custodial and non-custodial,” Sharafeddin said. “The specific character of women's struggle for their rights in Egypt is unique in that it links women's fight for their rights with family issues and development,” she added. The council wants to ensure that women are able to claim the rights given them by law and Islamic regulations. Efforts are being made to decrease litigation from a decade to a maximum of two years. Problems facing women in collecting their alimony are also being looked into by the council. In the past, the Nasr Social Bank provided divorced women with alimony to a maximum of LE500 based on a court ruling. “The bank collects this sum later from the former husband,” Sharafeddin said. “There are efforts to increase this sum to LE800 minimum,” she added. The council is also working on other areas of the personal status law, including enforcing court rulings abroad instead of waiting for the travelling party to return in order to shorten procedures. It is also working on banning the marriage of young girls, even though this is already criminalised by law. “We want to see improved welfare for women, who constitute almost 50 per cent of society,” Al-Tellawi concluded.
