Parliament is currently reviewing the possibility of regulating custody and visitation rights, reports Reem Leila When Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president last year, his wife Suzanne not just lost her title as first lady. She is now being accused of ruining the Egyptian family by issuing laws in favour of women, including custody and visitation rights. Parliament's Legislative Committee started revising the law last week. MP Hamada Suleiman, a member of the extremist Salafist Nour Party, submitted a request to revise the law. "There are seven million children who belong to divorced parents; that's 30 per cent of Egypt's children. MPs will try to amend the law by reducing the age of custody to nine for girls and seven for boys, as well as amending visitation rights by allowing paternal grandparents to visit their grandchildren," Suleiman said. Islamist MPs are against the law first issued in 1929. It previously stipulated that a girl would remain under the mother's custody until the age of nine and the boy seven. Custody is then transferred to the father. The law was amended in 1976 and raised the age of custody for girls to 12 and nine for boys. It became controversial when mothers were given custody of children until both boys and girls turn 15. These laws, Suleiman claimed, were a direct cause of the increase in the percentage of divorce among Egyptian families, thus leading to broken homes and unsettled children. "Suzanne Mubarak's laws must be changed. Increasing the age of custody for the sake of mothers is a real disaster. Children, whether boys or girls, must be under their father's custody because the father is the only one capable of raising children better than the mother. Everything must be placed under a man's control," argued Suleiman. The current law was approved by the Islamic Research Centre (IRC) as well as Al-Azhar. IRC member Abdallah El-Naggar told Al-Ahram Weekly that the law was unanimously approved by the IRC since it does not contradict the regulations of Islamic Sharia. "The law has not yet been sent to us to see the changes they intend to make. But since the IRC knew the parliament's intentions, we have been preparing all the required documents to confront it with the unconstitutionality of what they are doing," El-Naggar said. "I wonder what this parliament is doing. It seems they have much leisure time and do not know how to waste it. Instead of trying to solve serious issues in society such as lack of security, economic and political instability, and lack of investments and financial resources, they are meddling with trivial issues," argued El-Naggar. El-Naggar pointed out that if parliament passed the law "without taking our opinion as well as that of Al-Azhar, it will be unconstitutional. Only the IRC and Al-Azhar are authorised to deal with matters concerning Sharia. Our opinion is essential," he added. El-Naggar raised another point regarding reducing the age of custody in favour of the father. Girls' custody used to be at the age of nine because girls used to marry very young. Accordingly they should be under the father's legal custody because according to Islamic Sharia the father, being the legal guardian has the right to allow his daughter to marry. "This was the only reason for making the age of custody for girls nine. In the past girls used to marry at the age of nine or 10 but now this has changed. It is impossible for girls to marry at this young age. If it happened the father would be sentenced to jail," El-Naggar stated. Non-custodian parents have been stirring up public opinion against the personal status law regulating visitation rights, saying it is unfair to them and is damaging their relationship with their children. A law in 1929 concerning parental visitation rights is still enforced. It was this law which regulated visitation rights for non-custodian parents three hours a week. But the law became a problem after the age of children's custody was raised in favour of mothers to 15 years for both boys and girls in 2008. Hossam El-Shanshouri, founder of the Egyptian Organisation for Children of Divorced Parents, which came into effect in 2008, stated these visits are usually conducted in a hostile atmosphere, where children go to see their non-custodian parents in a venue under the supervision of a hostile relative or a vigilant mother, thus making it difficult for the father to communicate with his children. They cannot play together, hold, hug or talk freely. Fawzia Abdel-Sattar, professor of law at Cairo University, opposes the proposal. There are 16,000 cases in personal status courts about parents disputing custody and visitation rights. Women and children do suffer from fathers who in many cases fail to provide emotional and financial support for the children. Abdel-Sattar argued that most fathers do not show up during visitation hours. Children go and wait for long hours to see their fathers but they do not come. "How can a father who does not show up during hours allocated for visitation rights be trusted in raising a child? This is absurd," argued Abdel-Sattar. Additionally, the courts and police stations are full of cases filed by custodial parents against the non-custodian party for kidnapping children during visitation time. "Children come out of such incidents hating their fathers because they go through a lot of suffering. They also witness the anguish which their mothers experience," explained Abdel-Sattar. "How can a child live with a father who kidnapped him from his mother who symbolises security to him? How would he or she feel safe with such a father?" Many non-custodian parents kidnap or forcibly take away children from their mothers. "Parents who abduct a child should be subject to at least one year in jail and a LE50,000 fine, in addition to be deprived of visitation for a certain time instead of the one month in jail and a fine which does not exceed LE1,000," stated Abdel-Sattar. Abdel-Sattar added paternal grandparents are allowed to visit their grandchildren if the father is dead or travelling abroad. The law could be modified, according to Abdel-Sattar, in order to provide appropriate guarantees to the custodian parent that children would be returned after the end of these visits. Ibrahim Nada, founder of Divorced Egyptian Mothers and the father of a divorced daughter, believes that what non-custodian parents want is meaningless. A delegation of the organisation met members of the IRC as well as Al-Azhar. "Both have confirmed that nothing in the world would make them issue a decree or approve a law which contradicts Islamic regulations. The current law which has increased custody law to 15 years for both boys and girls is in line with Islamic Sharia," said Nada.
