The draft constitution sounds alarm bells among women's rights activists, reports Reem Leila Women have been taking action to protest against their marginalisation in the draft constitution which, if it is passed say critics, will see women's rights reversed by three decades. On 22 October protesters staged a sit-in before the Press Syndicate to express their rejection to the draft and later attended a conference jointly organised by the National Council for Women (NCW), the Strong Egypt and Ghad parties. Conference attendees lamented that gains made after decades of struggle were now under threat. Participants highlighted an array of controversial articles which target women's rights and promote the agenda of Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. Article 68 of the draft constitution stipulates that the state will guarantee gender equality in political, cultural, economic and social life as long as it does not contradict the "provisions of Islamic Sharia". NCW head Mervat Al-Tellawi criticised the substitution of "principles of Islamic Sharia" with "provisions of Islamic Sharia" in the article, pointing out that the Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-conservative Salafis demand the application of an interpretation of Islamic law that is at odds with the "tolerant version of Islam by which the majority of Egyptians abide". She also questioned why draft articles related to women's rights all end with the coda in accordance with the "regulations of Islamic Sharia". "It is already stipulated in Article 2 that the 'principles of Islamic Sharia' are the main source of legislation. There is absolutely no need to repeat the phrase in each and every article related to women's rights," argues Al-Tellawi. The NCW head also criticised the vague wording of several articles. Article 29 stipulates that Egyptian citizenship cannot be withdrawn from any citizen but fails to add the qualification that citizenship be granted to all "born to an Egyptian father or Egyptian mother". In October 2003 Nationality Law 26/1975 was amended to extend Egyptian nationality to individuals born to Egyptian mothers and non-Egyptian fathers. Before the amendments the wives and children of Egyptian men were automatically granted Egyptian nationality while Egyptian women could not pass on their nationality to their children. The 2003 amendments brought nationality laws in line with constitutional guarantees of equal rights for men and women. Since 2003 more than one million people have been granted Egyptian nationality under the law. "Why are we now threatening this right by drafting an unclear article?" asks Al-Tellawi. Judge Abdallah Kandil, head of the Administrative Prosecutors Club, complains that Article 29, with its insistence on inalienable rights of citizenship, is contradicted by Article 44 of the same draft which gives judges the right to strip any citizen of Egyptian nationality and expel him or her from Egypt. The NCW also criticised the absence in the draft of any guarantees that international conventions to which Egypt is a signatory are binding or any explicit statement that gender equality will be enforced, and expressed concern that there was no reference to ending human trafficking. In Article 71 the word "prohibiting" was replaced by the word "hindering": the article now reads that the Egyptian state will hinder slavery, violation of women's and children's rights and human trafficking. Human trafficking, says Kandil, is the most profitable illegal activity after arms dealing and drugs. Recent statistics reveal that the $32 billion industry traffics up to 2.4 million people every year, the majority destined for sexual slavery. Egypt is an exporter, transit point and destination for human trafficking, including women and children who become victims of forced work and sexual exploitation. There are various forms of trafficking in Egypt, including commercial sexual exploitation, begging, early marriage, sex tourism, forced labour and domestic servitude. In May 2010 the government passed anti-trafficking law 64 criminalising the establishing, organising or running of human trafficking gangs and stipulating a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment for anyone found guilty. "Allowing loosely worded constitutional articles will only exacerbate the problem of human trafficking in Egypt, and it is women and girls who are the victims," says Kandil. Concerns have been raised that the sloppily worded Article 71 will encourage Salafis to push for a reduction in the age of consent for marriage to nine for girls, a possibility they have frequently mooted, and will encourage calls to legalise Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In 2007 the Health Ministry issued decree no 271 banning doctors and nurses from carrying out FGM operations at any public hospitals or private clinics. The ministerial decree stipulated that doctors involved in such operations would have their clinics closed and could be prevented from practicing for five years. In 2008 the new child law was issued and a blanket ban placed on FGM. Anyone guilty of conducting such operations could face up to two years in jail. Other draft articles fail to protect equal rights in the workplace. The NCW says it has received increasing numbers of complaints about gender discrimination at work. Counsellor Nagwa Sadek singled out Hossam Al-Ghiriani, the head of the Constituent Assembly, for his opposition to women joining the senior ranks of the judiciary. "In 2003 Egypt saw the appointment of its first female judge. Now we have more than 150 female judges serving in different fields and cannot allow this progress to be rolled back," said Sadek. She went on to complain that out of the Constituent Assembly's 100 members just seven were women. And of those seven, she noted, five came from the Muslim Brotherhood which "defends FGM". Draft Article 9 asserts that the government is responsible for protecting society and preserving the Egyptian family's safety, stability and security. But, says Sadek, it omits to specify any penalties against those who jeopardise family stability and security. According to Sadek, the majority of children of divorced parents live in an unstable atmosphere, a result of the fear they can be taken away from their custodian parent --usually the mother -- at a moment's notice. In order to provide such children with a relatively stable atmosphere in 2008 the NCW joined other concerned organisations to press for mothers to be able to keep their children, both boys and girls, till they reached the age of 15. "There are seven million children of divorced parents in Egypt. Islamists have tried to amend the law by decreasing the age of custody for mothers to nine in the case of girls and seven for boys," says Sadek. The 2008 law was approved by the Islamic Research Centre (IRC) and Al-Azhar: IRC member Abdallah Al-Naggar told conference attendees its provisions were agreed unanimously by the IRC. Members of the Constituent Assembly are just messing around the constitution, Al-Naggar continued. "Sometimes I wonder what they are doing. It seems they have a great deal of leisure time and do not know how to spend it. Instead of trying to properly amend the constitution to represent all of society they are meddling with issues that were settled years ago." For long years, women's representation in the parliament has been debatable. Although, women gained their political rights in 1956, their representation in the parliament remained low. Egypt first applied a 30-seat quota for female candidates in 1979, but was revoked in 1988 under the claim of being unconstitutional. At that time women took a relatively high percentage of parliament's seats. During People's Assembly (PA) session of 1979-1984 women occupied nine per cent of the PA, and 8.3 per cent during PA's session of years 1984-1987. Veteran politician Fouad Riad criticised the draft constitution for failing to promote women's political participation. When the Islamists came to power they immediately overturned the quota system established by law in June 2009 setting aside 64 parliamentary seats for women. "Why do members of the Constituent Assembly want to deprive women of all the gains they have made?" asked Riad. He cites a woman's right to obtain a divorce, even without her husband's approval, on condition of relinquishing her financial rights, as being under threat. The so-called khul law was passed by the People's Assembly in 2000, offering a lifeline to women seeking a way out of dead-end or abusive marriages. "The law is in accordance with principles of Islamic Sharia and was mentioned in the Sunna. Why then do Islamists claim that khul' has nothing to do with Islam?" asked Riad. "It seems there is a concerted campaign to push back women's rights," concluded Al-Tellawi. But women will keep fighting against Islamists and the social, political and cultural concepts they promote in order to hamper women's equality.
