The Islamic Research Academy in its last meeting that was chaired by Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Dr. Mohamed Sayed Tantawi discussed the request of MP Hisham Mustafa Khalil to amend the Child's Vision Bill. Secretary-General Sheikh Ali Abdel Baqi told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the Academy approved some items of the bill and requested the amendment of other items to be in accordance with Islamic Shariah. He said Tantawi gave strict instructions not to give any press statements on the details of Al-Azhar's position regarding the draft law, explaining that Tantawi said: “Just as the bill came to us in secret we will respond to it and send it back to Parliament also in secret.” While Parliament agreed to discuss the proposed custody age for a boy child to be 10 years and for a girl child to be 12 years, Al-Masry Al-Youm has learnt that the Ministry of Justice is discussing unifying the age at 18 years in the draft personal status law that was presented by the National Democratic Part Policies Secretariat. For his part, MP Khalil said: “It is indeed strange that Article 20 of the Personal Status Law No. 4 of 2005 wants to increase the custody age. This is contrary to what psychologists and sociologists say as regards the need for the participation of the father and mother in the healthy upbringing of their children, and the importance of the oversight role played by the father in their adolescent stage.”
For her part, Secretary-General of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood Moushira Khattab said: “The custody age assumes that the mother is good, and therefore the girl must be in her custody till 15 and the boy till 18, after which they may go to the bad father. This logic is totally wrong.” She added: “Custody must be determined by a judge in the interest of the child and without discrimination between a girl's custody age and a boy's.”
