An Egyptian member of Parliament has called for legislation to remove a year 2000 bill that gave Egypt women the right to divorce. MP Mohamed el-Omda has introduced new legislation that would revoke a woman's right to divorce, the Egyptian Women's Union said in a statement on Thursday. According to Omda, the 2000 legislation was the doing of the National Council for Women, headed by former President Hosni Mubarak's wife Suzanne. He said that the law should be revoked because it was part of the former regime and part of the means for the NCW to exist in the first place. The Egyptian Women's Union has called for “complete rejection of this proposal,” saying that the issue of “divorce law was an issue to try to solve the dilemmas facing legal implications of the [country's] flaws and the inability for women to obtain provisions for their benefit.” Before 2000, women in Egypt did not have the right to divorce their spouses on their own terms. Omda said he plans to pursue the matter even further, which has angered many women's rights activists in the country, who say it could be the beginning of the conservatives push to remove women from positions of any power. “It is a bad sign that they want to revoke the divorce law because this law did a lot for women legally and it gave us some empowerment,” 27-year-old legal assistant in Cairo Marwa told Bikyamasr.com. It is unclear if the proposed legislation will get much traction, but with nearly two-thirds of Parliament conservative leaning Islamists, it could very well. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/MN9EQ Tags: Divorce, Egypt, featured, Parliament, rights, Women Section: Editor's choice, Egypt, Latest News, Women
