CAIRO: No Muslim woman has the right to become Egypt's president, Sheikh Mohmoud Ashour, former deputy of Al Azhar and member of the Islamic Research Center told The Daily Star Egypt. He confirmed Egypt s top Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ali Gomaa's opinion on the same subject. The fatwa (religious edict) published on the website of dar el ifta, the official body issuing Islamic rulings. According to the Sharia, it stated, a Muslim woman cannot be the head of state because it is the man s duty to lead Muslims in prayer, an obligation on the shoulders of a Muslim president. Ashour stated in a previous interview with The Daily Star Egypt that women can occupy any position, including managerial and judicial posts, but may not be given the general presidency. Islamic thinker Gamal El Bana, on the other hand, believes that nothing in Islam prevents Muslim women from becoming presidents. The only criteria that presidents should be judged on is their efficiency to run the state, gender has no role to play . if the female candidate is better than the male candidate then she definitely should be chosen, El Bana said. El Bana believes the Quran, holy book of Islam and main source of Sharia, does not indicate that Muslim women are prohibited from becoming presidents. The Queen of Sheba was acknowledged in the Quran for her sound rule and wisdom, El Bana added. However, it is not mentioned explicitly in the Quran that women could be presidents either, because as El Bana stated, it was not possible to introduce this to Arabian culture 1,400 years ago. Ahmed Omar Hashim, member in the National Democratic Party (NDP) and president of the religious committee at the People's Assembly, however, disagrees with El Bana and supports Gomaa's fatwa. Women cannot be presidents, but can be judges, he told The Daily Star Egypt. Hashim quoted a hadith (a saying by the Prophet Mohammad PBUH, and the second source of Sharia) where the Prophet said that no country will ever do well if a woman becomes its president when he learnt that the Persians had elected a female head of state.
