CAIRO: Marriage remains one of the most solid social institutions in Egypt. However, the image of a maazoun (marriage registrar) with his white emblazoned handkerchief, iterating traditional vows may soon undergo profound changes that could substantially alter the meaning of marriage, or even divorce. In a startling statistic released earlier this year, the Egyptian National Center for Social and Criminological Research revealed that 100,000 women in Egypt hold the right to initiate divorce procedure (called e'sma). The center expects this number to increase progressively in the coming years. According to Sharia (Islamic jurisprudence) women have the right to include a clause in the marriage contract that ensures their legal right to equal access to divorce (e'sma) - traditionally and culturally seen as the husband's prerogative - without having to resort to a court of law. "Marriage is a contract. Like any other contract, the parties can stipulate conditions. Islam doesn't deny women that right as long as the husband has agreed to give it to her. It could be limited to a certain period of time or open through the whole marriage, said Sheikh Mahmoud Ashour, former deputy head of Al-Azhar and member of the Islamic Research Center. Following a bitter experience in her first marriage, Nora, 35, insisted on having the e'sma. "All I had suffered because of my first husband's intransigence, and after going through a very exhausting journey to terminate five years of misery, made me insist on having the e'sma in my second marriage. Why not secure my own divorce when Islam has granted me that right? said Nora. Although it is permitted, divorce is still frowned upon in Islam. However, the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has found that Egypt has the highest divorce rate in the Arab world with 40 percent of marriages collapsing. Egypt's divorce system grants the man a unilateral and unconditional right to divorce. While men do not even need to set foot in a courtroom to end a marriage, Egyptian women must resort to the tardy court system to secure their financial rights in a complex process where they are often expected to provide evidence of physical harm during marriage, which is typically hard to do. January 2000 marked a significant - though partial - victory in the process of reforming the country's 75-year-old personal status law. In that year, parliament passed a new law of no-fault divorce called khul', giving Egyptian woman the right to file for divorce without providing evidence of harm, as long as she agrees to forfeit her right to alimony and deferred dowry (called mu'akhar). Many women's rights advocates see khul' as a half-baked solution resulted from the tireless efforts of prominent Egyptian lawyers, NGOs, legislators, scholars, and government officials for over 15 years. Although the application of this new law allows women to seek a unilateral, no-questions-asked divorce, it is still seen as only benefiting wealthy women who can afford to forego financial support from their ex-husbands. "While the introduction of no-fault divorce has clearly helped some women divorce more easily, they still have to relinquish many of their rights if they choose this option, It casts doubt on whether khul' really provides women with equal access to divorce, said Soha Adel, a lawyer and women's rights activist. In the case of e'sma, men agree beforehand to give their wives the right to divorce. The agreement cannot be annulled and allows a wife to get a divorce without having to go to court or to forfeit her dowry or any other rights she has in a normal divorce situation. Nihad Aboul Qomsan, director of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, says that in Egypt millions of married women go through life without the e'sma right. Unlike Adel, she believes that khul' has negated the need to exercise this right. Adel disagrees. "I personally encourage women to stipulate having the e'sma in the marriage contract. It saves them from going though a long painful process to gain their freedom. Women should try to fortify themselves from the treachery of men, she says. On the flip side, Naim Abu-Aaeda, who heads the "Si Sayed association defending men's rights, believes that any man who relinquishes the e'sma to his wife, is looked down upon in society and viewed with suspicion. "A man who hands his wife e'sma is seen as a man with hidden motives. This is why most marriages of this kind are in certain segments of society, where the husband is much younger than his rich wife or they belong to different socio-economic levels. Muslim marriage registrars, however, are not bound by law to ask brides if they want to secure the e'sma, according to registrar Osama Abdel Aal. "Many women are simply not informed of the fact that they could hold the e'sma and most registrars refuse to disclose this condition during the procedures so as not to raise tension and ruin the entire marriage. Women are usually reluctant to demand such a right for fear of breaking off the engagement and driving the fiancé away by what is widely viewed as "unacceptable and offensive not only to the groom, but to the bride's future in-laws. Yet there is Islamic historical evidence to support that women had the e'sma as far back as the early days of Islam, such as the example of Sukayna, the wife of Al-Hussein, Prophet Mohamed's grandson, who had the right to initiate divorce since she was able to travel and run her own business. Hisham Adam, a notable Sudanese novelist and a strong women's rights advocate says that e'sma enjoys historical authenticity as seen in the era of pre-patriarchal laws. "I do not expect a patriarchal society like ours to accept this easily, but a deep scrutiny of our history, will help us realize how dramatically women's status had changed over the past 50 years. What is most important now is to have women recognize their own rights and exercise them.
