CAIRO - On second thoughts, 42-year old Amr Salah decided not to divorce his wife, but to try to make amends with her instead. The main reason, however, was that he could not bear the idea of only seeing his two dear children for three hours a week. According to the Egyptian Law on Visiting Rights, divorced fathers are only allowed to see their children who are in the custody of the mother for three hours per week in a public place. They are deprived of having their children at their home place for a day or more. Such a visiting right, which divorced fathers believe is unjust, is granted by virtue of Law No. 25 for the year l929, which was amended in 2008. Calls are being voiced today for further amendment of such a law that gives all authorisation to the custodial parent, while depriving the other from having a say in the education and bringing up of their child. When divorced couples fail to reach an agreement on how to share the responsibility of their children, lawsuits usually provide an answer. But, on the ground the ruling is often ignored and the mother, who is traditionally granted the custody of her children until she remarries, plays foul to deprive her divorced husband from seeing his offspring. Sociologists say that the gap created between father and his children can hardly be bridged especially when the latter are too young to grasp the idea of the break-up. Therefore, the man, whom they meet for no more than three hours a week, is usually perceived as a stranger. George, another divorced father, has given up his right to see his child because, as he told Al-Masry Al-Youm Arabic newspaper, he was fed up with the way he was supposed to see his seven-year old son. He did see him l5 times, but the communication he looked forward to was totally missing. “The young boy was so confused that he called me ‘uncle father',” George sadly recalled. Today seven million children in Egypt are victimised by parental conflicts that end up in courts. The law on visiting rights is part and parcel of the Egyptian civil status law, which applies to both Muslims and Christians of this country. A personal experience, which made Sameh Hassan, a university lecturer, realise the meaning of having to see his infant by means of a court verdict, has prompted him to think of a way to redress defective situations for other fathers facing the same problem. He managed, with the help of his second wife who happened to be a lawyer, to work out a draft law that enables divorced fathers to become more active partners in the lives of their children. Under the suggested law, which Sameh has already submitted to the Ministry of Justice the parent that does not have custody of his children has the right for them to stay in his home for up to 48 hours a week. If the parents do not reside in the same governorate then the visiting right is extended to three days. The current law stipulates that both boys and girls come under the custody of their father once they turn l5, an age which divorced parents see as inconvenient. The draft law under consideration has recommended the lowering of that age to seven for boys and nine for girls. Moreover, the draft law is clear about the penalty imposed on the custodial parent that denies the other parent their visiting right. By virtue of an urgent lawsuit, the custody is immediately transferred to the harmed party. Sameh, moreover, objected to the law amendment, which was effected in 2008, whereby, divorced fathers were deprived of their educational custody although they were obliged to pay school fees. He believes that the modified article was a detour to compel fathers to send their children to expensive schools at a time when they had no right to choose their type of education and school. Cairo has, of late, witnessed several protests on the part of fathers who seek better interaction with their children. While the Ministry of Justice has said that the draft bill has to be first approved by Al-Azhar, to determine its compatibility with Islamic law, women's rights organisations accuse fathers of taking advantage of the current instability in Egypt to pass a law without it being given due societal debate.
