While Saudi Arabia is only now considering allowing women lawyers to argue cases in court, Egypt has gone further in judiciary reform in this respect. In 2003, Egypt appointed Tahani El Gebaly as its first female judge. In 2007, another 31 female judges were appointed. But on February 15 this year, 334 out of 376 judges from the State Council voted to ban female judges on this influencial Council. This has caused a heated debate in Egypt.
Egytpian Cleric Wagdi Ghoneim said recently: “I am a man. Anything you women can do, I can do better, because I am a man, and I am stronger than you. My body is stronger. You are weak. You’re a female. You are startled if a mouse gets near you.”
Cleric Wagdi Ghoneim went on to say: “There are jobs you women cannot do – like being judges. You cannot be a judge, because your heart will not allow you to sentence someone to death. Can you sentence someone to death? As a man, I can sentence a person to death – even by hanging. But you – if a murderer brings his children to court, and he holds his newborn child in front of you… If you sentence him to death – who will raise this child? Your soul will not let you sentence him to death.”
Adel Farghaly, president of The Administrative Courts of Justice said: “The judicial work in Egypt is not suitable for women, as they cannot pay attention to their family and social duties based on their nature and on the social traditions, unlike men.”
Is it any wonder that with views like these, that the ban on female judges sitting on the State Council came about? The State Council advises the Egyptian Government.
Hossam Bahgat, an expert on human rights law and director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said: “I’m disappointed to see that there is a deep-seated bias prevalent among judges against women. Today’s vote is a disappointment. It shows opposition to the government’s accumulative approach to ending discrimination against women in the judiciary.”
Gaber Asfour wrote an article in Al Ahram entitled “A new discrimination against Egyptian women” in which he said: “This recent decision of the Assembly actually prevents the rights of many people, a right that was already permitted by our Grand Mufti and senior scholars, not to mention that it is already practiced in so many Muslim countries. Taking women’s constitutional right to board the platform of the State Council is a decision that should be rejected by every citizen who believes in the true sense of citizenship in a civil state not a religious one.”
Dr Salwa Bayomi, a member of the Shura Council said: “This is step backwards that is incompatible with the era we live in and achievements of women in the past ten years. It has no legal justification, not to mention being unconstitutional and against human rights without any legal basis.”
Gaber Asfour wrote: “How can a poor, illiterate woman be liberated when a Ph.D. supreme lawyer can’t take her full rights in the fair opportunity of a job promotion? How do we expect a nation to categorize rights? I am not against prioritizing, but the fact the one segment of the highly educated and fully privileged women are not yet able to gain their full rights is nothing but a serious sign that there’s an even bigger problem with women with less empowerment.”
Adel Farghaly tried to justify the ban, saying: “The refusal to appoint women to senior judicial positions has always been based on the fact that Egyptian women don’t perform the military service and pay their blood as a price like men do. And women occupy judicial functions in Western countries because they perform military service, and run all the jobs held by men, including acts of physical labor.”
This story however, has a happy ending. On February 22, Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council overruled the February 15 decision barring women from judicial positions on the State Council.
Think about it. In this day and age, why is there still discrimination against women in the workplace? Why do Egyptian clerics so strongly oppose the appointment of female judges to the State Council?
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