Egypt's Family Courts: Route To Empowerment?, Open Democracy

The Egyptian family law system regulates matters such as family property, marriage and divorce, alimony, child custody, and paternity disputes. Until the introduction of a new legal framework which came into effect in 2000 and 2004 women attending the country’s law courts were offered no guarantee of their civil rights or human dignity. This new legislation was a real advance, but as with any attempt to bring about social change through legal reforms the new system has had complex and multidimensional effects. In this light, Mulki Al-Sharmani examines here one aspect of the reform package - mediation-based family courts - in order to assess how far Egypt’s women have travelled in achieving “empowerment through law”.