Pathways
Legal Reform and Feminist Activism
2007 - 2011
Lead Researcher: Mulki Al-Sharmani
This project researched the reforms that have been taking place in Egyptian personal status laws since 2000. The aim was to examine the unfolding reform story and what it entailed in terms of successes and challenges for women's rights activists in their pursuit of justice and equality in marriage and divorce rights, and for Egyptian women at large who seek legal redress in family courts. The focus of the study was on two aspects of the reform story: 1) the process of mobilising for the new laws, building alliances, choosing strategies, and making concessions, and 2) the implementation of the legal reforms in the new family courts that were introduced in 2004.
Resources For This Project
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Egyptian Family Courts: A Pathway To Women's Empowerment? Hawwa 7
A significant new law was passed by Egyptian legislators in 2004 introducing family courts to arbitrate family conflict in an effort to promote non-adversarial legal mechanisms. The aim of this paper is to examine how this new legal system is working for female plaintiffs. Through an analysis of court practices in a number of divorce and maintenance cases, this essay will make two central arguments: First, I will argue that the benefits family courts are currently providing to female plaintiffs are limited due to a number of gaps and shortcomings in the legislation, mechanisms of implementation, resources, and the capacity and the training of court personnel. In addition, the legal process in the new courts as well as the substantive family laws that are being implemented continue to reflect gender inequality and biases against women. …
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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”. …
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Family Courts In Egypt
In the last decade a series of reforms have been introduced in Egyptian family laws. On January 26, 2000 the Egyptian Parliament passed procedural Law No. 1 of 2000. The goal of this law was to address the problems of backlog of cases and inefficient legal procedures, challenges which were mostly confronted by women since they tended to be the majority of claimants in family law cases. …
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Family Law Reforms and Women's Empowerment: Family Courts in Egypt
In the last decade, there have been several significant family law reforms in Egypt that have impacted the struggle to enhance the legal rights of women in the domain of marriage and family. How have these reforms been brought about? Who were the actors involved in the process? Who are the various interlocutors in the public debate about these reforms? What does this debate tell us about their views and agendas in regard to women’s rights and position in the society? This paper will answer these questions with the aim of providing the context for a study on family courts in Egypt. The purpose of this study is to examine how these reforms are being implemented, to identify the diversions and subversions in the process, and to determine whether these reforms are strengthening the legal rights of women in family disputes. The first section of the paper outlines how Shari'a model of marriage is framed in family law, and the significance of the varied ways in which this religious legal model has been interpreted and implemented. …
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Navigating Refugee Life, UN Chronicle XLVII.1
In this article, Al-Sharmani highlights the international measures that are in place to combat violence against refugee and displaced women, and then summarizes in detail the UNHCR policies that address this violence. It is argued that, while the existence of these policies and measures is important, they need to do more to address the structural forms of violence against refugee and displaced women. Al-Sharmani notes that currently, structural causes are not adequately dealt with. The article raises the question of how to translate refugee and displaced women’s different experiences of violence into meaningful language and adequate policy measures that meet the needs of all women and protect their human rights. …
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Recent Reforms In Personal Status Laws And Women’s Empowerment: Family Courts In Egypt
This report presents the findings of a field study on family courts in Egypt. The aim of this twelve-month ethnographic research, which started in January 1, 2007, was to conduct an in-depth study of the litigation process in family courts in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses in regard to meeting the legal needs of female disputants and strengthening their rights. A secondary goal of the study was to examine the effect of the new structures of family courts (e. g. …
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Recent Reforms In Personal Status Laws And Women’s Empowerment: Family Courts In Egypt Executive Summary
This is the executive summary for a report which presents the findings of a field study on family courts in Egypt. The aim of this twelve-month ethnographic research, which started in January 1, 2007, was to conduct an in-depth study of the litigation process in family courts in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses in regard to meeting the legal needs of female disputants and strengthening their rights. A secondary goal of the study was to examine the effect of the new structures of family courts (e. g. …
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Reforming Muslim Family Law For Developing Guidelines For Reforming Muslim Family Laws
The aims of this workshop held in Cairo from 9-11 January 2009 were threefold: 1) disseminate the findings of the research on the reforms in Egyptian family laws and their impact on women’s empowerment, 2) exchange knowledge on reform trajectories in family laws in a number of Middle Eastern countries, and 3) have a regional debate about reform trajectories, strategies, challenges, and successes in regard to the question of women’s rights and Muslim family laws. The workshop was attended by members of women’s rights organisations, judiciary, lawyers, students of gender studies, researchers and academics, and representatives of relevant government bodies such as Ministry of Justice. …
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The 'Religious' In Debates About Reforming Egyptian Personal Status Laws
In this paper, presented to 'Pathways: What are we Learning?' Analysis Conference, Cairo, 20-24 January 2009, I want to argue against a common and perhaps a temptingly easy understanding that posits a direct and problematic link between the challenges of reforming Egyptian personal status laws and their seemingly inescapable religious identity. Such a reading has a homogenizing effect that: 1) collapses those who take issue with the proposed changes in the substantive laws from a religious perspective into one unitary position, 2) fails to appreciate the interconnectedness of secular (e. g. human rights) and religious discourses that frame the debates about the new legal reforms, and 3) conceals a number of underlying issues which go beyond the question of the religious boundaries of the family laws. …
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Transnational Family Networks In The Somali Diaspora In Egypt: Women's Roles And Differentiated Experiences, Gender, Place and Culture 17.4
Diasporic Somalis are increasingly leading a transnational life in which family members are sustained through networks of relations, obligations and resources that are located in different nation-states. These networks and relations enable diasporic Somalis to seek safety for themselves and their relatives, minimize risks and maximize family resources. In this article, Mulki Al-Sharmani examines three key dimensions of such a way of life, namely: migration; remittances; and transnational family care. She focuses on the roles that women play in this family-based support system. …
