New legal amendments to the Personal Status Law

The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights held the second legal awareness seminar about “the new legal amendments… in personal status law” on Wednesday 29th December 2010 in the hall of the local Community Development Association in western Helwan. About 70 girls and women attended the

seminar. Mrs. Ghada Lotfy the consultant for the Training in ECWR and Mrs. Fardous Ahmed, lawyer and head of Tanwir Center for Development and Human Rights spoke in the seminar.Mrs. Ghada began events of the seminar by welcoming the attendants and thanking those who organized it from Local Community Development Association. Her speech

was a brief about ECWR which was founded in 1996; it is a nongovernmental organization aims at true participation of women in society. She confirmed that women’s participation in society is a must for it’s renaissance and developing women’s participation in society; since the cultured, literate and aware woman can bring up her children within a high level of awareness and efficiency in society.

She stressed on the idea that ECWR is seeking to achieve this through:

• Increasing women’s participation in decision making positions.
• ECWR is seeking for empowerment of women by holding awareness seminars to making from the legal concepts

related directly to our daily lives simple ones. ECWR makes this to prevent women from being victims to their legal ignorance. Thus, it supports women who have legal problems concerning their personal status as long as they are victims and they are really not able financially to appoint a lawyer and to reside in the region of ECWR’s work.

Mrs. Ghada concluded her speech with presenting Mrs. Fardous who welcomed the attendants and spoke about women in the different laws of personal status. She referred to the historic development of women’s role; women in the past were suffering from society’s treatment since fathers were practicing infanticide then, but within the Islamic Shari, women’s role began developing step by step. On the legal level, laws began to give women their rights as well; there are 4 basic personal status laws like 25/1925 law

that was amended in 1985 and new article were added to it :
Some related to obedience residence
Request of divorce due harm

There were laws of 2000 related to request of Khul’ (divorce), and it is a clear Islamic system, since divorce by Khul’ is considered valid one.- One of problems that face some women is the customary marriage. Thus, there was a new law stipulates that the woman who has a customary marriage contract and wants to be divorced for any reason can sue at law and request to end the contract of marriage. Children custody law also was amended; it stipulated in the past that age of custody for the boy should be 10 years old and for the girl 12 years old, but it became now 15 years old for the boy and girl or till the girl’s marriage in sometimes.

– Mrs. Fardous spoke also about family court and its advantages:

• Facilitating institute proceedings.
• Making them in separate places away from the main courts to preserve children’s feelings in case of their presence with wives through these proceedings.
• Canceling methods of appeal in these cases by the plea of cassation.

– She concludes her speech with referring to Nasser Social Bank which is paying the alimony to women whom got a ruling of getting alimony from their husband, then the bank get it back from the husband.

Then discussion began and focused on:
How to prove that wife is not honest related to caring for her children
Marital dwelling