Cancellation of the Articles of Women’s Rights is a planned aggression on the Egyptian Women
(Cairo, November 8, 2012) In the light of intimidating the Egyptian women and seeking to attack their rights by some dominant mainstream in the constituent assembly of the constitution, the Egyptian society got shocked due to the announcement, on behalf of some members of the committee, on the cancelation of the article no 68 from what is known as the draft of constitution.
The article no 68 “ The state is committed to take all procedures that guarantee the equality between women and men in the fields of political, cultural, economic, and social life and all other fields without prejudice to the provisions of Islamic Shari’a. The State provides the services of motherhood and childhood for free. The state ensures the women’s health care, social and economic rights and the right of inheritance and reconcile with her duties towards the family and her work in the society. The state provides protection and special attention of household, divorced, and widowed women and others of women who most in need.”
ECWR announced previously along with other feminist organizations and movements many of demands to be included in the constitution (including) as follows:
Firstly: On the Drafting Level:
- The need to include specific references aiming at establishing the principle of equality between women and men, addressed “women and men”, instead of the signals or ambiguous and general words such as “personals and citizens or individuals”. The reference of women or men in the preamble reinforces the idea that says “women and men are equal in the constitution and both of them have the same rights and duties, and they are treated equally without any discrimination.
- Women shouldn’t be mentioned only when addressing the articles related to maternity and reproductive stage. This reflects the public policy of the state as a whole and limits the women’s role in the society to these two roles only.
Secondly: On the Rights Level:
Commitment to guaranteeing equality in the rights between the Egyptian women and men which includes guaranteeing full rights and freedom and the necessity of passing on legislations that enhance achieving equality. Additionally, passing any other mechanisms and measures to protect persons and categories from discrimination
- The state is committed to take the measures that guarantee real political, social, economic, and cultural equality
- Criminalizing discrimination against women and any other form of violence against women or violation of her dignity or trafficking
- Protecting the reproductive role of women and considering it a social responsibility that the state should sponsor and criminalize any violation against women based on her reproductive role
- Protecting the marginalized, special needs, and the breadwinning women. And addressing the cultural and social distortions that contribute to discrimination against women
Despite the efforts that were exerted by the civil forces and some political forces to highlight the fact that that women’s rights is an inseparable part of democracy and renaissance, the founding committee of the constitution whose legitimacy is contested refused these demands and threw the results of the hearing sessions in the trash pin. Additionally, it reproduced the equality article from the constitution of 1971 with its flaws. And instead of negotiating within the founding committee to fix the imbalance and respond to women’s demands in Egypt, the whole article (68) got cancelled to punish women who rejected the stipulation of equality that is restricted with restrictions that will block the implementation of this equality. Furthermore, claiming that the citizenship articles are enough which is a severe attack on the Egyptian women’s rights and an abuse of their cause and does not help eliminating violence and discrimination against women on the political, economic, social and cultural levels.
The constitution of 1956 stipulated the principles of equality and citizenship and over 60 years, women suffered from discrimination in many of the Egyptian laws and in other situations. Women’s participation in the elected councils was almost close to 0% without paying attention to taking any necessary measures to address this imbalance or to limit it.
Many countries realized that the articles remain only on paper if they are not supported by mechanisms to that guarantee equality. Therefore, article 19 of the Moroccan constitution that was passed by the end of 2011provides for equality between men and women in a practical way and calls for establishing a mechanism to ensure this equality through stipulating that “the State shall endeavor to achieve the principle of equality (fifty/fifty) between men and women and to this end shall establish an organization for equality and for combating all forms of discrimination.” In addition, the Iraqi, Afghani, Rwandan, and Ugandan constitutions stipulate that women should be represented in the elected councils in an average percentage of 30% in order to address the political and cultural distortion that block women from practicing their political rights. Also, in Germany that is being led by a woman, a new constitutional amendment was passed in 2004 to confirm on the responsibility of the German state to combat discrimination against women that resulted from cultural and social distortion.
Therefore, ECWR declares that the agreement on cancelling the articles which are related to ensuring equality between women and men along with ignoring women’s demands in the post-revolution’s constitution is a severe attack on women’s rights and an extension of the plan to eliminate women and getting rid of their rights which makes this constitution unacceptable, altogether, form and content.
