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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 March 2000 Issue No. 472 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 9 - 15 March 2000 Issue No. 472
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons The beginning or the end?
By Mariz TadrosIt's 11.15am at Zananeiri Personal Status Court, Cairo, and the courtroom is exceptionally crowded. The reason: "It is khul' day," says one lawyer sarcastically, eyeing the hordes of women clutching applications for khul', the right for a woman to gain divorce without her husband's consent by foregoing her financial rights.
The new law, intended to facilitate personal status litigation, took effect this month. The first week of March has seen a steady flow of applications for khul' before Personal Status Courts across the nation; by the time this issue of Al-Ahram Weekly is out on the stands, no less than 100 applications at the Zananeiri Court alone are likely to have been made.
"This is the beginning of the breakdown of the family," bemoaned the Wafd newspaper, mouthpiece of the Wafd Party, which fiercely opposed the law. But for many of the women seeking khul', this is the beginning of the end of hell.
Hanaa Eid, a woman in her early thirties with two children (Ahmed, aged seven, and Mohamed aged five), has applied for khul' without the assistance of a lawyer. After eight years of marriage, Hanaa has "had enough". "I feel I have gone through every possible pain and degradation, and it is enough," she said.
The fact that she will have to forego her financial rights, despite her modest resources, has not deterred Hanaa: "He [her husband] doesn't contribute a single piastre to the household. I pay for everything and we have no home but my father's. So what is the difference?" she sighed.
Hanaa is desperate to "get it over and done with", so that she can apply for welfare benefits as a female heading a household with no regular source of income. She said that she has been frequenting the courts for the past four years trying to get a divorce, but to no avail. Her husband would not turn up for the hearings and the case would be postponed. "I don't even know where he is anymore," Hanaa said.
But it is not just women struggling for a livelihood who have applied for khul'. Female doctors, engineers, teachers, civil servants as well as businesswomen were among the 14 who applied for khul' at the Personal Status Court in Tanta.
Several lawyers, waiving aside male sentiments, have grudgingly accepted appeals for khul' on behalf of their female clients. Hassan El-Meleigi, a lawyer, said the problem with khul' is that "any woman can ask for a divorce with or without justification". He argued angrily that women who are involved in relationships with other men, or who no longer want their husbands "because they don't love them", can just go and apply for divorce. But are there many cases like that? "Many, many," he asserted, though only one came readily to mind.
Osama Abdel-Fattah, another lawyer, pointed out that some of his clients who applied for khul' did so to cut short the legal procedures of their divorces. "One woman sought khul' because her husband is impotent. Although impotence is an acknowledged reason for divorce, she did not want to humiliate the man in court and she did not want to wait for ages after the court refers the case to forensic medicine," Abdel-Fattah said.
Many lawyers note that because the executive statutes of the new law have not been released, there has already been some confusion. According to the new law, a wife seeking divorce through khul' is supposed to return to her husband all his financial dues. In some cases, a marriage contract may state that the wife received the token sum of 25 piastres as a dowry. But other documents may show that the husband donated an apartment or a car to his wife. Lawyers are awaiting the publication of the executive statutes, which explain in detail how the law should be implemented, to know which document should be the basis of the litigation.
But Mahmoud El-Baroudi, deputy secretary general at the management of the Zananeiri Court, said the fact that the executive statutes have not yet been issued has had no impact on the number of submitted applications. Looking into a pile of papers, he remarked, "we have received well over 65 applications, and dates for hearings have been set for next month".
The only problem he mentioned is that lawyers "keep on citing reasons for khul', such as harm inflicted by the husband, or a husband not providing for his family -- although they are not necessary. All that is required is to argue that the wife does not want the husband anymore."
Several lawyers who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly were antagonistic to the idea of women gaining khul' so easily. They expressed the hope that the executive statutes would introduce some restrictions. Many lawyers also insisted that the fact that men cannot appeal against khul' is unconstitutional.
One lawyer scoffed: "I don't understand why all these women keep asking us to seek khul' for them. What kind of a man would agree to marry a woman who got divorced by means of khul'?"
