11 - 17 January 2001
Issue No.516
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 11 - 17 January 2001 Issue No.516 |
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New padlock for an old chain
The Interior Ministry has asked the State Council to modify the phrasing of a draft passport law to state clearly that a wife cannot obtain a passport without the prior permission of her husband. In case of the husband's refusal, the wife must file a lawsuit with the urgent matters court, and the judge should come to a decision within 24 hours. This is in line with Law 1 for 2000, popularly known as the Khul' Law, which states that all family disputes over the right to travel should be exclusively determined by the urgent affairs judge.
The draft passport law will be debated by the Shura Council before it is sent to the People's Assembly for approval.
In November 1999 the Supreme Constitutional Court annulled the Interior Minister's decree 3937 of 1996 which required the wife to obtain the permission of her husband before acquiring a passport. The court ruled that the minister had no authority to prohibit women from travelling. Any other claim, the court said, was unconstitutional because it infringed on the basic constitutional right to freedom of mobility, which the minister had no authority to restrict.
The legislative committee of the National Council for Women (NCW) will meet soon to discuss ways of fighting the draft law.
According to Fawziya Abdel-Sattar, a professor of law and a leading member of the council, the draft law is a backward step. She said it would not only require a woman to gain her husband's permission before obtaining a passport, but would also give a man the right to prohibit his wife from travelling, even if she already had a passport.
From a legal perspective, annulling a ministerial decree is easier than obtaining the annulment of a law. "The draft law does not improve women's status at all; on the contrary, it makes things more difficult for them," Abdel-Sattar says.
According to the draft, if the husband refuses to allow his wife to travel or acquire a passport, the wife must resort to the urgent affairs judge to gain that permission. "This is what I call absurd," Abdel-Sattar says. A wife might be travelling abroad for a conference or medical treatment, and only find out that she is prohibited from travelling on the day of her departure, she explained. And women would not be able to get a court verdict in 24 hours because the number of cases filed by women asking permission to travel was bound to increase, she said.
"Will it be possible for women to go to the judge and gain permission to travel in time?" Abdel-Sattar wonders. "Will the plane wait for her? Will the conference or the doctor wait for her? This is really ridiculous."
Feminist sources are convinced that the draft is not in line with Islamic Shari'a (law). According to the Egyptian constitution, man and woman are equal in rights and duties. And, the sources point out, Islam has set other channels through which family disputes can be resolved.
According to Zeinab Radwan, dean of Cairo University's Faculty of Islamic Studies (Fayoum Branch), deputy chairperson of the legislative committee of the NCW, and an appointed member of the People's Assembly, the husband may ask his wife to choose between divorce and the cancellation of her travel plans. "A husband who does not want his wife to travel can simply divorce her," she said.
According to Radwan, nearly 70 per cent of women are illiterate and do not travel for business reasons, though they may go abroad to visit relatives. The remaining 30 per cent have either middle or high education. Those who may be affected by the draft law make up a special category, including flight attendants, diplomats, university professors and those who work for the press and the media. Their husbands are certainly aware of the nature of their work. And if in such a case a husband were to ban his wife from travelling for one reason or another, he would deliberately be trying to harm her. "Islam does not permit either spouse to force the other to agree to something against his or her will," Radwan said.
Radwan went so far as to suggest that, for the sake of equality, the man should not travel without the permission of his wife.
All draft laws and decrees dealing with women's affairs must be first presented to the NCW. According to Georgette Qellini, a member of the legislative committee of the NCW and an appointed member of the People's Assembly, sending the draft law to the Shura Council before it is debated by the NCW will be a violation of the NCW's charter. The NCW would do its best to have the draft amended before any further steps are taken, she said.
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