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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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Un-Islamic patriarchy
A Supreme Constitutional Court decision that reverses the Minister of Interior's decree forcing a woman to obtain her husband's consent before applying for a passport or travelling was surely cause for celebration. Women can hardly rejoice, however, considering all the limits and restrictions that hamper them in modern-day Egyptian society. It seems almost criminal that, when checked against the decrees of the Qur'an and the Sunna (the Prophet's practice), many of the restrictions in question turn out to be the products of spurious patriarchy.
The long-standing reluctance to eliminate ta'a (whereby a husband may legally force his wife to return to his house against her will) was another instance of the tendency not only to belittle half of society but to take away from women what is rightfully theirs. Ta'a was in fact introduced by an 'Alawite caliph who invented the procedure in order to compel his own wife to return to him. This law explicitly disregards Shari'a, human rights and even constitutional provisions. Yet Egyptian women suffered the humiliation of being brought back to a house where they did not want to live, and to a husband they wanted to divorce for half a century before the law was finally disregarded. Both ta'a and laws regarding permission to travel raise questions about the abuse of women's rights.
Marriage is by default a condition of mutual agreement. Islam allows neither man nor woman to live with a spouse against their will. The drive to keep women literally under control (whether by preventing them from travelling freely or by resorting to the police to force them to live with a man against their will) is misinformed and misdirected. What is even more disturbing is that it has come to be associated with Islam.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is dean of Cairo University's Dar Al-Ulum (Fayoum Branch).
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