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7 - 13 November 2002 Issue No. 611 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
To judge or not to judge
Women have yet to be appointed as judges in Egypt. Dena Rashed attended a seminar that attempted to explain why not
Intellectuals have been vigorously debating the idea of allowing Egyptian women to serve as judges for a while now. This week, the American University in Cairo's (AUC) Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Centre (EOAAC) held a seminar exploring the myriad truths and myths related to whether or not women are qualified to serve in the judiciary.
The well-attended seminar featured seven speakers -- four men and three women -- offering their legal, religious and behavioural assessments of the issue.
"The topic should not have taken all this discussion time," said Adly Hussein, the governor of Qaliubiya, and a former judge. "I personally believe that there are no true impediments -- neither legal nor constitutional -- against allowing women to become judges. Only the traditions of society have been the true barriers."
Hussein's opinion was reinforced by Abdel-Mo'eti Bayoumi, professor of Islamic Philosophy at Al- Azhar University. "Although some people have used certain interpretations of the Qur'an and Shari'a to stop women from becoming judges," Bayoumi explained, "the truth is the Qur'an and the Sunna (teachings of Prophet Mohamed) do not restrict women from attaining this role."
According to Bayoumi, some people interpret Islam in the way that suits them, whereas it was evident during the prophet's time that women enjoyed all their rights. "In a way, people affected Islam with their traditions and cultures, but when we want to get things straight, we stick to the Qur'an and clear out the interpretations derived from the people's cultures."
Bayoumi indicated that society needs a renewal of its religious culture, so as to convince people not to merely duplicate the interpretations of their ancestors. One hadith (religious saying) that has been used by some people to deny women their right to be judges seems to indicate that no tribe would succeed if ruled by a woman. However, as Bayoumi said, "we have to understand that the interpretation of every hadith has to be related to the reason why it was said, and if the reason in the past, and the reason now, coincide -- then we could apply the hadith." In this particular case, Bayoumi said, the prophet was referring only to the queen of Kesra, who was a tyrannical ruler.
As the discussion went on, the women in the audience became increasingly enthusiastic about what was being said. The phrase "yes that's right," could be heard over and over again. By the end of Adel Abu Zahra's turn at the microphone, the women in the audience were clapping hard.
Abu Zahra, who is a professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Alexandria, elaborated on the pretext used by many men that women are more emotional than men. "It has been common for a long while to treat women as breakable and fragile, but the truth is that women were always capable of doing the same work that men do," he said. "A judge is not supposed to be a wrestler, and at the same time judging demands an ability to analyse and draw conclusions -- something women [can definitely do], and that is not just my opinion or that of women, but [a fact that has been proven by] psychological scientists. Abu Zahra also stressed that these negative ideas were more related to cultural issues, and not the nature of women themselves. He also pointed out that there are more than eight Arab countries where women have become judges, and two Islamic countries where women have become president and prime minister.
If there was any disagreement amongst the speakers, it was related to the specifics of a judge's job. Hussein said that before becoming a judge, a person must go through several stages, some of which may be tough for women: "Becoming a prosecutor in Upper Egypt for example, or interrogating cases at dawn could be difficult for many women." Consequently, he suggested that women should not investigate criminal cases because of their troublesome nature.
Abu Zahra, however, found that opinion to be discriminatory. "Women are capable of investigating both criminal and non-criminal cases, and our focus should be on women's rights to become judges in all domains." Hussein then made clear that he still supports women's rights to become judges, despite his reservations on the specifics.
Amna Nosseir, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and a professor of Islamic philosophy at Al-Azhar University, said it was "absurd how people look at this issue, since at one point it is women professors who teach future men judges". With this fact in mind, asked Nosseir, does it make sense that women "still cannot [have the same opportunities] as their students?"
Nosseir said "the topic should not have taken six months to discuss since women have proven to be competent judges in other arenas of life."
Amongst the audience were Hend Tantawi, the first woman to become head of the Administrative Prosecution Authority (APA), and its present head, Nagwa Sadeq.
"When I headed the APA," Tantawi said, "70 per cent of the cases we looked at were about general crimes. Egyptian women are already judges in our case, and becoming judges in the judicial authority will also definitely happen soon."
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