Social reform before the House
Gamal Essam El-Din reviews five new high-profile laws that will be discussed in parliament over the next few weeks
Parliament will be debating five laws over the next few weeks, most of which are aimed at introducing social and economic reforms meant to empower both women and the underprivileged. According to Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif, these bills were adopted by last year's ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) first annual conference, and include establishing family courts, setting up a family insurance fund, fighting private monopolies, amending the nationality law, and improving the maintenance of the country's buildings.
Amending the nationality law -- by allowing children born to an Egyptian mother and a foreign father to obtain the Egyptian nationality -- tops the list. The current law only allows children born to Egyptian fathers that right. Omayma Kamel, who head the NDP's Women's Secretariat, said that although the law has arrived on the scene a little bit late, it represents a very progressive step that finally ends a major form of discrimination against Egyptian women. "The current law is a violation of the constitution," Kamel said, "which states that women and men must be equal in rights and public duties."
The bill's explanatory note also cites a two-decade increase in the number of Egyptian women married to foreign husbands as another catalyst for the emergence of the new law. "This new factor led to a worsening of the social problems which usually result from discriminating against children born to Egyptian mothers and foreign fathers." The law will also allow children who were abandoned, or whose parentage is unknown, to obtain the Egyptian nationality as long as it can be proved that they were born in Egypt.
The bill aimed at establishing family courts also seems to complement the new nationality amendment. The draft of this 14-article law states that it is aimed at countering social problems that frequently result from drawn-out family disputes -- things like divorce, child custody, and alimony. "These problems," according to the draft law, "end up negatively affecting society as a whole, with severe family traumas either pushing children to drop out of schools or resulting in an increase in juvenile crimes."
El-Sherif said separate family courts would be annexed to summary and appeal courts. Eight of these courts would at first be annexed to appeal courts in eight big cities (Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta, Mansoura, Ismailia, Beni Suef, Assiut and Qena). Later, El-Sherif said, a total of 24 big cities would get their own family courts, while other family courts would be annexed to 240 summary courts located in the capitals of major districts. "These courts -- which will be exclusively devoted to discussing family matters -- will be a major step towards sparing women the suffering and costs of drawn-out and complicated judicial procedures required when suing for their rights," El- Sherif said. A special police force would also be formed to speed up the implementation of these courts' rulings.
Mohamed El-Mahgoub, chairman of parliament's religious affairs committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly that this law was not only a step forward in the battle to overcome a major source of social ills, but because it was also in line with Islamic Shari'a. In fact, both the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar and the Mufti have endorsed the bill.
The proposed amendments to the family insurance law also go hand in hand with the above. These aim at establishing a special fund for implementing final court rulings on alimony rights. Affiliated to the Nasser Social Bank (which is itself affiliated to the Social Insurance Ministry), the fund will be fed by the fees associated with obtaining official marriage, divorce, and birth documents, as well as allocations from the Finance Ministry and private donations. Social Insurance Minister Amina El-Guindi said the fund was expected to generate LE18.5 million per year, which will be used to "help divorced women obtain sufficient alimony which they desperately need to raise their children and protect them from social deviation," El-Guindi said.
The fourth bill, which deals with building maintenance, is basically a response to the public outcry that followed the tragic collapse of a Nasr City residential building. El-Sherif said the bill makes it obligatory that construction offences be quickly eliminated, and the offenders -- be they landlords, contractors or building consultants -- face harsh penalties. He also indicated that special courts would be established to accelerate the settlement of construction disputes.
The fifth bill aims to combat the proliferation of private monopolies. After MPs took aim at the monopolistic practices of steel magnate Ahmed Ezz, an NDP heavyweight and chairman of the People's Assembly's planning and budget committee, President Hosni Mubarak said the bill was to be submitted to parliament as soon as possible.
Altogether, the five bills should make for interesting parliamentary debates. While many MPs feel the bills will help improve the government's image, the opposition sees them as a desperate effort on the part of a government that has reached a point of bankruptcy.
Similar accusations have been levelled against the government on the issue of food subsidies, which also made the headlines this week. Stabilising the prices of food and services figured prominently on the agenda of the Sunday meeting between President Mubarak, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and several cabinet ministers. According to El-Sherif, Mubarak wanted to know what the government was doing to ensure that the majority of citizens have easy access to food and bread at affordable prices. El-Sherif said the president considers the issue a strategic and national security concern. As a result, the government has decided to allocate an additional LE1.6 billion in subsidies to bread and basic food products over the next six months.
