The State shall guarantee coordination between a woman’s duties toward her family and her work in the society, considering her equal to man in the political, social, cultural and economic spheres without detriment to the rules of Islamic jurisprudence (Shari’a).
-Article 11, Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Despite the fact that women in Egypt were granted citizenship and full political rights in the 1956 Constitution, the social and economic environment in the country has worked against women exercising their political rights.
Violence against women:
Violence against women in Egypt continues to be a major issue with 35 percent of women in Egypt reported as being beaten by their husbands. Honor killings, whereby women who are suspected of tarnishing the family’s reputation through their sexual indiscretions are murdered by male family members, are also carried out periodically but the Egyptian government isn’t interested in researching or providing statistics.
Most rural women take gender-related disadvantages for granted, as they have been told from birth that their only role in life is to marry and have children. Girls’ education is seen as a luxury.
Traditional notions:
The prevalence of certain traditional notions in some communities, like the Bedouins in Egypt or some tribes in Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon, sometimes prevents women from going out or from mixing with men.
The endurance or tolerance of violence or even its perception as such is also socially determined. Circumcision in Egypt is a practice which is greatly tolerated by women who perceive it as the right thing to do and greatly rejected by women who recognize a violation in it. The same women who agree to the procedure that is meant to control woman’s desire until her marriage, admit to the woman’s right to enjoy her sexual life within marriage, and in fact do enjoy this life.
Women are less educated:
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights has revealed that nearly half of the population in the region is illiterate, with women occupying the major ratios. Illiteracy predominantly centers on rural areas among underprivileged women between the ages of 15 and 45.
Girls here are actively discouraged from going to school with some schools failing to provide girls’ toilets and, in many cases, with female students being relegated to the back of classes.
Discriminatory Personal Status Laws:
The situation for Egyptian women in the workforce has improved somewhat as increasing numbers leave menial and low-paying blue-collar jobs in factories and offices, and as street cleaners, janitors, hospital aides, and domestic servants. However, despite more women joining professions including education, engineering, and medicine, they are still in the minority, and their numbers are well below those of men employed in the same categories.
In addition, the Egyptian government’s obstruction of a woman’s right to divorce exemplifies its unwillingness to grant women legal equality. Profoundly discriminatory family, penal, and civil laws reinforce the unequal status of women in the family and in Egyptian society. Laws condoning domestic violence and policies that exclude women from the judicial bench foster and perpetuate women’s second-class status.
Bottom line
The issue of violence against women must go beyond legal action. Although relevant laws have been improved, however, there were still many weaknesses in the way the issues of domestic violence, rape and genital mutilation were dealt with. Policies in that regard were somewhat gender blind and this requires changing the attitude of people behind the scene which cannot be done in a single go, it’ll be a gradual process and will take time.
