EGYPT’S constitutional court has ruled as unconstitutional the laws stating that a woman can only get a passport with permission from her husband. The court also ruled unconstitutional laws allowing the interior and foreign ministries to look into the allocation of individual passports, saying “the rule is to issue (a passport) in line with the principle of free movement, and refusal (to issue) is the exception,” not the rule. A bill to give women the right to travel abroad was taken out of the new Egyptian code of personal rights, passed in January, following the parliament’s judgement that it was against Sharia (Islamic) law. – AFP