In a first for Egypt, last week saw a number of women appointed judges by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the country’s highest legal authority. Although a number of prominent judicial figures have spoken out against the decision, rights activists and SJC officials praised the move.
”This is a defining moment in Egyptian history,” SJC chairperson Moqbel Shaker was quoted as saying last Tuesday after 30 female judicial appointees publicly swore to ”arbitrate justly between the people”.
The move follows a decision by the SJC last year to allow the appointment of women, for the first time, as adjudicators in the nation’s courts. The decision was supported by Egypt’s state-appointed Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, who ruled that the appointment of women to judicial positions did not contradict Islamic precepts.
In mid-March, the SJC accepted 124 applications from female candidates, with the stipulation that applicants must have previous experience working in judicial agencies. After extensive examinations, 31 were chosen to preside over family courts (although one, citing personal reasons, turned down the posting).
”This latest victory … means that everyone is beginning to recognise women’s rights and women’s potential,” Hanan Abdel-Aziz, one of the newly appointed judges, told the state press at the time.
The move is not without precedent. In 2003, a woman, Tahani el-Gebali, was made a justice on the Supreme Constitutional Court by presidential decree, officially making her the country’s first-ever female judge. Unlike the new batch of female judicial appointments, however, el-Gebali’s position entails handing down rulings on legislation rather than on individuals.
Rights activists, meanwhile, praised the new postings, noting that Egypt traditionally lagged behind many of its Arab counterparts in terms of female judicial participation.
”This is a major development for women’s rights,” said Hafez Abu Saeda, secretary general of the Cairo-based Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights. ”Egypt has been very slow in this regard,” he added, pointing to female attorney generals in Syria, Sudan and Tunis.
Human Rights Watch described the appointments as ”a welcome step toward ending discrimination against women in the judiciary”.
”The apparent change of policy in regards to the appointment of women to the bench brings the Egyptian government closer to compliance with anti-discrimination provisions in international law and its constitutional guarantees of equality of opportunity to all Egyptians,” the rights watchdog said in a March 22 statement.
Dissent
The landmark move, however, was not without its dissenters. Several major judicial figures and institutions have come out against the decision, with some directly challenging the legitimacy of Gomaa’s earlier ruling on the subject.
In mid-January, the prominent Judges Club for the Council of State declared that the mufti’s decision was ”in contradiction to the rulings of most Islamic jurists” and represented mere ”pandering to the government”.
”The appointment of female judges contradicts Islamic law and therefore contradicts the constitution,” club president Yehia Dakrouri was quoted as saying in the local press. Dakrouri went on to point out that article two of the national charter clearly cites Islamic law as ”the primary source of legislation”.
In March, the judges club for the middle-Egyptian governorate of Beni Sueif went so far as to urge President Hosni Mubarak to reverse the appointments. ”We refuse the appointment of women as judges,” the club said in a statement, ”because this contradicts both the majority of jurists and the constitution.”
Prominent women and liberal-minded commentators, in turn, criticised the dissenting opinions.
”Unfortunately, the judicial culture in Egypt is a male culture that continues to refuse women their rights,” Noha el-Zeini, deputy director for the Administrative Prosecution Authority was quoted as saying in independent daily al-Masri al-Youm.
Interpretation
According to Mohamed Hamed al-Gemel, former president of the Council of State, however, the issue remains open to religious interpretation.
”There is no specific provision in the Qur’an or Sunna proscribing the appointment of female judges,” he said. ”So the interpretation depends on the rulings of contemporary jurists.”
He went on to cite a council ruling from the 1950s stating that ”the difficulties associated with judicial work served to hinder women from carrying out responsibilities as judges”.
Al-Gemel added, however, that many of these obstacles, such as gruelling travel obligations, have since become considerably less exacting.
The Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, which controls roughly a fifth of the National Assembly, has been relatively reticent on the subject.
”There is still disagreement on the matter between judges’ clubs, the Ministry of Justice and the SJC,” said Hamdi Hasan, spokesperson for the Islamist group’s bloc in Parliament. ”The Brotherhood, for its part, is currently studying the issue and is planning to include its opinion on the matter in a soon-to-be announced party programme.”
In any event, last week’s appointments have hardly brought the controversy to a close. On the same day the women were sworn in, the Council of State requested a definitive ruling on the issue from Egypt’s al-Azhar religious institution, one of the most esteemed seats of Islamic jurisprudence in the Sunni-Muslim world.
Once al-Azhar issues its ruling, the matter is expected to eventually be taken up by the Supreme Constitutional Court for a final decision. — IPS