Breaking Up the Family: Divorce in Egyptian Law and Practice

Abstract

If the legal status of women wishing to end an unhappy marriage has undoubtedly improved through the codification process of personal status law in Egypt in the twentieth century, it still remains very unequal in comparison to the privileges enjoyed by men in that field. Moreover, the practical effects of these legal reforms can be questioned. This chapter will study marriage breakups in Egypt through both legal and sociological approaches. Legal texts governing family law will first be examined to expose the different ways marriage can be broken up and how the reforms were legitimated by reference to sharî'a principles. Then the various obstacles that impede the effective implementation of these reforms will be exposed, to stress that the study of law should capture the language of law in action and not only of law in books.

With the Best of Intentions

“…In recent decades, Egypt has witnessed several legislative reforms in the area of Muslim personal status law. A growing body of scholarship has investigated the implementation of personal status legislation in Egyptian courts and in everyday life (Ahmed Zaki 2012;Al-Sharmani 2017;Bernard-Maugiron and Dupret 2008;Dupret 2007;Lindbekk 2017Lindbekk , 2020Sonneveld 2012). However, research on housing and legal studies has largely overlooked how divorced mothers negotiate access to housing, a key factor in post-divorce negotiations.…”

The Coptic divorce struggle in contemporary Egypt

“…Apart from the advantage it gives to men, the practical upside of ṭalāq is that is does not require any court proceedings, which makes it relatively fast and cheap. Consider that, at least since the 1990s, the Egyptian court system has been suffering from an insufficient number of judges as compared to the number of lawsuits filed, a situation leading to long waiting periods and ineffective mechanisms of enforcement (Bernard-Maugiron and Dupret, 2008). Some reforms were introduced between 2000 and 2005 with the intention of making the courts more female- and family-friendly, but efficiency remained a huge problem (Al-Sharmani, 2017: 25–46).…”

Judicial Activism in the Context of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution: Emerging Conceptions of Femininity and Masculinity

“…During the first years the implementation of the khul' law was riddled with resistance and confusion over the exact steps to be followed (Al-Sharmani 2009;Bernard-Maugiron and Dupret 2008;Sonneveld 2012). Although it has become a more regularised procedure since its inception, several grey areas remain in the law.…”