The role of women in Egypt has changed throughout history, from
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...
to modern times. From the earliest preserved
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
records,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian women were considered equal to men in Egyptian society, regardless of
marital status
Civil status, or marital status, are the distinct options that describe a person's relationship with a significant other. ''Married'', ''single'', ''divorced'', and ''widowed'' are examples of civil status.
''Civil status'' and ''marital status ...
.
Women in ancient Egypt
![Egyptian Women Drawing Water (1878) - TIMEA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Egyptian_Women_Drawing_Water_%281878%29_-_TIMEA.jpg)
Women were stated lower than men when it came to a higher leader in the Egyptian hierarchy counting his
peasants
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
. This
hierarchy
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
was similar to the way the peasants were treated in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
.
[ As children, females were raised to be solely dependent upon their fathers and older brothers. When women married, they depended on their husbands to make all decisions, while the women themselves were depended upon to carry out household chores.
Married Egyptian women were expected by their husband's families to bear children, but particularly males. It was common for married couples to continue to reproduce until bearing at least two sons. ]Barrenness
Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal stat ...
was considered a severe misfortune for Egyptian women, as well as the inability to produce male offspring. Women who had only bore females were given derogatory names, such as "mothers of brides". A family with well-grown sons was considered to have decent security. An Egyptian woman was thought to be at the peak of her power when her sons had married because she automatically acquired the control over the newly growing families of her sons.
Women have traditionally been preoccupied with household tasks and child rearing and have rarely had opportunities for contact with men outside the family. Royal Egyptian women had great impact on Egyptian Society. Queen Tiye
Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the daughter of Yuya and Thuya. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamu ...
, the grandmother of King Tut
Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...
was so enmeshed in politics that neighboring King Mitanni wrote to her to ensure good will between their people when her son Akhenaten ascended to the throne. Queen Aahmose was awarded the golden flies for military valor.
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...
and Nefertiti
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti () ( – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a radical change in national religious policy, in whic ...
were among the better known rulers in Egyptian society. Cleopatra was known to have ruled with Marc Antony
Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autoc ...
around 31 BC and she was also the Co-regent
A coregency is the situation where a monarchical position (such as prince, princess, king, queen, emperor or empress), normally held by only a single person, is held by two or more. It is to be distinguished from diarchies or duumvirates such ...
of her two husband-brothers and her son. Nefertiti was the chief wife of an Egyptian pharaoh, Amenhotep IV
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...
. Nefertiti was known to be an active Egyptian woman in society, as well as her children. In addition to female Egyptian rulers, Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut (; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: '' ḥꜣt- špswt'' "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; or Hatasu c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, aft ...
usurped the throne and reigned in Egypt as pharaoh from about 1503 to 1480 B.C. She based most of Egypt's economy on commerce.
Though not many women have acted as rulers in Egyptian society, they have been considered to be equal among men in status as well as legal opportunities. Women were shown to be allowed the opportunity to take part in the economy, such as their role as merchants, as it happened later in the Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
, specially among the lower classes. Women had also taken part in religious activities, such as those who were priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
esses. In the Sixth Dynasty
The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt.
Pharaohs
Known pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty are listed in the table below. Manetho acc ...
Nebet
Nebet (“Lady”) was created vizier during the late Old Kingdom of Egypt by Pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty, her son-in-law. She is the first recorded female vizier in Ancient Egyptian history; the next one was in the 26th Dynasty.Naguib Kan ...
became a Vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...
and thus the first woman in History to fulfill such an office.
Women could also own property, divorce their husbands, live alone and occupy main positions, mostly religious, in similarity with Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
n women. Only the children from the Great Royal Wife
Great Royal Wife, or alternatively, Chief King's Wife ( Ancient Egyptian: ''ḥmt nswt wrt'', cop, Ⲟⲩⲏⲣ Ⲟⲩⲣϣ), is the title that was used to refer to the principal wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who served many official ...
could expect to succeed to the throne, and if there were no son but daughters by her, then a son by another wife or concubine could only get the throne by marrying the heir daughter, and whoever did so would become the new King. Either through political and/or religious power, some women managed to become, de facto or de jure, the highest office holders in the kingdom, and share a status of co-rulers with men, even being depicted in monuments with the same height as their husbands or otherwise and even as the other Gods of Egypt.
Such were the cases of Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut (; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: '' ḥꜣt- špswt'' "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; or Hatasu c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, aft ...
, Nefertiti
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti () ( – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a radical change in national religious policy, in whic ...
, Nefertari
Nefertari, also known as Nefertari Meritmut, was an Egyptian queen and the first of the Great Royal Wife, Great Royal Wives (or principal wives) of Ramesses II, Ramesses the Great.Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. ''The Complete Royal Families o ...
and the Nubian
Nubian may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Nubia, a region along the Nile river in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan.
*Nubian people
*Nubian languages
*Anglo-Nubian goat, a breed of goat
* Nubian ibex
* , several ships of the Britis ...
Egyptian Queens. The further Nubian Queens were able to maintain this status. The most important religious offices of that kind were those of God's Wife
God's Wife ( Egyptian ''ḥmt nṯr'') is a title which was often allocated to royal women during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The term indicates an inherited sacral duty, in which the role of "God's Wife" passed from mother to daughter. The r ...
and God's Wife of Amun
God's Wife of Amun (Egyptian: ''ḥm.t nṯr n ỉmn'') was the highest-ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important religious institution in ancient Egypt. The cult was centered in Thebes in Upper Egypt during the Twenty-fifth and Twenty ...
. Politically, they often managed to become Interregnum queen
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
s. In the Ptolemaic Dynasty
The Ptolemaic dynasty (; grc, Πτολεμαῖοι, ''Ptolemaioi''), sometimes referred to as the Lagid dynasty (Λαγίδαι, ''Lagidae;'' after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal dynasty which ruled the Ptolemaic ...
this rise to power was sublimated with the establishment of a coregency system, in which Queens had the same position as Kings and were even powerful enough to obtain in dispute that coregency for themselves.
19th century
Circa the 1890s, twice the percentage of women in Alexandria knew how to read compared to the same percentage in Cairo. As a result, specialist women's publications like ''al-Fatāh'' by Hind Nawal, the country's first women's journal, appeared.[Kendall, Elisabeth. "Between Politics and Literature: Journals in Alexandria and Istanbul at the End of the Nineteenth Century" (Chapter 15). In: Fawaz, Leila Tarazi and C. A. Bayly (editors) and Robert Ilbert (collaboration). ''Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean''. ]Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
, 2002. , 9780231114271. Start: p
330
CITED: p
340
Modern status
To limit women's contact with men as tradition, practices such as veiling
A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has been prominent i ...
and gender segregation
Sex segregation, sex separation, gender segregation or gender separation is the physical, legal, or cultural separation of people according to their biological sex. Sex segregation can refer simply to the physical and spatial separation by sex w ...
at schools, work, and recreation have become common. Furthermore, lower-class families, especially in Upper-Egypt, have tended to withdraw females from school as they reached puberty to minimize their interaction with males. Lower-class men frequently preferred marriage to women who had been secluded rather than to those who had worked or attended secondary school.
The rule of Gamal Abdul Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...
was characterized by his policy of stridently advocating women's rights through welfare-state policies, labeled as state feminism
State feminism is feminism created or approved by the government of a state or nation. It usually specifies a particular program. The term was coined by Helga Hernes with particular reference to the situation in Norway, which had a tradition of g ...
. Women were guaranteed the right to vote and equality of opportunity was explicitly stated in the 1956 Egyptian constitution, forbidding gender-based discrimination. Labor laws were changed to ensure women's standing in the work force and maternity leave was legally protected. At the same time, the state repressed independent feminist organizations, leaving a dearth of female political representation.[
The economic liberalization plan of the ]Sadat
Sadat ( ar, سادات) is a suffix, which is given to families believed to be descendants of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. In Iran, after the revolution, it is mandatory to mention "Seyed" or "Sadat" in the names of or whose descent from Muham ...
regime resulted in the collapse of this system and the resurgence of Islamist-influenced policy. While the Nasserist years allowed a wide range of study for women, Sadat's policies narrowed the opportunities available to women. Unemployment for women changed from 5.8% 1960 to 40.7% in 1986. In place of policies to economically support women during pregnancy, women were encouraged to leave work entirely or work part-time.[
The Mubarak years were marked by further erosion of the ]role of women
A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cente ...
. Preserved parliamentary seats for women and the 1979 personal status law were repealed in 1987, a new watered-down law taking its place that allowed less power for women in cases of divorce.[
The migration of a large number of Egyptians, mostly men, has also affected the status of Egyptian women. A study by the ]International Organization for Migration
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a United Nations agency that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers.
The IOM was ...
found that two-thirds of migrant household interviewed were headed by a woman in the absence of the male migrant (husband/father). For these households, remittance
A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their home country or homeland. Money sent home by migrants competes wit ...
s represented an important source of income, accounting for 43% of their total income. 52% of wives of the migrants independently decided how to spend the money received. In the remaining cases, the head of the household enjoyed a fair deal of autonomy as the decision on how to use the remittance money was reached through mutual consultation between the migrant and the head of the household and only in a few cases (11%) did the migrant decide alone.
A 2010 Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C.
It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...
poll showed that 45% of Egyptian men and 76% of women supported gender equality.[ The same poll showed that, in principle, people tend to accept a woman's right to work outside the home, with 61% of the respondents agreeing that "women should be able to work outside the home", but at the same time showing some reservations, with only 11% of men and 36% of women completely agreeing with that statement; and 75% agreeing that "when jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job". Polls taken in 2010 and 2011 show that 39% considered gender equality "very important" to Egypt's future post-revolution and 54% of Egyptians supported sex segregation in the workplace.][
Despite long standing advocation for women's labor rights, that is not the case in 21st century Egypt. In the public sector women are more protected with labor rights that secure their position and provide benefits such as maternity leave. In the private sector there is little to no labor rights for women and companies are less likely to hire women because of implied “associated costs” such as childcare and maternity leave. Thus, women are discriminated against in the workforce and not given an opportunity to pursue their desired careers. That goes for women with or without education because jobs can be attained at various levels, but the preference goes to their male counterparts.
Female genital mutilation was criminalized in Egypt in 2008. In 2012, ]UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
reported that 87% of Egyptian women and girls 15–49 years old had undergone female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...
. In June 2013, 13-year-old Soheir al-Batea died after undergoing FGM. The doctor responsible for the procedure became the first doctor in Egypt to be tried for committing female genital mutilation. On November 20, 2014 he was found not guilty.
Virginity tests done by the military on detainees were banned in Egypt on 27 December 2011.
The literacy rate
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...
of women (aged 15 and over) is 65.4%, which is lower than that of men which is 82.2% (data from 2015). Egypt is largely rural country, with only 43.1% of the population being urban (in 2015), and access to education is poor in rural areas.
Most women in Egypt have adopted some form of veiling, with a majority of Egyptian women covering at least their hair with the hijab
In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...
; however covering the face with a niqāb
A niqāb or niqaab (; ar, نِقاب ', "aceveil"), also called a ruband, ( fa, روبند) is a garment, usually black, that covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of an interpretation of '' hijab'' (i.e. "modest dress"). Musli ...
is only practiced by a minority of women (see Niqāb in Egypt).
Families are usually of medium size, with the total fertility rate
The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if:
# she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime
# she were t ...
(TFR) being 3.53 children born/woman (2016 estimate). The contraception prevalence rate is high, at 60.3% (in 2008).
In a 2013 poll of gender experts, Egypt ranked worst for women's rights out of all the Arab states.
On 23 June 2020, Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian security forces detained prominent activist Sanaa Seif from outside the general prosecutor's office in the capital, Cairo, where she was waiting to file a complaint about being physically assaulted outside Cairo's Tora Prison
Tora Prison ( arz, سجن طره '; ) is an Egyptian prison complex for criminal and political detainees, located in Tora, Egypt. The complex is situated in front of the Tora El Balad metro station. The main buildings in the Tora Prison complex a ...
complex on 22 June 2020.
According to Global Gender Gap Index, Egypt ranked 134th out of the 153 countries in 2020. It ranked 140th out of 153 countries in women’s economic participation and opportunity. Only 18% of the working-age women participated in the economy, compared to 65% of men.
In March 2021, Egypt became the first country in Africa and MENA
MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...
region to launch the "Closing the Gender Gap Accelerator" in cooperation with the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
, in order to reduce the gender gap in the labor market. Also in the same month, the amendments of Personal Status Law, which were proposed on 23 February, were rejected by feminist organizations as they would deprive women of the legal status to conclude a marriage contract. However, the new amendments ignored granting women financial and educational guardianship over their minor children, and for Christian women, their denial of custody over their children, when their husbands convert to Islam.
Violence against women
Sexual violence and sexual harassment
In a 2010 survey of 1,010 women by the Egyptian Center for Women's rights, 98% of foreign women and 83% of native women said they had been sexually harassed in Egypt and two-thirds of men said that they had harassed women.[ In 2013, the reported that 99.3% of Egyptian women had experienced some form of harassment.][
]
Forced virginity tests
In December 2011, the Cairo Administrative court ruled that forced virginity tests on females in military prisons were illegal. The case involved Samira Ibrahim
Samira Ibrahim ( ar, سميرة إبراهيم, ) (born c. 1987) is an Egyptian activist who came to prominence during the Egyptian revolution.
Tahrir sit-in and aftermath
On March 9, 2011, she participated in a sit-in at Tahrir Square in Cairo. ...
who participated at a sit-in at Tahrir Square on March 9, 2011. Ibrahim described the degrading experience of having a virginity test be conducted on her in front of military soldiers. Several other female protestors received similar treatment (see 2011 virginity tests of protestors in Egypt). In its World Report 2020, the Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
reported that virginity tests still occurred in the country.
Sexual assault
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
reported 91 sexual assaults in four days from 30 June 2013 during the Tahrir Square protests, as well as 19 cases of mob sexual assaults in January.[ The deputy Middle East director at HRW said that the attacks were "holding women back from participating fully in the public life of Egypt at a critical point in the country's development."][ On 4 June 2013, a law criminalizing sexual harassment for the first time in modern Egyptian history was approved by then interim president, ]Adly Mansour
Adly Mahmoud Mansour ( ar, عدلى محمود منصور ; born 23 December 1945) is an Egyptian judge and politician who served as the president (or chief justice) of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt. He also served as interim ...
.
The 2014 Cairo hotel gang rape case in which a young woman was drugged and raped by a group of young men from wealthy families attracted wide social media and mainstream media attention, leading to the extradition of three of the accused men from Lebanon back to Egypt in September 2020. ''Egyptian Streets
''Egyptian Streets'' is an English language independent news website and organization founded in July 2012 by Egyptian journalist Mohamed Khairat as a blog, but later developed into a media company in March 2014. It claims to be the number one En ...
'' called the attention a #MeToo moment. In 2020 a social media campaign "Assault Police" was launched so that women could anonymously draw attention to perpetrators of sexual violence. The account was started by Nadeen Ashraf
Nadeen Ashraf ( ar, نادين اشرف; born 12 March 1998) is an Egyptian feminist activist. Her use of social media instigated the #MeToo movement within Egypt. She is part of the BBC's 100 Women of 2020 list.
Biography
Ashraf was born ...
who wanted to enable women to have a voice and make their concerns heard.
In July 2021, several women opened up about their sexual abuse incidents during an interview with ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. The women revealed that they were sexually abused in police stations, hospitals and prisons during routine searches by the police or prison guards and by state-employed doctors during invasive physical exams and virginity tests.
In August 2021, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...
ratified law amendments to tighten the imprisonment term and the fine imposed on sexual harassment. However, Sisi's recent ratification is dismissed in a 2022 court case against famous Egyptian actor Shady Khalaf, who was charged with only 3 years of prison sentencing for his sexual assault and attempted rapes on "seven women at an acting workshop."
Honor killings
Honor killings
An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of ...
take place in Egypt relatively frequently, due to reasons such as a woman meeting an unrelated man, even if this is only an allegation; or adultery (real or suspected). For example, in 2021, a man was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for thinking his sister's behavior was "suspicious" and murdering her––a murder to which he claimed was an "honor killing."
Honor killings are also listed in the Egyptian Penal Code, under Article 237, in which courts are allowed to be more lenient in their sentencing for honor killings made by men who catch their wives committing adultery. However, the same leniency is not granted for women under the Article.
Female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...
(FGM) is widespread in Egypt, with 87% of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years having undergone FGM in 2004–15, though the practice is less common among the youth. The practice is deeply ingrained in the culture and predates both Christianity and Islam. Its main purpose is to preserve chastity
Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when mak ...
, though its social function is very complicated. FGM was banned in 2008, but enforcement of the law was weak. In 2016, they tightened the law and made it a felony.
A 17-year-old girl died on 29 May 2017, reportedly from hemorrhaging
Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vag ...
, following female genital mutilation (FGM) at a private hospital in Suez Governorate. Four people faced trial on charges of causing lethal injury and FGM, including the girl's mother and medical staff as per an Amnesty 2016/2017 report.
In March 2021, the Egyptian Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
approved a new bill that would punish whoever conducts genital mutilation to five years in prison, while the act which results in a permanent handicap would lead to seven years with hard labor, and in case of death, the imprisonment should be no less than ten years. Women continued to lack adequate protection from sexual and gender-based violence, as well as gender discrimination in law and practice, particularly under personal status laws regulating divorce.
Sexual violence against LGBTQ Egyptians
With the rise of LGBTQ rallies and protests in Egypt, a light is also being shed on the rise of sexual violence against the community. Egypt also has a ninth Article in its Penal code that deems homosexuality a criminal act and punishment for it an imprisonment "from 6 months to three years" and the person convicted can end up staying in person for up to 12 years depending on their act of "habitual debauchery." In 2015, a Harvard paper written on the topic of LGBTQ members in Egypt suggests that the reasonings behind the country's resentment towards the community is that the country is "largely conservative" and that the hatred is "rooted in societal gender and sexual norms."
In 2017, it was reported that "dozens" of LGBTQ Egyptians were arrested under the government of el-Sisi, and were charged for "sexual deviance," "insulting public morals," and "debauchery" and arrested due to those charges. Also, on October of that same year, an Egyptian member of the Parliament put forth the introduction of a bill that "criminalizes homosexuality" and a total of 60 members were ready to approve it as they signed it.
In 2020, a "crackdown" of LGBTQ members in Egypt began by the government. Police forces "entraped" members of the community through "social networking sites and dating applications" and gave them "harsh prison sentences." The detainees were a subject of "verbal and physical abuse" by police, and were given "forced anal exams" and "virginity tests." One woman reported that, due to the sexual abuse she endured from police, she "bled for three days and could not walk for weeks." Some detainees also claimed that the police allowed other inmates to abuse and torture them.
Personal status laws
Inheritance
Following an individuals death, Two-thirds of their estate is distributed according to compulsory inheritance rules, wherein Muslim women receive half the inheritance of what their brothers get.
In 2019, a Coptic Christian
Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are ...
woman challenged the Islamic rules, arguing that since Egypt allows for Christians to settle their own matters without Islamic influence, Egypt’s inheritance laws do not apply to her. The court ruled in her favor, marking a landmark case.
Representation of women in politics
A constitutional referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
was held in Egypt in 2012. A constituent assembly was elected which drafted the new constitution. Of the 100 members of the assembly, only 7 were women. After the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état
The 2013 Egyptian coup d'etat took place on 3 July 2013. Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a coalition to remove the democratically elected
President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, from power and suspended the Egyptian constitut ...
another constituent assembly was elected for a constitutional referendum in which 5 of the 50 members were women.
In the 2015 Egyptian parliamentary election
Egyptian parliamentary elections to the House of Representatives were held in two phases, from 17 October to 2 December 2015. The elected parliament will be entrusted with the task of reviewing the laws that were passed while a parliament was not ...
women won 75 of the 568 seats up for election. A further 14 women and 14 men were appointed by president Sisi. With a percentage of 14.9%, it was the highest representation of women in Egyptian parliament yet.
Marriage and divorce
Marriage was considered a very important part in ancient Egyptian society. Marriage was an almost completely private affair, and as a result, not many records of marriage were kept. Furthermore, not all Egyptian marriages were arranged
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...
, rather, most daughters had persuaded their families for their approval towards their future spouses.
Egyptian women who were married were highly acknowledged. It was common for females to marry after the age of menstruation
Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hor ...
, such as age 14. They were usually considered married after they had left the protection of their father's house. It had also been acknowledged that though the woman became under her spouse's care, her husband did not become her legal guardian and the woman remained independent while controlling her own assets. For the non-royal women in ancient Egypt, the title of wife also came with the title "Mistress of the House".
The role as a wife included taking care of the household.
Egypt's laws pertaining to marriage and divorce have changed over the years, however they have generally favored the social position of men, although reform continues. Egypt retained the inclusion of Islamic law
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
in dealings of family law
Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations.
Overview
Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include:
* Marriage, ...
, following on from its judicial and administrative independence from the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
in 1874. Muslim husbands were traditionally allowed to have up to four wives at a time in accordance with Islamic religious custom, but a woman could have only one husband at a time. A Muslim man could divorce his wife with ease by saying "I divorce thee" on three separate occasions in the presence of witnesses. The first reforms that changed this state of affairs came in the 1920s with Law No.25 of 1920 and 1929. These reforms included the following specifics regarding legitimate grounds for a woman requesting a divorce:
#If her husband failed to provide maintenance. (nafaqah Nafaqah ( ar, نَفَقَة) or nafkah is the Islamic legal term for the financial support a husband must provide for his wife during marriage and for a time after divorce. Under an Islamic marriage agreement, the husband is obliged to pay for his ...
)
#If her husband was found to have a dangerous or contagious disease.
#If she was deserted by her husband.
#If she was maltreated by her husband.
In 1971 further reforms were made. Dr.Aisha Ratib became Minister of Social Affairs and in November the following revisions were suggested and implemented :
#That the age for legal marriage should be raised to 18 for women and 21 for men
#That the permission of a judge was required for polygamy
#That divorces could not take place without a judge being present
#That the mother should be allowed a greater period of guardianship, but also that guardianship in the case of divorce should go to the parent deemed most suitable to provide it
#That judges should have more involvement in family law cases, and that female judges should be considered to deal with family law cases.
The government amended the laws relating to personal status in 1979. The amendments, which became known as the "women's rights law," were in the form of a presidential decree and subsequently approved by the People's Assembly. The leading orthodox Islamic clergy endorsed these amendments, but Islamist groups opposed them as state infringements of religious precepts and campaigned for their repeal. The amendments stated that polygamy was legally harmful to a first wife and entitled her to sue for divorce within a year after learning of her husband's second marriage. The amendments also entitled the first wife to compensation.
A husband retained the right to divorce his wife without recourse to the courts, but he was required to file for his divorce before witnesses at a registrar's office and officially and immediately to inform his wife. The divorced wife was entitled to alimony equivalent to one year's maintenance in addition to compensation equivalent to two years' maintenance; a court could increase these amounts under extenuating circumstances such as the dissolution of a long marriage. The divorced wife automatically retained custody of sons under the age of ten and daughters under twelve; courts could extend the mother's custody of minors until their eighteenth birthdays.
In 1985 Egyptian authorities ruled that the amendments of 1979 were unconstitutional because they had been enacted through a presidential decree while the People's Assembly was not in session. A new law reversed many of the rights accorded to women in 1979. A woman lost her automatic right to divorce her husband if he married a second wife. She could still petition a court to consider her case, but a judge would grant a divorce only if it were in the interests of the family. If a divorce were granted, the judge would also determine what was an appropriate residence for the divorced woman and her children.
The changes in divorce legislation in 1979 and 1985 did not significantly alter the divorce rate, which has been relatively high since the early 1950s. About one in five marriages ended in divorce in the 1980s. Remarriage was common, and most divorced men and women expected to wed again. Seven out of ten divorces took place within the first five years of marriage, and one out of three in the first year. The divorce rate depended on residence and level of education. The highest divorce rates were among the urban lower class, the lowest rates among the villagers of Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient ...
. Throughout the country, as much as 95 percent of all divorces occurred among couples who were illiterate.
Marital rape is not specifically outlawed in Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
.
Notable Egyptian women
* Rawya Ateya, first female parliamentarian in the Arab world
* Mona Eltahawy
Mona Eltahawy ( ar, منى الطحاوى, ; born August 1, 1967) is a freelance Egyptian-American journalist and social commentator based in New York City. She has written essays and op-eds for publications worldwide on Egypt and the Islamic w ...
, Egyptian American feminist activist
* Ester Fanous, Christian feminist
* Nadeen Ashraf
Nadeen Ashraf ( ar, نادين اشرف; born 12 March 1998) is an Egyptian feminist activist. Her use of social media instigated the #MeToo movement within Egypt. She is part of the BBC's 100 Women of 2020 list.
Biography
Ashraf was born ...
, feminist activist
* Jehan El Sadat, former First Lady of Egypt
First Lady of Egypt ( ar, سيدة مصر الأولى) is the unofficial title of the wife of the president of Egypt.
History
Naglaa Mahmoud, wife of former president Mohamed Morsi (2012–2013), rejected the title of First Lady, preferring to ...
* Sameera Moussa
Sameera Moussa () (March 3, 1917 – August 5, 1952) was the first female Egyptians, Egyptian nuclear physics, nuclear physicist. Sameera held a doctorate in atomic radiation. She hoped her work would one day lead to affordable medical treatment ...
, nuclear physicist
* Nawal El Saadawi
Nawal El Saadawi ( ar, نوال السعداوي, , 22 October 1931 – 21 March 2021) was an Egyptian feminist writer, activist and physician. She wrote many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of ...
, feminist writer
* Maya Morsy
Maya Morsy ( ar, مايا مرسي) is an Egyptian political scientist and specialist in public policy and an advocate for Women and Human Rights. She is an elected President of Egypt's National Council for Women (NCW) on 1 February 2016 to Date ...
, head of Egypt's National Council for Women
* Hoda Shaarawi
Huda Sha'arawi or Hoda Sha'rawi ( ar, هدى شعراوي, ; 23 June 1879 – 12 December 1947) was a pioneering Egyptian feminist leader, suffragette, nationalist, and founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union.
Early life and marriage
Huda Sh ...
, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union
The Egyptian Feminist Union () was the first nationwide feminist movement in Egypt.
History and profile
The Egyptian Feminist Union was founded at a meeting on 6 March 1923 at the home of activist Huda Sha'arawi, who served as its first presiden ...
* Doria Shafik
Doria Shafik ( ar, درية شفيق; 14 December 1908 – 20 September 1975) was an Egyptian feminist, poet and editor, and one of the principal leaders of the women's liberation movement in Egypt in the mid-1940s. As a direct result of her ...
, early Egyptian feminist leader
* Safeya Zaghloul, former Wafd Party
The Wafd Party (; ar, حزب الوفد, ''Ḥizb al-Wafd'') was a nationalist liberal political party in Egypt. It was said to be Egypt's most popular and influential political party for a period from the end of World War I through the 1930s ...
leader
See also
* ''678'' (film)
* Abduction of Coptic women
* Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights
The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) is a civil, independent, non-governmental, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization in Egypt. It supports Egyptian woman in obtaining full rights and equality with men. In addition, the ECWR motivate ...
* Feminism in Egypt
Feminism in Egypt has involved a number of social and political groups throughout its history. Although Egypt has in many respects been a forerunner in matters of reform particularly "in developing movements of nationalism, of resistance to imper ...
* Gender inequality in Egypt Traditional gender roles in Egypt are prevalent and clearly defined. These roles are largely associated with traditional Islamic family structures, wherein women's roles are closely tied to the domestic sphere and men's roles tied to the public sph ...
* HARASSmap
HARASSmap is a mobile and online technology non-profit that uses interactive mapping to try to reduce the social acceptability of sexual harassment throughout Egypt.
History
As of 2005, HARASSmap co-founder Rebecca Chiao began investigating th ...
* Judiciary of Egypt
The judicial system (or judicial branch) of Egypt is an independent branch of the Egyptian government which includes both secular and religious courts.
The Egyptian judicial system is based on European and primarily French legal concepts and ...
* Operation Anti Sexual Harassment Operation Anti Sexual Harassment, (Arabic: قوة ضد التحرش, transliterated: Quwwa did al-taharrush, also known as OpAntiSH) is an activist group in Cairo, Egypt, whose goal is to prevent sexual harassment and assault, and in particular the ...
* Rape in Egypt
Rape in Egypt is a criminal offense with penalties ranging from 15 to 25 year and a lifetime sentence if the rape included abduction. Marital rape is legal. By 2008, the U.N. quoted Egypt's Interior Ministry's figure that 20,000 rapes take p ...
* Mass sexual assault in Egypt
(''taharrush''; harassment)
*تحرش جنسي (''taharrush jinsi''; sexual harassment)
*تحرش جماعي (''taḥarrush jamāʿī''; lit: collective harassment; Egyptian pronunciation ''taḥarrush gamāʿī'' or ''gama'ei'')Shams, Alex (21 ...
* Women's role in the 2011 revolution
General:
*Women in Islam
The experiences of Muslim women ( ''Muslimāt'', singular مسلمة ''Muslimah'') vary widely between and within different societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree ...
*Women in Arab societies
The roles of women in the Arab world have changed throughout history, as the culture and society in which they live has undergone significant transformations. Historically, as well as presently, the situation of women differs greatly between A ...
References
(Data from 1990.)
Sources
*Beatty, Chester. 1998
egyptology.com
(accessed April 12, 2009)
*Brunner, Emma. 1979. Birth of Hatshepsu
(accessed April 12, 2009).
*Dunham, D. 1917. Naga-ed-Der Stelae of the First Intermediate Period
(accessed April 12, 2009).
*Piccione, Peter A. 1995. The Status of Women in Ancient Egyptian Society
(accessed April 12, 2009).
*Tappan, Eva March. 1914. The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art
(accessed April 12, 2009)
*The Statues of Women in Egyptian Society
(accessed April 12, 2009)
*Ward, William. The Egyptian Economy and Non-royal Women: Their Status in Public Life
stoa.org
(accessed April 12, 2009)
*Women in Ancient Egypt." Women in Ancient Egypt. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2016
*El-Ashmawy, Nadeen. "Sexual Harassment in Egypt." Hawwa 15, no. 3 (2017): 225–256.
External links
{{Egypt topics
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...