Political parties and the law

The political parties that opposed the law appealed to arguments both old and new, for example that there should be harmony on these matters, that the timing was not right for certain of the provisions, that society was not yet ready to take up these shar'i principles, or that women were not yet mature enough to make good use of these rights, or were emotional and capricious by their nature and consequently would make poor use of the rights and destroy their families in the process.

The National Democratic Party The party’s position on the law was at odds with that of its members in the People’s Assembly. As a body, the party participated in preparing the law and announced its approval of it, while the parliamentary' representatives had other calculations, most notably the upcoming parliamentary elections and the need to present to the electorate (the majority male voters) an image of being defenders of religion, filling for public opinion the space left by the absent ‘Muslim Brothers’. During the debates this manifested itself in various ways, with some NDP representatives bringing in copies of the Qur'an to quote relevant passages in support of their argument. Some sought to have khul' left subject to the consent of the husband with the wife held ‘disobedient’ if she refused to return to her husband after he had announced his rejection of the khul'.³' Parliamentary representatives were reported to have cheered and clapped when the government decided to cancel Article 26 of the draft relating to the travel of the wife without her husband’s consent. The government also made amendments to certain articles such as Article 20 on khul', to ensure that the seriousness of the wife’s petition for divorce was confirmed. Observers attributed these last changes to election-related calculations, the government not wanting to embarrass its representatives before the voters, especially on such a sensitive matter.

The Tagammu¹ Party The Tagammu' Party declared its support for the law, its parliamentary representatives defended the draft in the Assembly and the party’s newspaper emphasized its positive aspects. The party Ieaderjustified this position on the grounds that the draft had been fully discussed at the Islamic Research Academy, and that it included many positive matters and could be considered a legislative achievement - lor example, for the poorest groups of women, it would result in rcduecd court fees and associated expenses. On the khul' provision, the party declared its acceptance on the basis of the opinion of the Islamie Researeh Academy that it was not against the Islamic shari'a, and considered that it would help to solve numerous problems and was in accordance with the Iogie and spirit of the age. As for the provision on the wife’s travel, this also had its benefits as the draft was seeking to prevent arbitrariness by the husband in exercise of his rights.

The Ahrar Party The representative of the Ahrar Party was reported to have stressed the faet that his party respected all thinkers and trusted the government’s representatives, the Shaykh of al-Azhar and the leader of the National Assembly, but that there were matters that could not be ignored. The party had reviewed the rulings of all the jurisprudential schools and had found no ruling permitting a women to travel without a mahram∖ so how eould the law allow a wife to travel abroad without the permission of her husband, and tell the husband to go to the judge if he suffered as a result of his wife’s travel, and put the judge instead of the husband in the position of authority on this matter? It was the Ahrar view that a woman was allowed to travel only in an emergency sueh as flight from the lands of unbelief. As for khul', it was a classical Islamic principle with certain conditions, notably there had to be fear of not living within the limits of God.

The Wafd Party The deputy party leader and head of the Wafd’s parliamentary group was reported to have said that the provision on khul' was designed to serve the daughters of the wealthy who would be able to pay what the khul' would require, but did not suit the daughters of the poor. The Wafd Party, which is supposed to represent Egyptian liberalism, withdrew from the debates and the vote in the People’s Assembly The deputy leader explained that nobody eould say that khul' was against Islam, but there was a big difference between khul' as set out in the Qur'an, the sunna and the positions of the four Imams and the position in the law. There were parts of the law that required fundamental changes: would a woman be able to petition for khul' simply because she found her husband to be shorter or less handsome than his friends? The principle of khul' was the consent of the husband; this indeed was the import of the hadilh about Thabit Ibn Qays (sec further below), since the Prophet summoned the husband rather than divorcing the wife as soon as she complained and gave baek the garden, and he divorced her with his consent. Under the terms of the new law, khul' would become a right for the wealthy wife only; what if Thabifs wife had sold the garden and spent the proceeds? The party’s newspaper expressed the party’s position using headlines such as ‘Government wrests approval from People’s Assembly’s for personal status law amendments’.³⁵

The Labour Party The Labour Party opposed the law vehemently; the sole Labour Party representative in the Jjarliament argued for the rejection of the poisonous draughts in the law that could destroy the family structure and the whole of society'. He questioned who would benefit from raising such contro­versial matters in Egypt, hinting at the influence of foreign powers. He objected to all the provisions in the law that represented in his view an explicit or implicit Holation of the Islamic shari'a, specifying the articles related to khuΓ, the wife’s travel, and divorce from 'urfι marriage.

Female representatives in the People's Assembly and the Shura Assembly (Senate) Observers noted that only three out of fourteen female members of the Shura Assembly took part in the debate on the law. It appeared that female members of the Shura Assembly and the People’s Assembly had liaised to minimize the number of female speakers, all of the females being from the NDE Only one female representative attended the discussions on the draft in the Legislative Committee of the People’s Assembly and it would seem that the NDP had instructed its female representatives to avoid public debate on the law.