28 October 2021
By Antonella Sessa
After over 70 years of women’s rights movements in Egypt, the Egyptian State Council, an important judicial body in the country, appointed 98 female judges; more than any other time in the country’s history.
Iman Sherif, a newly appointed judge, described this feat as “historic” to a local Egyptian-run newspaper. Nehad Abu El Komsan, the head of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, spoke with ABC News saying that, “It is very important, not only to see the long resistance that came up with this result, but also how much it means to the new generation. It is a step ahead for the younger generation to believe there can be no restrictions in their dreams."
The Egyptian State Council was established in 1946 and is an independent judicial body and one of the main judicial systems in Egypt. It has its own courts and hierarchy, like the court system here in the United States. The very first female judge in Egypt was not appointed until 2003, in their Constitutional Court. Later, in 2007, 31 more female judges joined the judiciary.
Despite this advancement in Egyptian women’s rights, there is still an overwhelming number of male judges in Egyptian courts. According to the last official statistics released in 2015 by the National Council of Women, women make up less than half a percent of the total number of judges working in Egypt's judiciary system. While there were only 80 female judges, there were around 12,000 male ones. Even with the addition of 98 new female judges, women will still make up less than half a percent of the total number.
The State Council’s decision to hire female judges came after the justice ministry made a public statement on March 8th in honor of International Women’s Day. President Fattah Al-Sisi called on them to appoint female judges in the State Council and Prosecution. To many, this recommendation was like a reward for generations of fighting for women’s rights.
Many believe there is still a long way to go in the fight for equality in Egypt. Many of the new female judges had to be pulled from under-qualified areas because of a previous lack of female opportunity in government. In order for there to be total equality, men and women appointed as judges must come from the same employment backgrounds. Abu El Komsan says that “The State Council still has not opened the doors to female graduates of law schools.” Komsan also stated that, “We still have to push for breaking the glass ceiling” if there is to ever truly be equality in the Egyptian state council.
Source: article