at today is a dialogue with the legislators and the religious leaders to prevent
discriminatory laws and jurisdiction. In spite of the fact that Egypt signed the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
in 1981, the UN identified various areas of concern for Egyptian women,
among them the high rate of female school drop-outs, early marriages of
girls in rural areas and, above all, legal issues. In 1999 the Court of Appeal of
the People’s Assembly confirmed that the Minister of the Interior was right
to forbid a female university professor from travelling to Lebanon for three
weeks to lecture at a university there against her husband’s will (Mushira
Musa, Al-Ahram, 18 February 1999, p. 12). Legislation in force in Egypt today
allows a woman to be a minister, but her husband can prevent her from
attending a conference. This is based on the shari’a, according to which a wife
has to obey her husband in return for proper treatment. If she disobeys, he
can divorce her and she loses her right to alimony, in spite of the fact that
the Egyptian constitution stipulates equal rights for men and women and
freedom of movement as a fundamental right of every citizen. It is likewise
discriminatory for a woman that, according to a new law, a married woman
must have her husband’s name documented in her identity card, whereas the
wife’s name is not mentioned in the husband’s. Certain amendments to the
Personal Status Law implemented in 1979 which improved a woman’s situation