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Fewer and fewer Egyptians are getting and staying married. Debate on polygamy heats up in Egypt,

January 20, 2018 By administrator

While accurate figures are hard to find, one thing is certain: The country is undergoing a marriage crisis, described by some as a ticking social time bomb. Not only are divorce rates alarmingly high (reaching more than 60% in cities in 2017, according to the national statistics agency) but the number of unmarried women is also soaring. In October, the figure hit 11 million — an estimated 50% of women of marriageable age.

The current circumstances have emboldened polygamy proponents, whose voices have grown louder in recent months. They justify the controversial practice on grounds that it gives women a “better chance of avoiding spinsterhood” and makes it easier for them to “exercise their right to have a husband.” They also argue that having more than one wife allows men a “sensible way to assuage male sexual frustration, a common cause of divorce.”

Pro-polygamy campaigner Rania Hashem, who has written the book “Polygamy: A Religious Right,” says, “Women have no right to object to their husbands’ taking multiple wives as they cannot forbid what God has sanctioned in the Quran.”

Hashem appears frequently on television and organizes seminars that advocate polygamy. “By acquiescing in your husband’s decision to take other wives, you are in fact abiding by the rules of Islam,” she tells women. Basing her argument on what she calls “the sex-ratio imbalance,” she says there are millions of women who are unmarried because of the shortage in men in Egypt. “Polygamy is key to resolving this and other social problems.”

However, many say that no such imbalance exists, and that the high rates of unmarried women cannot be blamed on the lack of men.

Women’s rights advocates believe other factors such as social and economic conditions are behind the phenomenon of unmarried women. Iman Bibars, CEO of the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, told Al-Monitor, “Young men that are at an early stage of their careers very often cannot afford the exorbitant costs of marriage, which include buying a home and furnishing it, the bride price, etc. The demands made by the bride’s family — even in poor families — are often high, rendering it almost impossible for the average young man to fulfill those demands. Usually, it’s older men who are already well-established who can afford to pay for all those things. Most of them are already married but are seeking younger brides.”

Mona Abu Shanab, a TV producer and another polygamy advocate, has tried to win converts to her cause from across the Arab world. She recently launched a verbal attack on Tunisia for what she called its “colonialist family laws” outlawing polygamy.

“There are millions of unmarried women, widows and divorcees in Tunisia, where do they all go?” she said in a viral video posted on her Facebook page in October. Abu Shanab called on God-fearing Tunisians to reject the country’s anti-polygamy law, which, she said, “encourages men to commit adultery.”

The Quran states that men are allowed to marry up to four wives at a time, provided that the husband can treat all four equally. It adds that if the husband feels he might not be able to treat all with equal fairness, then to marry only one. 

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Egyptians, polygamy

Egyptians protest plan to cede islands to Saudi

June 16, 2017 By administrator

Egyptians protest plan to cede islands to SaudiEgyptians continue to take to the streets against the parliament’s recent approval of a controversial plan to transfer the sovereignty of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, even after police arrested dozens of activists who had called for mass protests.

Egyptian police raided homes in the capital, Cairo, and at least 10 provinces across the country and arrested at least 40 people before nightfall on Thursday, said lawyers Mohammed Abdel-Aziz and Gamal Eid.

The detainees, most of whom were linked to secular democratic parties, have been arrested for calls on social media for protests to be held Friday at Cairo’s Tahrir Square against the parliament’s Wednesday approval of a deal to hand over the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia.

At least eight people, including three journalists, were also arrested during a rally on Tuesday, facing charges of disrupting public services and security and protesting without a permit, said the lawyers.

“The government has chosen more oppression rather than dialog,” Eid said. “The arrests are meant to distract anyone who intends to protest tomorrow and sow confusion in the ranks of the opposition.”

A Facebook page named “Giving up land is treason,” has urged people to protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Thousands have so far backed the call.

Last year, a similar call for protests over the islands drew thousands of people. Police, which had been deployed in large numbers, beat up and arrested hundreds of protesters and activists.

The deal, which was agreed during a visit to Egypt by Saudi King Salman in April 2016, has so far been subject to challenges in court over the past year. It even became a source of tension between Riyadh and Cairo.

A court ruled in January that the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, which insists the islands belong to Saudi Arabia, had failed to provide evidence that the islands were originally Saudi. The ruling was, however, overturned by another court a few months later.

Eventually, a senior constitutional panel concluded that the court that had ruled to annul the deal had acted within its jurisdiction. But the parliament has insisted that the issue of the islands lies in its own jurisdiction.

Final approval is now needed from President Sisi, a former army general, who cut the deal with Saudi Arabia in the first place and who reportedly served for a while as Egypt’s military attaché in Riyadh during Egypt’s then-president Hosni Mubarak’s government.

Opponents accuse Sisi of “selling” Egyptian sovereign territory to the Saudi kingdom in return for billions of dollars in aid from Riyadh.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Egyptians, islands, Protest, saudi

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