Egypt: Protect women's full equality in the new Constitution
by Kim Crane | November 15, 2012 at 3:11 PM
Equality Now has just issued an Urgent Alert calling on the Egyptian Constitutional Committee to ensure that all provisions of the Constitution clearly protect and promote the equal rights of all Egyptians both to reflect the spirit of the revolution and in conformity with Egypt’s international obligations. The current draft of the new Egyptian constitution could severely restrict and undermine women’s and girl’s rights if adopted as proposed by the Constitutional Committee. Women and human rights organizations are particularly concerned about the inclusion of articles stipulating that equality of women with men, in all spheres of life, civil, political, cultural, economic and social, cannot violate Islamic law. For example, because of varying interpretations of Sharia or Islamic law, Articles like these could result in the lowering the minimum age of marriage for girls to less than 18 as Islamic law allows for girls to be married off before puberty.
