CAIRO, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch Wednesday denounced Egypt's marriage and divorce laws and customs as profoundly and systemically abusive of women.
"The Egyptian government has created two widely disparate systems for divorce, one for men and one for women," HRW said. "Egyptian men have a unilateral and unconditional right to divorce. They never need to enter a courtroom to end their marriages. Egyptian women, on the other hand, must resort to Egypt's notoriously backlogged and inefficient courts to divorce their spouses."
Whereas women face procedural and evidentiary hurdles in getting divorced, men can simply divorce their wives at will with an oral renunciation later registered by a religious notary.
Egypt has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Both require Egypt ensure equality for men and women in marriage and divorce. However, Egypt uses Islamic law to evade its obligation to protect women's rights, HRW charged.
HRW's report was based on 112 interviews of women and officials conducted in June and July 2004.
