Recent calls by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to reduce Egypt\u2019s escalating divorce rate by ending verbal divorce have been met with resistance from Al-Azhar, feeding into an ongoing standoff\u00a0between the state and the country\u2019s largest Islamic institution.<\/p>\n
During a speech at the Police Academy on January 24, Sisi referenced a 2015 report published by the Central Authority for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), highlighting Egypt\u2019s burgeoning divorce rates. 2015 saw a 10.8 percent increase in the number of divorces, reaching almost 200,000 cases compared with approximately 180,000 the previous year. Calling divorce a threat to social stability, Sisi proposed enacting a law to end the practice of verbal divorce.<\/p>\n
When it comes to issues of marriage and divorce, Egypt follows Islamic Sharia law, which is primarily weighted in favor of men. Women must stipulate in the marriage contract that they are able to divorce, otherwise the case must go through a court entailing a lengthy judicial process.<\/p>\n
Verbal divorce refers to undocumented divorce, which is often used by men in an attempt to pressure women into giving up alimony rights. Sisi\u2019s plan to eliminate verbal divorce is predicated on the notion that forcing men to divorce their wives through the court would encourage both sides to treat divorce more seriously, reducing divorce rates.<\/p>\n
Addressing Al-Azhar\u2019s Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the president asked, \u201cCan\u2019t we issue a law saying that no divorce should take place, except before a court?\u201d He suggested that this would encourage people to think more about their decisions, and prevent divorce from becoming nothing more than a phrase said by a man to a woman. \u201cWhat do you think, Grand Sheikh? You are giving me a hard time,\u201d he asked Tayyeb in jest.<\/p>\n
However his request elicited a serious response from Al-Azhar, as indicated by the statement issued by the Council of Senior Scholars on Sunday. The council, which is the institution\u2019s highest authority made up of 22 clerics, unanimously rejected Sisi\u2019s call. The statement highlights that verbal divorce is Sharia-compliant, posing that changing Egypt\u2019s divorce laws is not the right approach to countering rising divorce rates.<\/p>\n
The statement instead suggests that the government pass legislation obliging men to document divorce by enforcing legal penalties against those who would decline to record the process, as a means to safeguard women\u2019s financial and legal rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cRising divorce rates will not be countered by ending verbal divorce, especially as the cases included in the divorce statistics are already documented,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
Al-Azhar held the state responsible for lowering\u00a0divorce rates, proposing\u00a0solutions to\u00a0address\u00a0broader social issues, including better education, countering drug use and good guidance through the media, among others.<\/p>\n
While Al-Azhar staunchly opposed the removal of verbal divorce, both the Endowments Ministry and Dar al-Ifta showed flexibility in responding to Sisi\u2019s call. Both institutions announced a number of \u201ctraining programs\u201d for couples intending to marry revolving around conflict resolution, in an attempt to reduce rising divorce rates.<\/p>\n
In an interview aired on Egyptian state television, Egypt\u2019s Grand Mufti Shawky Allam said that \u201cSisi\u2019s fears concerning verbal divorce are justified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al-Azhar\u2019s opposition could reflect rising tensions with Egypt\u2019s leadership. The religious institution has been the administration\u2019s strongest ally since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Tayyeb was at the forefront of the delegation of state representatives present when Sisi announced the ouster.<\/p>\n
As part of the ongoing war on terrorism, the president has repeatedly advocated for countering extremism by \u201crenewing religious discourse,\u201d attempting to coopt the country\u2019s formal religious institutions in the process, with Al-Azhar at the forefront. In 2015, Sisi called on Al-Azhar and the Endowments Ministry to lead a process to \u201crevolutionize\u201d religious discourse to confront extremist ideologies, making direct reference to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis renewal of religious discourse must be conscious and preserve the values of true Islam, eliminating sectarian polarization and addressing extremism and militancy,\u201d Sisi said in January 2015. A few months after this speech, Sisi said he was unhappy with the steps taken in this regard, saying efforts had not risen up to the challenge. He said that while preachers were doing their best, \u201cwe need to move quickly and efficiently because the effects of terrorism are becoming more evident all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
One year later, the Endowments Ministry implemented what it called a major step toward religious renewal, deciding to enforce a unified Friday sermon to be distributed to imams nationwide. Endowments Minister Mokhtar Gomaa said that the decision to unify sermon content was not politically motivated, but aimed to ensure a spiritually enlightened and methodological delivery. Opposed by imams, the move was viewed as a ministerial attempt to further strengthen control over religious discourse, rather than \u201crenewing\u201d it.<\/p>\n
The decision to unify sermons revealed increasing\u00a0discord between Al-Azhar and the state as Al-Azhar officials rejected the move, affirming that their clerics working in ministry-controlled mosques would not commit to the pre-written sermons. They added that Al-Azhar clerics are enlightened and qualified enough to preach during sermons in a way that better responds to societal needs.<\/p>\n
According to researcher in religious freedoms and institutions at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Amr Ezzat, the way Sisi phrased his request to Tayyeb during his recent January speech could have been seen as insulting to Al-Azhar\u2019s prestige.<\/p>\n
\u201cSisi spoke to Tayyeb as if Al-Azhar offers services at the request of the president,\u201d he says, highlighting that Endowments Minister Gomaa has been serving this purpose well, as reflected by the decision to implement dictated sermons.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, Gomaa holds an executive position, so it is natural that he serves the state\u2019s interests. However, Al-Azhar views Gomaa\u2019s rush to serve the state as an insult to the country\u2019s religious institution, rhetoric that Al-Azhar obviously disagrees with,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why Tayyeb did not release Sunday\u2019s statement under his name only, resorting to the Council of Senior Scholars to affirm his legitimacy,\u201d Ezzat says. He says that the power play between the Endowments Ministry and Al-Azhar revolves around which should be in charge of controlling the country\u2019s religious sphere.<\/p>\n
Ezzat states that Al-Azhar is heavily dependent on its semi-independent position, highlighting that the Council of Senior Scholars is no longer appointed by the president but by internal elections. According to a 2012 amendment to the law organizing Al-Azhar\u2019s affairs, the council elects grand sheikh of Al-Azhar, who holds the position for life. The amendment was approved by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, a few days before a Parliament controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood convened. The move was seen as a way to circumvent any attempts by the Brotherhood to control Al-Azhar.<\/p>\n
However according to Abdel Ghany Hendy, member of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, neither the government nor Al-Azhar have the true will to change religious discourse, as both sides lack the requisite \u201ccreativity and vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis lack of will leaves the door wide open for political rifts,\u201d he says, adding \u201cThis affects preaching directly. How can an imam ask people to commit to a religious path while people know very well that the imam\u2019s bosses are all mired in personal gains and power conflicts?\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent calls by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to reduce Egypt\u2019s escalating divorce rate by ending verbal divorce have been met with resistance from Al-Azhar, feeding into [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[627],"tags":[644,643,92],"class_list":["post-11049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alazhar","tag-divorce","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11051,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11049\/revisions\/11051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}