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Egypt will finally appoint women judges. But is the move really progress?
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On 3 June 2021, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Judicial Bodies made the historic decision to approve women’s appointments as judges and prosecutors to the Administrative Judiciary (also known as the State Council) and the Public Prosecution Authority (PPA), respectively.

These are the only bodies in the Egyptian judicial system that remain exclusively male. Weeks earlier, on 8 March (International Women’s Day), Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi surprised the public by issuing a long-awaited, albeit vague, statement, directing the minister of justice to seek ‘assistance’ from women in the State Council and the PPA.

The State Council then announced that it would – on an exceptional basis – transfer to its courts some women who already serve as administrative prosecutors and state lawyers at the Administrative Prosecution Authority and the State Lawsuits Authority, respectively. However, the PPA’s policy over appointing women as public prosecutors is still ambiguous.

Compared to other public bodies, in which women serve in various leadership positions, the judiciary is still reluctant to appoint women judges and public prosecutors. Currently, the percentage of women judges is just under 0.3%. However, the State Council and PPA’s openly discriminatory views against appointing women to the judiciary is peculiar.

State feminism and state of exceptionalism

The Egyptian state has followed a policy of exceptionalism in dealing with women’s judgeship. In 2003, female lawyer Tahani al-Gebali was appointed to the Supreme Constitutional Court by decree from then-president Hosni Mubarak, becoming the first female judge in modern Egyptian history. In 2007, another presidential decree was issued by Mubarak to appoint – on an exceptional basis – 30 female administrative prosecutors and state lawyers as judges in the ordinary judiciary (civil, economic, criminal and family courts). This was followed by a similar presidential decree in 2008, which appointed another 12 women to the ordinary courts by the same method.

This was in response to increasing pressure from the national, regional, and international community, which questioned the lack of women judges in Egypt compared to in most African, Arab and Muslim-majority countries. Egypt was pressured to implement international conventions dealing with women’s rights and gender equality, especially the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which it endorsed and ratified in 1981. The exceptional appointments of a handful of women judges mentioned above were an attempt to embellish the liberal image of Mubarak’s autocratic regime, which collapsed in 2011.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/egypt-will-finally-appoint-women-judges-move-really-progress/