February 12, 2017 9 News & Analysis Egypt Sisi, al-Azhar at loggerheads over verbal divorce

Marwa al-A’sar

Cairo

l-Azhar’s decision that verbal divorce complies with sharia law pits the highest Sunni Islamic authority against Egyp- tianA President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and fuels debate on the issue inside and outside Egypt. Citing rampant divorce rates throughout the country, Sisi in January called on al-Azhar to draft legislation to ban verbal divorce and make it effective only when documented. “This will give couples the chance to rethink their desire to separate,” Sisi said during a televised speech while looking at Grand Imam of al- Azhar Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, who was in the first row of the audience.

On February 5th, al-Azhar said verbal divorce can count even without documentation.

Verbal divorce allows Muslim husbands to terminate their mar- riages by uttering the words “I, A 2016 picture shows Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaking to a gathering of al-Azhar clerics in Cairo. (AP) hereby, divorce you” to their wives, even before documenting the act at the office of a religious official- au years called on its clerics to start a Some children of collapsed mar- Saad al-Din al-Hilali, a profes- buying and selling, divorce must thorised by al-Azhar to record mar- process of reform. riages end up on the streets, exacer- sor of comparative jurisprudence be officially documented to be -ef riages and divorces. “Al-Azhar wants to protect its bating Egypt’s street children prob- at al-Azhar University, said that fective.” Following a February 5th meeting sovereign interests and the status lem, civil society activists said. legitimising verbal divorce humili- He said at the time of the Proph- by the committee of senior clerics, of an al-Azhar sheikh as an absolute “This is why a law banning verbal ates the judiciary and other state et Mohammad marriage and di- al-Azhar said verbal divorce was master in the society regardless of divorce has been a long-awaited de- institutions. vorce were agreements made ver- valid even without documenta- whether what he says is right or mand,” said Entesar al-Saeed, the “Verbal divorce should not bally but documentation was later tion as long as it was in line with all wrong,” writer Sayed al-Qemn ar- head of women’s rights group Cairo count as long as it is not docu- introduced to protect rights. conditions stipulated by the Islamic gued. “If al-Azhar says that verbal Centre for Development. “When mented,” Hilali said. “There is no “Now, if a man divorces his wife religion. It added that, for verbal di- divorce counts, why don’t al-Azhar husbands fail to document divorce, verse in the holy Quran on verbal verbally without documentation, vorce to be legitimate, the husband scholars acknowledge verbal mar- they deprive their ex-wives and divorce. “ she will be neither married nor di- has to be in his right mind and use riage?” children of their financial rights.” He said God does not say how di- vorced,” Hilali said. “This is totally appropriate phrasing. About 900,000 marriages are Sisi’s proposal and al-Azhar’s re- vorce should be carried out. unfair for women.” By approving verbal divorce, al- registered every year in Egypt, with jection have divided the religious in- “Hence, this is not a religious Azhar pits itself against Sisi, who 40% of them ending in divorce in stitution, with some of its top clerics matter but a jurisprudential one,” Marwa al-A’sar is a Cairo-based more than once in the past two the first five years. expressing support for Sisi’s plan. Hilali said. “Like the case with journalist. Egyptian government not honouring contract with the people

Viewpoint p to now, Egyptians The Egyptian government ap- have accepted and proached the question of reforming condoned their religious discourse in the country authorities’ view of in the same manner a lazy em- the Islamists. This ployee approaches his job. The popular blessing is employee goes to work just to Uthe only legitimising source for make his presence known so he Egyptian authorities. gets paid at the end of the month. Today, the regime in Egypt The government seemingly could seems at its weakest. It is true that not find a better way to reform Ahmad Abou the country is facing tremendous extremist religious discourse than Douh economic and social challenges, by entrusting the task to a bunch of including galloping inflation, un- extremist Islamists from al-Azhar precedented unemployment, rock- University. A boy attends Friday prayers at al-Azhar mosque in Cairo. (Reuters) eting debt and negligible foreign The government knew very well investment in the local economy. the backgrounds of many of the Economic reforms, however, have members of the Council of Senior the country’s elite and nationalist of the film. Al-Azhar helped send never been used before as a cover Scholars at al-Azhar. Some of them leaders came from al-Azhar but we Examples Islam al-Buhairi to jail because he for political legitimacy. publicly and openly supported do not see why today the Azharites dared challenge it to condemn its In Egypt, the authorities have the Brotherhood and Muhammad should become a religious elite not of al-Azhar’s own jihadist ideology and refrain always faced serious problems Morsi even after he had been de- subjected to any accountability. trespassing from claiming to be God’s repre- whenever they insulted the people posed as president. Al-Azhar has changed tremen- are sentative on Earth. Al-Azhar was by not honouring their contract It is hardly fighting terrorism dously. At the end of the 1950s and behind placing Ibrahim Issa under with them. This is what is known as when the government chooses to beginning of the 1960s, the head of numerous. house arrest because he was con- popular legitimacy which, in Egypt, work with one faction of the Islam- al-Azhar, Sheikh Mahmud Shaltut, stantly criticising the government’s is independent from political or ists. It is just plain negligence. engaged in an ideological debate laxity towards extremist Salafists. institutional legitimacy. Today, the Egyptian government with Iran’s Shia scholar Grand Aya- If the comedy taking place in When people took to the streets is paying for its mistakes. It was a tollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi. Egypt today persists, it is very like- to protest against the Muslim mistake to accept and forgive the They were trying to bridge the ly that the people will start calling Brotherhood, they were extending Salafists, who constituted the main ideological gap between Shia and for a revision of their contract with legitimacy to the government on force of the Islamists’ occupation of Sunni ideologies. the government, the one in which condition that the latter fights the Rabaa Square. Co-opting a faction Today, al-Azhar is trying to find the government agreed to rid them Islamists. People were far from im- of the Islamists and using them for and highlight ideological differ- of the Islamists. If the govern- agining that the government would security purposes was a mistake ences with Shias. At the same time, ment could not accomplish what it one day classify these Islamists into and allowing the situation inside al- it is trying to ensure for itself a promised to do at the height of its friends and foes of the state. Azhar to fester was also a mistake. sacrosanct position that only its strength after the events of January It is true that al-Azhar is more members seem to recognise. 30th, 2013, what would it be able than 1,000 years old. It is older Examples of al-Azhar’s trespass- to accomplish now in its weakened Co-opting a faction of the than most countries. In the end, ing are numerous. Its scholars state? Islamists and using them for however, it is a religious institu- publicly trashed the motion picture tion and must remain so. Under Mawlana and vilified its makers Ahmad Abou Douh is an Egyptian security purposes was a mistake. European colonisation of Egypt, without having seen one scene writer.