CAIRO - The

issue of verbal divorce has returned to the fore after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi recently spoke about it and the need to review it in order to take into account the disregard of oral divorce, pointing to the high rate of divorce, especially among newly married couples.

Al-Sisi pointed out that he did not want to "dry his brain" (insist) in this matter, even though the law allows him to decide what he sees in the interest of the people.

The issue of verbal divorce was a point of contention between the two institutions of the presidency and the religious scholars close to it on the one hand, and the Al-Azhar institution on the other.

While Sisi called in early 2017 not to acknowledge the occurrence of verbal divorce, Al-Azhar acknowledged its occurrence.

In a meeting with the Police College in 2017, Sisi called on the official religious institutions to adopt the case. Al-Sisi addressed the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, who was present at the celebration, saying, "No, what (or what), O eminent Imam?"

As for the conference launching the human rights strategy last Saturday, Al-Sisi spoke again about the matter in the absence of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and said, “The issue is important, and I, as a person, am honest and trustworthy.. I speak as a state and I do not face anyone. The law allows me to document the divorce, so does anyone imagine that I am biased, no, by God, people do not understand, and families are used to that.”

unjust and oppressed

Lawyer Osama Nasser confirms that the family courts are full of cases in which one of the spouses is either an offender or a victim.

Osama confirmed - in his speech to Al Jazeera Net - that the wife can easily obtain a divorce paper by taking off from the husband, but then she is harmed by giving up all her rights.

The lawyer considered that the husband fears the catastrophic consequences of registering the divorce on him, as the issue is not limited to “destroying his home” with divorce, but it reaches his imprisonment in a number of cases that the wife files against him, the most serious of which is the case of “wasting the list of household movables” whose penalty is imprisonment, which is A case that the wife has the right to establish while she is still in the custody of her husband, and she is a weapon in her hand to force him to formally divorce her if she wants, as well as cases of alimony, housing, custody, and others.

He continued: So, men abused the right of oral divorce to force women to give up their rights, according to divorced women, while the husband is forced to divorce verbally to escape laws that were enacted to protect women's rights. It spins in a vicious circle, in the opinion of both parties.

Al-Sisi, while he was talking about verbal divorce, was talking about the clash with the Al-Azhar institution and that he did not want to clash with Al-Azhar. He was not afraid of clashing, but to create a general atmosphere of dialogue and to see people’s opinion. Al-Sisi knew Al-Azhar’s strength, popularity and credibility with the people, and the people knew that Al-Azhar was the wall of defense and the first defender of Sharia and its foundations

— nabil (@nabilkelany) September 12, 2021

Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb challenges the President of the Republic of Egypt, Ghabd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi, in the verbal divorce, the renewal of religious discourse, and the freedom to choose religion as if it were a higher position than the President of the Republic

— George Michael (@101010gmh) September 12, 2021

Is it the right of the controversial religious institution to obstruct the will of the state represented in the “will of the president” and impose its opinion, and use its power over any political decision that would preserve rights?


The president is able and can implement the documentation of verbal divorce in a realistic way.

— Hany Salem (@Hany_Salem5555) September 12, 2021

During his speech at the same conference held recently, Sisi referred to this angle by saying that “the personal status law must be satisfied with a balance, awareness, and a deep understanding of the flaws and issues of society in a highly efficient manner, and this is not easy. 2011 (the year of the January revolution) is what led to the lack of respect for human rights in Egypt, including the lack of respect for the practices of others.”

It is surprising in the matter of verbal divorce, that men divorce verbally, then they go to the Dar Al Iftaa to investigate with them to find out the merits of the divorce. You are divorced and does not know whether the divorce took place?

— Mohamed ElSherif (@MhdElsherif) September 13, 2021

According to the statistics of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, 40% of married couples divorce during the first five years of marriage, which is "a large percentage and has negative effects on the family and future generations," according to Sisi's speech.

Oral divorce takes place between the husband and his wife.

As for documented divorce, it takes place between the husband and his wife, one party, and the government a second party, so that the lineages do not mix, or the estates go to divorced women, or the man brings together more than 5 wives, or the woman marries more than one man.

— ALMAHA (@mosad43211) September 12, 2021

Egypt is at the top of the list of countries with the highest divorce rates.

According to official statistics, a divorce occurs every two minutes, and the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics recorded the occurrence of 213,000 divorces in 2020.

Newton's game

The controversy over the issue of oral divorce was previously renewed last Ramadan during the presentation of the series "Newton's Game", which discussed the issue.

As part of attempts to resolve the matter, the Council of Ministers approved a draft personal status law, which was sent to Parliament, which postponed its discussion after widespread controversy erupted over it.

Observers saw that Sisi's recent statements indicate the imminent implementation of the law, which included Article No. 55 regarding oral divorce, and stressed that divorce associated with a number - verbal or indicative - occurs only once, as well as successive or multiple in one council, and oral divorce has its impact Legal if both parties acknowledge it before an official body.

Sisi's recent statements reveal a desire to move forward towards neglecting oral divorce and not accepting its occurrence.

Al-Azhar did not issue any comment on these new presidential statements, in contrast to what happened in 2017, when the Council of Senior Scholars in Al-Azhar issued a statement opposing President Sisi's call to neglect oral divorce.

The committee’s statement at that time stated that verbal divorce “has been established since the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.”

In the previous debate between the presidential and Al-Azhar institutions, Al-Sisi justified his demand by “striving in favor of giving people a chance to self-reflection” before the divorce is enforced.

On the other hand, the Council of Senior Scholars considered that the law is not a solution, because “the phenomenon of the prevalence of divorce is not eliminated by the requirement of testimony or documentation, because the husband who underestimated the divorce order does not fault him to go to the authorized or judge to document his divorce, knowing that all announced divorce statistics are proven and documented in advance. Either with the authorized person or before the judge,” according to the statement.

The authority's statement continued, "The correct treatment for this phenomenon is to care for young people, protect them from drugs of all kinds, and educate them, in addition to highlighting purposeful art, serious education, and serious religious advocacy."

It seemed that the aforementioned statement was not officially welcomed, so Al-Azhar's statements and activities in the media were ignored, and the Sheikh of Al-Azhar personally suffered from a media attack campaign that amounted to his demand for his resignation.

That campaign came despite the tone of calm and diplomacy with which the statement concluded, which affirmed that “it is the legal guardian’s right to take the necessary measures to enact legislation to ensure the imposition of a deterrent punitive punishment on those who refrained from documenting the divorce, or procrastinated in it, because this harms women.” and its legitimate rights.

For its part, the Religious Affairs Committee said in the previous parliament session, that it intends to prepare a draft law that meets the president's proposal.

Professor of Comparative Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University Saad Al-Din Al-Hilali defended the need not to take into account oral divorce, saying that the official documentation of marriage and divorce contracts has been known to the Egyptians since 1931 to “strengthen the charter of what God made in his book a thick charter.”

And he continued in a program on one of the satellite channels: Some people come to demand the deprivation of the blessing of official documentation, at a time when they were satisfied with this documentation in commercial matters, and students of jurisprudence and the common people realize the logical dependence of divorce on the status of marriage, so that if the marriage was done verbally, the divorce because of it is oral, and vice versa. correct.

The issue of oral divorce was not the only one in dispute between the Al-Azhar institutions and the presidency, as debates took place over the Rabaa dispersal in 2013, and issues of developing religious discourse.

During the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday in 2018, Al-Tayeb defended the Sunnah, stressing that it is three quarters of the religion, in response to Sisi’s criticism of the existence of texts that distort religion.