Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Sheikh of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, opened the discussion about the necessity of reviving the fatwa “the right of toil and seeking”, to preserve the rights of the working woman who made an effort to develop her husband’s wealth, especially with the conditions of the modern era, in which women went out to the labor market, and shared their husbands in bearing the burdens material life.
This came in the wake of Al-Tayeb’s reception of His Eminence Sheikh Abdul Latif bin Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh, the Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance, at the headquarters of the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the day before yesterday, Tuesday, to discuss women’s rights in Islam;
Accordingly, the National Council for Women’s Rights thanked Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb for reviving the Islamic heritage that protects the dignity of Muslim women.
Maya Morsi, head of the National Council for Women's Rights in Egypt, expressed her thanks and appreciation for Al-Azhar's attempts to keep pace with modern developments and protect the rights of working women, via Facebook.
Rights awaiting legislation
Osama Al-Hadidi, Executive Director of the Al-Azhar International Center for Electronic Fatwa, explained - through a telephone intervention through the “Masaa DMC” program (evening dmc) - the principle of toil and striving, which is a right when women contribute to developing wealth and increasing money for the family, such as their contribution to building a family home, Or an investment project that increased the husband's wealth.
Al-Hadidi pointed to the absence of recognition of that right, as in most family disputes the man denies the right of the woman, who did not spare him her money and effort. Considering the rights and duties that should not be overlooked.
Al-Hadidi added that the participation of women in that principle comes through work, or by sharing her inheritance, or her own money that she acquired before or after marriage, to carry out a project or other, or she agreed with him to mix their money throughout the years of marriage. independent financial status for the wife,” and separate from her right to inherit from her husband upon his death, and her inheritance in it may not be considered as compensation for what she has provided.
And the woman can - if she can - prove what she gave the husband of money, in one way or another, or the husband acknowledges that kindness and gratitude, and if she cannot prove it, then he must appreciate her good treatment and her financial or moral assistance to him, if the woman is not working, and her support is limited to him To take care of the family, and to create an ideal environment for him to work.
But in a statement to Al-Ahram newspaper, Dr. Ahmed Karima, professor of comparative jurisprudence and Islamic law, confirmed that the right of “toil and pursuit” is applied only when women participate - effort and money - in agriculture, industry and trade, but it is not applied in return for their domestic work, because Islamic Sharia has been allocated to them a right. In dowry and alimony in return for those works.
Women spend on their families
The principle still requires proof from the wife, or a confession from the husband, and in the absence of these two cases, women will continue to need what proves their entitlement, which is not enough a fatwa to approve it, but the Egyptian deputies expressed their willingness to enact a law, to settle those disputes, legally establish the right, and put Compensation mechanisms, and estimation methods, to avoid conflict with the spouse or heirs.
The importance of reviving the fatwa comes in the midst of the Egyptian parliament’s readiness to issue an updated Personal Status Law, which has been working on since 2017, and its issuance has been stalled until today due to a wave of anger that followed the leaking of proposals restricting women’s rights.
The economic conditions faced by Egyptian women - forcibly - are an additional burden, which makes the right of "struggle and pursuit" enforceable;
Statistics from the General Mobilization and Statistics Agency for 2019 indicate that the total number of Egyptian families has reached 18 million, of which 4.5 million are headed by a woman.
The phenomenon of the “breadwinner woman” is widespread in Egypt, which is the woman who takes care of her family’s affairs financially, without the support of her husband, father or brother;
She may be the wife of a sick, incapacitated or on strike for work and assistance, which forces her to search for a source of livelihood to meet the needs of her family, so that the percentage of married female breadwinners is twice the percentage of divorced female breadwinners, according to the 2018 statistics of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.
In a research presented by the Journal of Studies in Social Work and Human Sciences, July 2020 issue, issued by Helwan University, the position of the breadwinner woman differs from that of the man who takes care of his family’s financial affairs.
Women face greater economic problems if they go out to the labor market for compelling reasons, starting with unequal opportunities, low wages, unorganized employment, and lack of vocational training for women, in addition to social problems such as children’s academic delays.
The reality is most evident in the statistics, when talking about the financial support provided by Egyptian women to their families. In 2020, women acquired the largest share of microfinance, and the number of women benefiting from financing their projects reached about 1.97 million.
In 2021, women constituted 75% of the beneficiaries of the “Solidarity and Karama” program for financing small projects, and then they demonstrated their desire to work with the launch of the “Mastoura” program, which aims to transform the breadwinner from a recipient of support into an effective element who has funding, and receives professional training for craft work. .
sarcastic responses
The revival of the fatwa caused a disturbance in the Egyptian public opinion, after most Egyptians went to search for the meaning of "toil and striving";
The woman's right to her own financial liability is absent, and her right to recover her money is denied.
Even if the mockery of the fatwas of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Egypt is not a new event, when it is related to women's rights, it occupies a different space.
However, many men and women agreed on the importance of reviving the principle of "struggle and pursuit", until they cited the non-Muslim West's recognition of that right, and invoking it in the event of divorce.
The fatwas of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar that beating any human being, a man or a woman today, is an insult and a crime, and his demand to revive the fatwa “the right of toil and pursuit” to guarantee the right of working women to their share of developing their husband’s wealth, are vital matters that go to the heart of women’s right to dignity and equality and must be transformed To binding laws #Women'sRights
— Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) February 17, 2022
I mean, we have in Islam (the principle of toil and striving) in which you do not take half or part of her husband's wealth as a result of her participation and work with him in developing his wealth!!.
The words that are applied in the West are based on us and with deliberate ignorance any rights of women have been suppressed pic.twitter.com/GcVCRLI0ZF
— Nabila Elsayed (@Nabila_Lawyer) February 15, 2022
Some believe that the right of toil and striving belongs only to the woman who participated with her husband in his work until this work yielded and grew and expanded
, but I believe that this right also includes the housewife who carried the burden of raising (their children) from her husband and exercised all her functions within the marital home.. so that he would devote himself to his work. and its development
— iman A Haiba (@ImanAhaiba) February 16, 2022
Do you know that the fatwa is the right of hard work and pursuit that the Sheikh of Al-Azhar clearly has said about it for years? The first time people heard about it was these two days?
Do you know why we don't hear about this?
Because this is a fatwa in the row of women, and you preserve the rights of women, and of course men who do not care about them except for fatwas that are in their interest will ignore them.
— Not Bassant (@NotBassant) February 16, 2022
Toil and pursuit in the Islamic heritage
The principle of “toil and striving” in the Islamic heritage dates back to the diligence of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, when a woman named Habiba bin Zuraiq came to him and asked him about the issue of the inheritance of her husband Omar bin Al-Harith, who was trading in what she made and repaired with her own hands from her work in embroidery, and he earned money from that Plenty, and when he died he left money and real estate, and his heirs received the treasuries, but when they disputed that, and they resorted to Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, he spent the woman with half the money and the inheritance in the remaining half.
The Maliki jurists inherited that diligence, and Morocco applied it in the event of divorce or the death of the husband. In a research presented by Kamal Belhaka, Professor of Legal and Economic Sciences at Ibn Zohr University, it was stated that women, children and other relatives in Morocco have a right to the wealth of the husband, father and brother, as they are partners in achieving that wealth. Their rights are distributed by calculating their hard work and years of work in the development of money, as well as their legal right to inheritance.