Al-Tayeb's messages ignite the controversy of stewardship. Is Al-Azhar fair to women?

CAIRO — While disputes are raging in many Egyptian homes over the lack of clarity on the concepts of guardianship and what is called "nachouz" in Islamic jurisprudence, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, has come out with messages that have sparked controversy in the country.

Official statistics document the existence of about 12 million female breadwinners (who are the heads of the family for any reason) out of a total population of 104.77 million in early April, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Observers believe that the messages of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar come as a religious correction due to the settled misconceptions about guardianship and nachoz, and an attempt to do justice to women in a way that does not prejudice the stability of the family and does not promote gender conflict, in light of the presence of women breadwinners who manage family affairs amid a very bad reality exacerbated by the absence of a life partner.

Article 11 of the Egyptian Constitution stipulates that the State guarantees equality between women and men in all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and states that the State "is committed to providing care and protection for motherhood, childhood, breadwinner and elderly women, and women most in need."

Due correction messages

In his Ramadan program "Imam al-Tayyib", the Sheikh of Al-Azhar stressed that the guardianship of men over women is not absolute guardianship, but is limited to the scope of managing family affairs, and that it is the guardianship of consultation, partnership and management, not the guardianship of the presidency and control, and not a means to rob the wife of her will and confiscate her right to expression.

Ahmed al-Tayeb explained that "nachouz", as it is called for a wife who rebels against her husband, is called an equal release on the husband if he harms his wife, prejudices her or assaults her, and threatens her with divorce.

Dr. Mahmoud Al-Qalawi, member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and President of the Basma Academy for Marital Happiness, believes that the messages of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar are a religious correction due to what has settled in the minds of generations about using the right of guardianship in a negative way against women, or focusing on the disobedience of the wife and ignoring the disobedience of the husband, despite the fact that religion addresses all these crises.

Al-Kalawi explains, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that guardianship in Islam is an assignment not honorable, and a responsibility that is held with justice without abuse or with it, and its presence with the husband has conditions that negate its absence, such as spending and care. He pointed out that the accusation of disobedience used by husbands against their wives, rightly once and falsely again, exists in religion like men, and is known as disobedience to the husband, and means harming the wife, prejudice against her, and the permanence of threatening and bullying her.

He said that the Sheikh of Al-Azhar clarified the reality of Islam that secular and feminist groups are trying to hide, and promoted women's fairness as decided by the Prophet more than 1400,<> years ago, adding, "The feminist fraud that promotes between husbands about guardianship and disobedience demolished homes and corrupted relationships, as a result of the manipulation of terminology and incitement of women against the concepts of motherhood and guardianship, and pushed them to rebel, and incite men to love ownership and control."

Messages of stability and support for the family

The director of the "My Family" Center for Social and Family Consultations, Dr. Manal Khader, believes that the messages of the Grand Imam are in the interest of the stability of the family institution, stressing that the sheikhdom of Al-Azhar has a great Islamic symbolism not only in Egypt, but in the Arab and Islamic world.

Khader pointed out that many crises occur in homes due to the husband's or wife's lack of understanding of the meaning of guardianship, or the concept of nachoz, whether for men or women within the family, which leads to shameful facts in which the woman is the breadwinner and the list of everything, while her husband is unemployed and talks to her with hadiths of guardianship and nachoz and he does not understand what he says.

Khader explains, in her interview with Al Jazeera Net, that part of the solution to the problems of homes lies in returning to the true religion, while taking the means of science and learning before marriage so that those who are about to link understand the meaning of the family, while resorting to specialists immediately after a crisis.

Egyptian debate over human rights concepts

On the other hand, Egyptians on social media criticized al-Tayeb's messages in conjunction with the broadcast of the episodes, with some considering them "reactionary talk," and others arguing that they were "a near-modern interpretation that confirms equality between men and women, to correct what the sheikh said earlier." Others described the term guardianship as "ugly racist", asserting that the term "leadership" is better and given to those who deserve it, man or woman.

The writer Islam Beheiry rejected, earlier, similar statements by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar about disobedience, guardianship and disciplining the wife, and considered them the sayings of the people of heritage and the first interpreters, and contrary to the constitution and the Qur'an, according to his belief.

On the other hand, Khalaf Bayoumi, head of the Al-Shehab Center for Human Rights (a voluntary human rights organization), believes that the Sheikh of Al-Azhar's recent messages are human rights par excellence and enlightened constitutional, in the interest of advancing the human rights concept of the family, specifically the husband or wife, but it needs the adoption of the state with all its institutions to correct the violations that have been established within the family system against women, especially since the percentages of women breadwinners in Egypt are large and need to clarify their facts and rights.

Bayoumi attributes, in his interview with Al Jazeera Net, the increasing domestic violence in Egypt to the spread of misconceptions, such as the husband's absolute authority in the home and the negative view of women, and the conversion of the marital home in some cases into a detention facility or a trial platform in which the judge and the opponent are one is the husband, whose rulings in some incidents have reached the loss of the life of his entire family.

He explains that positive discrimination for female breadwinners, as has been done in the constitution and the repeated articulation of women's rights, "must not forget the rights of the rest of the family in the midst of the prevailing gender conflict between feminists and patriarchs."

Bad documented reality

Official statistics document that 18.2% of Egyptian households are female breadwinners. According to a study by the Egyptian Information Service (a government agency affiliated with the Presidency of the Republic), Egypt has at least 12 million female breadwinners, in which women are responsible for an entire family, regardless of the number of its members.

According to the same authority, the percentage of women breadwinners below the poverty line represents 26.3%, and Egypt's strategy in 2030 aims to reach 9%.

In a recent study by the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies and Thought under the title "Women breadwinners.. The image of a "monogamy" family headed by one party is very prevalent in Egyptian society.

According to the study, the number of female-headed households in 2018 was estimated at 3.3 million, noting that most heads of households are widows by 70.3% of the total female heads of households nationwide, followed by married women by 16.6%, and divorced women by 7.1%.