Divorce rules in Egypt
- Mohamad Ali Al-Batrawi
- Apr 8, 2021
- 2 min read
It's known that Egypt is a civil state that derives its legislation from the principles of Islamic law, in accordance with "Article 2" of the constitution.
This applies to marriage and divorce laws, both for Egyptians and foreigners, even in case of divorce for civil contracts to foreigners.
The divorce contract must be documented in the office of the Egyptian Ministry of Justice, if the marriage contract was previously notarized.
Verbal divorce takes place if its elements and conditions are fulfilled after investigation, and it is recognized in the Dar al-Iftaa and the Senior Scholars Council of Al-Azhar and the Fiqh Committees of Al-Azhar.
In Islam, divorce takes place as soon as it is pronounced, and there is a difference between the occurrence of divorce and its official documentation.
For Muslims, there is what is called the waiting period: it is a period of time specified by Islamic law for a woman who is divorced or widowed, and prevents this woman from marrying someone other than her husband, except after the end of the period specified for her in the waiting period.
In case where a woman is divorced before intercourse, there is no waiting period for her to spend, and she has right to marry after divorce directly, but in case the divorce come after legal intercourse, there are several provision and laws for this:
If the husband divorces his wife while she is pregnant, her waiting period is due to the delivery of her fetus even if she is in the ninth month of her pregnancy, one day after she gives birth to her fetus, the period of her waiting period has expired.
If woman divorced and she is not pregnant, but she can be, her waiting period to menstruate three times, after she finish it she can marry whenever wants.
When a woman dose not menstruate due to her old age, or has been removed her womb, her waiting period be three months.
In cases of menopause without knowing the cause, the waiting period is awaiting the disappearance of the cause, then the occurrence of three menstruation.
On the other hand, the Egyptian Cabinet recently approved, in principle, a new draft personal status law that regulates the provisions of engagement and marriage contracts, the rules of eligibility and guardianship, the rules for the termination of marriage by divorce, annulment or separation, the provisions of parentage, alimony, and custody.
Article 58 of the draft law obliges the husband to acknowledge in the marriage document his marital status, and if he is married, he must indicate in the acknowledgment the name of the wife or wives who are in his infancy and their place of residence, and the notary must notify them of the new marriage by a registered letter.
The law establishes a decisive punishment for the offending husband, which provides for imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year and a fine of not less than 20 thousand pounds and not more than 50 thousand pounds, or one of these two punishments, and the same penalty shall be imposed by the competent authorized if he does not comply with the stipulated requirement of notifying wives of marriage the new.
Author of this article is Mohamad Ali Al-Batrawi, journalist at Expat Lawyers group Egypt Links
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