Cautious optimism from advocate of women’s inclusion in judicial bodies after presidential order

The Cabinet issued a statement on International Women’s Day saying that the president had called on the State Council and Public Prosecution — two judicial bodies which have been vocal in refusing to employ female staff — to “seek the assistance of women.”

The gesture toward improving women’s representation in the justice system comes after years of advocacy by civil society, feminist groups and law school graduates. 

Yet Omnia Gadallah, founder of the Her Honor Setting the Bar initiative that works for women’s representation in the justice system expressed ambivalence regarding the announcement. 

Speaking to Mada Masr on Tuesday, Gadallah said that while the statement is cause for “cautious optimism,” any change in women’s employment should, by law, come from within the justice system itself rather than being imposed upon it by the executive.

Egypt had only 66 woman judges out of 12,000 serving judges as of summer 2020.

In the Monday night statement published on the Cabinet’s official Facebook page, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for the justice minister to coordinate with the State Council and the Public Prosecution to implement the directive.

Justice Minister Omar Marwan appeared later the same night on Kalma Akheera, a news show on ON TV anchored by Lamis al-Hadidy, saying that the presidential order would be rolled out at the outset of the new judicial year on October 1. The minister said he is already in touch with both the State Council and the Public Prosecution regarding their visions for executing the president’s instructions. Though the exact mechanics are still being drawn up, said Marwan, it’s possible that women could be accepted in entry-level jobs at the two judicial bodies, or recruited for mid-level positions. 

Gadallah told Mada Masr that the directive is still “very vague,” pointing out that there is no timeframe or specific mechanism indicated for enforcing the mandate.

According to Gadallah, the law and Constitution already mandate women’s inclusion in all judicial bodies without discrimination, and should therefore already be implemented by the judiciary itself. 

Yet, the judiciary has remained resolute in its refusal to increase women’s representation in certain bodies.

A general assembly of the State Council took a decision not to employ women in February 2010, reaffirmed in March that same year by 318 of the 319 judges who attended the general assembly meeting. Under Article 186 of the State Council bylaws, the judicial body is bound by the general assembly’s decisions.

Several women told Mada Masr last year that their applications to the Public Prosecution and the State Council jobs were blocked. 

Gadallah herself was denied the right to apply for an entry-level job in the State Council in 2013, after which she launched a years-long campaign. She filed a lawsuit with an administrative court  2014 contesting her rejection by disputing the validity of the bylaws of the State Council itself. The State Council is the umbrella judicial body for the Egyptian administrative court system, competent to deal with all disputes to which administrative bodies or government agencies are a party.

In September 2015, Sisi issued a decree appointing 243 male graduates of the class of 2013 — Gadallah’s classmates — as judicial clerks to the State Council. 

The court referred the case to the Supreme Administrative Court, which ruled against her in April 2017, on the grounds that the State Council is not required to appoint women.

Gadallah twice filed suits against the 2015 decree with the administrative court, asking for it to be referred to the Supreme Constitutional Court , to avoid the State Council acting as both party and judge to the suit. Both requests were denied. In August 2019, she again filed grievances with the president and justice minister.

The history of exclusion toward women in the State Council and Public Prosecution casts doubt on the extent to which Monday night’s statement will represent a change. 

Though Sisi pledged in 2017 to raise the proportion of women judges to 25 percent by 2030, meaning that Egypt would need to appoint more than 3,000 women to the judiciary in the next nine years, in June 2020, the State Commissioners Body within the State Council issued a report recommending that Gadallah’s suit against the 2015 presidential decree lacked standing, reasoning that the State Council can decide whether to appoint women at its discretion. 

Prominent judges within the State Council have also spoken out publicly against the appointment of women to judicial positions. When Yehya al-Dakroury, otherwise considered one of the more independently minded senior judicial figures, assumed the presidency of the State Council Judges Club in 2010, he said, “a woman working as a judge would mean she would have to be behind closed doors with two or more male judges during deliberations. This is the kind of seclusion prohibited by Islamic law, which under Article 2 of the Constitution is the principal source of legislation.”

Gadallah suggested the wording of Monday’s statement could be intended to avoid a clash with the judiciary over the matter. She added that the justice minister, whom Sisi tasked with carrying out the order, technically has no power over the judiciary and is mandated by law only to provide the judicial branch with technical supervision. It is “very conservative,” she said.