‘Female Judges in the Arab World’ was the title of a recent conference held along two days at the French Institute in Cairo, jointly with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Arab Women’s Organisation (AWO) headed by the Egyptian Mervat al-Tallawi.
The conference debated the ways in which the Arab region may work to attain better women empowerment and gender equality. Participating in the conference was
Egyptian Minister of Justice Ahmed al-Zind who has appointed a group of Egyptian women as presiding judges in the Courts of First Instance, only the third such occurrence in Egyptian history. During the conference, Zind said that, in addition to taking on the role of presiding judges, “women will be appointed as aides to the Minister of Justice”.
Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, and United Arab Emirates all participated in the conference. Each country was represented by one or two judges; France was represented by three women interested in women’s liberation.
Egyptian women will now take on the same role Tahani al-Gebali first took back in 2003. Gebali was the first woman to hold a judicial position in Egyptianhistory. Former president Hosni Mubarak gave direct orders for her appointment.
Until 2007, Gebali also held the position of Vice President of the Supreme Constitutional Court, the highest court in Egypt. That year, the first group of 31 Egyptian women was appointed as court judges.
Watani International
13 June 2015