EGYPT: A woman presiding

A new feminine touch on the Egyptian marriage scene has a lot of men unhappy. The country recently appointed it first woman mazoun — a judicial official, much like a notary — who presides over wedding ceremonies and stamps marriage and divorce certificates. When it comes to legal and religious matters between men and women, men across the Middle East prefer to have another man in charge.

"I completely reject the idea," Mahmoud Ali, a bearded man from Cairo told AFP. "There must be religious texts forbidding this. . . . There are also obstacles on a social level. She would always take the woman's side. The idea won't spread. It's a one-off and it won't last."

The appointment of Amal Soliman, a 32-year-old lawyer, as a mazoun is not a violation of Islamic law, according to Sheik Fawzi Zefzaf, deputy director of nation's leading religious institute, Al Azhar. He added: "But when a woman is menstruating she must not enter a mosque or read Koranic versus and that will affect her job, so for this reason we say it is not advisable to have a woman."

Biology, religion, bureaucracy, discrimination and curious eyes have all come into play as a woman appears where she hasn't been before. Some regard it as progress; others view it as an unnerving perversion.   

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Illustration: A new mazoun presides over a wedding ceremony. Credit: Tarek Shahin, courtesy of CairoFreeze.blogspot.com

Comments

[Marcia Lynx Qualey]

Jeffrey's comment, "men across the Middle East prefer to have another man in charge" makes it sound as though this is something that all men agree to, as if all Middle Eastern men have a single, monolithic opinion on the matter (or on any matter).

I could dig up some Middle Eastern men who'd say that they don't agree...if the premise weren't so absurd to begin with.

Perhaps many--or most--men (anywhere?) prefer to have a man in charge. That's no excuse for these grand "X think Y" statements, and patently absurd if you replace X and Y with "American men prefer blondes" or "no American men change diapers" ( a statement I sometimes make, even though my husband is quite versatile with a diaper).