Breaking News: First female judge presides over hearing at top court in Egypt! MAK NEWS-21

Egyptian woman Radwa Helmi, has set a new record and has been appointed as the first female judge of the State Council, Egypt's highest ...

Egyptian woman Radwa Helmi, has set a new record and has been appointed as the first female judge of the State Council, Egypt's highest court.

 

Radwa Helmi is one of 98 women nominated by the Egyptian president to the State Council. Photo: AFP

According to a report in the Dawn newspaper, Radwa Helmi is one of 98 women elected to the State Council last year, one of Egypt's leading judicial bodies, following a decision by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

March 5 has become a new historic day for Egyptian women, said Maya Morsi, head of the National Council for Women (NCW).

 

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The move comes ahead of International Women's Day on March 8.

In Egypt, the most populous Arab country, women have been fighting for years for their rights, and it took decades for a female lawyer to become a judge, despite the presence of hundreds of female lawyers in Egypt.

Tahani al-Jabali was the first woman to be appointed to Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court in 2003. She held the position for a decade before being ousted by then-President Mohamed Morsi in 2012.

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Although there is no law in Egypt barring women from becoming judges, the judiciary in the conservative country has traditionally been dominated by men.

The State Council was established in 1946 as an independent body that decides primarily on administrative disputes and disciplinary matters.

Since the founding of Egypt as a modern state in the 19th century, women have been socially marginalized.

Women were given the right to vote and to run for office in 1956, but their personal rights continued to be violated.

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Most women have no control over their children or their personal lives, such responsibilities are often assigned to male guardians.

Women currently hold about a quarter of the cabinet posts and about 168 seats in the 569-member parliament.

In May 2021, the Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar University in Cairo took part in a debate on women's rights.

Al-Azhar University's Imam Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyib, in a statement on women's rights, said that no religious rule prevents women from holding high positions, traveling alone or participating in inheritance rights equally.