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Egypt’s presidency clashes with religious institutions over verbal divorce

Calls for new legislation in Egypt to annul verbal divorce, namely by President Abel Fattah al-Sisi, raise the ire of Al-Azhar and other religious institutions already at odds with the president.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY INES BEL AIBAEgyptian radio presenter and divorcee Mahassen Saber takes a break from working on her Internet-based radio station "Divorcees Radio" to check on her son as he watches a film at an Internet cafe in Zagazig, 90 kms north of Cairo, on January 14, 2010. When Mahassen Saber divorced her husband after four years of difficult procedures, she did not expect to become the centre of gossip. To fight the prejudice, the young Egyptian decided to launch "Divorcees Radio". AFP PHOTO/

CAIRO — The Administrative Court of the Egyptian State Council ruled Sept. 1 that it does not have jurisdiction to look into the case demanding the minister of justice to amend the personal status law in such a way to annul verbal divorce and have it authenticated officially by virtue of written documents. 

The legal case, filed by lawyer Haitham Saad, was also directed against the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, to renounce verbal divorce, as many Egyptians, under daily pressure and stress, express orally their intention of divorce without any real will to do so.

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