Case Study The Egyptian Woman in the Constitutional Court Tahani El Jebali as a model Tahani El Jebali November 1950

50 ( age: 62 years old)

Tahani Mohamed Jebali (November 9, 1950) is a former member of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, and the first Egyptian woman to hold a judicial profession in the contemporary era. She is still the Egyptian woman, who occupied the highest judicial post in the history of Egypt, before she was excluded from the board of the court after the adoption of the Egyptian new Constitution in 2012. She was born to a humble family in one of the governorates located in north of Egypt. She got the fifth place at the level of Egypt in the results of Secondary School Exams and then she joined the faculty of law, Cairo University. She graduated from the faculty in 1973.

After graduating, El Jebali worked for a short time as director of legal affairs at the University of Tanta, Gharbia Governorate. Then, she resigned and turned to work as a freelance lawyer in 1987. She continued to work as a freelance lawyer until a decision was taken on appointing her as a judge. She was elected as the first female Member of the Permanent Bureau of the Arab Lawyers Union to become the first Egyptian and Arab woman to be elected at this level in the Union since its inception in 1944. Then, she was in charge of the Women's Committee of the Union to represent Arab women and she also chaired the Committee on combating racism and Zionism at the Union. Moreover, she worked as a key lecturer at the Training and Information

Technology Center of the Arab Lawyers Union. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession. She is a legal expert at the UN and an international commercial arbitrator, a lecturer at the Arab Institute for Human rights in Tunisia as well as a member of the Political and Legislative Committee at the National Council for Women (NCW).

Her appointment as a judge in the Constitutional Court On January 22, 2003 a Republican Decree was issued on her appointment as a member of the board of councilors of the Supreme Constitutional Court as the first female judge Egyptian. She continued to be the first female judge until the year 2007, when the government of Egypt appointed 32 female judges. However, none of these female judges joined the Constitutional Court and so Tahani El Jebali continued to be the only women to occupy the highest judicial position in Egypt. The decree on her appointment raised wide-scale argument within the religious, political and even the judicial circles. The opposing judges were of the view that womens work in judiciary is banned by the Islamic law and judiciary. Another group of judges voiced their reservation on her direct appointment in the Constitutional Court, as she should have been appointed as a judge in the Personal Statute courts or Courts of First Instance. A head of her appointment, the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar indicated that womens assumption of judicial positions is acceptable from with regard to the Islamic law. .

Her Feminist Activities: Jebali has been active in defending the rights of Egyptian women, especially women's political rights and the right to assume judicial positions. She believes that Islam does not deny her this right. She indicated that the religious evidences raised in this regard do not deny women the right to assume public offices. She criticized the claim that women are is not suitable for the judicial profession because of being passionate. She added that if women are more passionate than men, this does not impede their appointment in judiciary, on the contrary this makes them better judges . In addition, she considered that the nature of the judicial system in Egypt, where several experts and institutions to examine the evidences to reach the appropriate judgment, reduces the impact of personal emotions in the work of the judiciary. Moreover, she criticized the saying that women should not work because this will negatively impact their performance of their duties at home. She considered striking a balance between home duties and professional life is not a big deal and asking this question for women and not men implies a double standard approach . Jebali believes that the Egyptian constitution does not prevent women from holding any position in the state institutions. Moreover, women's right to hold judicial positions has been decided several decades ago. However, Egyptian women are still struggling to occupy judicial positions because of the predominant traditional culture and religious extremism. The Egyptian State Councils rejection of appointing any woman as judge is an evidence of that discriminatory trend. Jebali also criticized some Egyptian laws, which she considers as discriminatory against women, while she praised some laws, which are fair to women, such as the self-divorce law.

Her stance towards the Egyptian Revolution: Jebali had a controversial stance towards the Egyptian elections ,as she said in an interview with the New York Times that the ruling SCAF in Egypt planned with one of the judges of the Constitutional Court to maintain their political power. The newspaper quoted counselor Jebali, Vice President of the Constitutional Court, as saying, I have advised the SCAF not to give up power to civilians. Jebali said that she contracted the army to convince it to change their position regarding the elections. She won many medals, trophies and certificates of appreciation from local, Arab and international organizations for her activities in the field of defending human rights and women's rights as well as social and political activities .

The termination of her service at the constitutional court: After the adoption of the Egyptian Constitution on December 26, 2012 Jebali was excluded from the Supreme Constitutional Court and she returned to work as a freelance lawyer.

Tailoring an article in the Egyptian Constitution to oust Tahani El Jebali Jebali was and is still among the most prominent names of the team, which opposes and strongly criticizes the policies of the Islamic current. Since Morsis term in office a President of the Republic, El Jebali engaged into hectic and tough confrontation with the Islamic current, especially after the issuance of the complementary

Constitutional Declaration in 2012 , the adoption of the draft constitution by the President and put it for a popular referendum. The Constitutional Court represented in Jebali mentioned that this Declaration is a flagrant violation of the articles of the Constitution as well as the content of the oath made by Morsi at the beginning of his Presidential term in office. On the other hand, the leaders of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, said that the President has the right to take all necessary legal actions to protect his legitimacy and maintain the gains of the revolution. Some people were of the view that El Jebalis opposition has heightened with introduction of article 141 in the new constitution, which stipulates that the number of the board of the constitutional court should be amended and this is considered undermining the constitutional powers of the court. It is meant to get rid of some of the judges for political reasons. Some people termed this article as Tahani El Jebalis article and this is how Jebali was ousted from the Supreme Constitutional Court.