Egypt: A draft law imposes fees on divorce and remarriage

- The Egyptian government submitted a draft law to the House of Representatives to establish the “Solidarity Fund for Family Support,” which proposes imposing fees on marriage, divorce, and cohabitation transactions in order to provide financial resources for the fund designated to support families who are unable to collect their financial dues. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Counselor Hisham Badawi, referred the draft law to a joint committee that includes the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee and the offices of the Social Solidarity, Family, Persons with Disabilities, Religious Affairs and Endowments, and Human Rights Committees, for study.

The draft law proposes collecting a fee of 1,000 pounds ($18.81) for each incident of marriage, divorce, or review, as the case may be, to be paid by the husband, the divorced person, or the reviewer. It also stipulates that 1,500 pounds ($28.22) be collected from the husband upon proof of ratification of the marriage.

The fee rises to 5,000 pounds ($94.07) for each new marriage if the husband has one or more other wives. The proposed fees also include 100 pounds ($1.88) when accepting police college students, and a 2% fee of the annual tuition fees for new students in the universities, institutes, and schools included in the project, with a minimum of 100 pounds ($1.88) and a maximum of 5,000 pounds ($94.07).

The project also stipulates imposing a fee of 250 pounds ($4.70) for membership applications in social and sports clubs, and 50 pounds ($0.94) for annual renewal, with a 10% charge for renting spaces designated for holding weddings and events. In addition to other fees, including 10 pounds ($0.19) for each request in self-guardianship cases, 20 pounds ($0.38) for each copy of the marriage certificate, and 30 pounds ($0.56) for each copy of the divorce document.

The project also proposes collecting 25 pounds ($0.47) for the first copy of the birth certificate, 3 pounds ($0.06) for each subsequent copy, 10 pounds ($0.19) for a copy of the death or family registration certificate, and 5 pounds ($0.09) for each copy of the national ID card. According to the draft law, fees are paid to the fund by cash or non-cash means of payment, within the limits of the amounts allowed to be paid in cash according to the law. Member of the House of Representatives, Fatima Adel, said that the fund aims to help families who have obtained enforceable judicial rulings, but who cannot collect their financial dues due to the imprisonment of the party obligated to pay, or his default and inability to pay.

She explained that the support also targets women whose alimony amounts are not sufficient to cover their needs and the needs of their children. Adel indicated, in exclusive statements to Ofoq News in Arabic, that the draft government law stipulates the abolition of Law No. 11 of 2004 regarding the establishment of the family insurance system, and that she submitted during the first legislative term an integrated draft law for personal status, which included the establishment of a family support fund within one of its chapters, explaining that the current government draft in turn includes fees and financial resources for the fund, with some details and proposed amounts differing.

She added that her project included a contribution from the state amounting to one billion pounds ($18.81 million) when the fund began its work, in addition to other resources, including a percentage of the revenues of the Suez Canal Authority and the revenues of the Zakat House, with the aim of enabling the fund to help those entitled to it who are unable to collect their financial rights. But Adel stressed that providing funding alone does not address the problems facing women in obtaining their rights, noting that some of them are forced to spend years in the courts and file multiple lawsuits to obtain their entitlements, as women find themselves forced to resort to the judiciary more than once to demand different rights, instead of resolving their claims in one path, calling for facilitating litigation procedures and accelerating the adjudication of cases, in a way that helps implement rulings and enable women to obtain their rights in a timely manner.

Adel gave the example of a woman who supports three children, and she may be ordered to pay alimony in the amount of 500 pounds ($9.41), an amount she said is not enough to cover the family’s needs, noting that the amounts that the fund can provide vary according to the case, and may reach 5,000 pounds ($94.07) per month for one debtor, while assistance related to educational expenses may reach 30,000 pounds ($564.44), with the necessity of submitting documents and reports proving the case. She said that increasing alimony amounts or providing additional resources to the Fund alone are not sufficient to address the problems facing families, noting that families do not need painkillers, and calling for a comprehensive discussion of the Personal Status Law, ensuring that addressing family problems is not limited to financial support or partial solutions, but rather extends to reviewing the legal and judicial procedures facing women in obtaining their rights and implementing rulings issued in their favor.