아프리카ㆍ중동

Most of Arab countries including Egypt have not been totally free from Islamic Shari‘ah in their personal status laws. Egypt have adapted western codes in every fields except the personal status law, which has been developed by reinterpretation of the Islamic Shari‘ah. Egyptian personal status law has been problematic in terms of that it was not a gradual reform which reflected social values and customs, but was enforced from above by Western-influenced elites or political leaders. As a modern state, Egypt could not deny in the long run the UN Declaration of Human rights whose article 16 stipulates that "men and women, regardless of race, nationality or religion, having reached the age of puberty, have the right to marry and establish families. They have equal rights with regard to marriage, in the marriage, and in the event of its dissolution." However, as a muslim society which has an authoritative religious institute Azhar, Egypt has been obliged to promulgate a modern code which respects the seventh-century Shari‘ah. In spite of criticism that Egyptian government supported women's rights to get financial aids from Western countries, it will still face internal and external pressures in any way on reform of its personal status law.　 In this background, first, this paper will study on characteristics of Egyptian traditional personal status law which has been the base of the modern personal status law. Secondly, it will study on historical backgrounds of Egyptian personal status reforms, and discuss on its major issues. Finally, it will evaluate the reforms of Egyptian personal status law from a Women's Rights Perspective.