Single mom shocks Egypt
2005-02-25 22:53
Cairo - Hind el-Hinnawy shocked more than just her family and friends when she chose to keep her baby and become a single mother.
She went public with her claim that she had been informally wed to a young actor who refused to recognise the child, scandalising this conservative nation where talk of sex is taboo and family units are sacrosanct.
Now el-Hinnawy, whose story started as celebrity gossip and then became the topic of ethical and religious debates, feels some vindication. On Thursday, almost nine months after she first brought the case to court, a judge ordered DNA testing to prove whether Ahmed el-Fishawy is indeed the father of her four-month-old daughter, Leena.
El-Hinnawy admitted that her choice to raise Leena on her own - and to publicise her dispute with el-Fishawy - has been difficult.
"Even if I wasn't married, I would have kept the baby," the 27-year-old costume designer and art director said. "I never considered abortion, which I believe is punished by God."
El-Hinnawy claims that she and el-Fishawy - an actor and former host of two religious television programmes - entered into an urfi, or informal marriage, in December 2003. But el-Fishawy, 24, denies marrying her, and she has no documents to back her claim.
Urfi marriages have no official contract and are often kept secret. They afford no rights to either party, though it is the woman who is most affected by this. Although a document is signed in front of witnesses, the marriage can be broken simply by destroying that paper.
Such marriages have become more frequent, often as temporary unions for people who cannot afford marriage or who want to legitimise their sexual activities, as premarital sex is forbidden by Islam.
When el-Hinnawy became pregnant and told el-Fishawy, she said he took the urfi papers and did not return them. He denied the marriage and denied he was Leena's father when she took him to court last May to get a recognised birth certificate. Under Egyptian law, the father's signature is required to obtain any official documentation.
In December, Mufti Ali Gomaa, the head of Egypt's highest theological authority, Dar al-Ifta, urged el-Fishawy to recognise Leena, saying that the marriage had been valid because it had had a witness and that he had a responsibility to the child.
The issue quickly became gossip-worthy in Cairo. Many defended el-Fishawy, who was seen as a pious man due to the religious programmes he hosted, which were canceled in the wake of the scandal. Feminists saw the case as a chance to fight the double standards of Egypt's male-dominated society.
"We are living in a very, very hypocritical society," el-Hinnawy said. "I'm not justifying wrongs or demanding deviation. I just decided to stand up for my rights, and tell women they shouldn't be weak and tell Egyptian men to think twice before abusing women this way."
"I want to devote my life to human rights and women's rights issues," she said.
- AP