IWD: Egyptian Feminist Efforts for Gender Wealth Justice

In today's world, wealth inequality, the growing disparity in accessing and controlling financial resources, opportunities, and living standards, continues to have an impact on our daily lives. This disparity has deep roots in historical injustices and is further complicated by issues of race, gender, ethnicity, and various forms of intersectionality. These historical injustices are not mere relics of the past; as Branko Milanović argues, ‘reading about global inequality is nothing less than reading about the economic history of the world’. As I explore the realm of wealth inequalities, I'm prompted to consider how they manifest intersectionally in my home country, Egypt, and at the various forms of gendered resistance aimed at ending the struggle of gender wealth inequality.

As a feminist, I draw inspiration from women’s stories and their resistance in the face of various forms of domination. When I delve into research topics related to gender inequality, I find my answers in the stories, experiences, history, feminist efforts, and struggles of women. In the words of Angela Davis, 'It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.' Therefore, for me, it is in the stories and lived experiences of women resisting control and domination that I find a true sense of collectivity.

The gendered impacts of wealth inequalities and capitalism

Although income inequality remains at the centre of the economic inequality discussion, it is the extreme wealth inequalities that have been the result of historical accumulation through imperialism, colonisation, and slavery, that should be our main source of worry. It's alarming to note that ‘The richest 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world's population,’ as per a 2023 Oxfam Report. A glance at the global wealth distribution further reveals that women own less than 12% of today's global wealth, as depicted in the graphic below.

It is also important to delve deeper into the relational aspects of capitalism to examine how the interplay of power between capitalism and patriarchy shapes women's realities regarding wealth accumulation, in terms of both financial and non-financial assets. As Ruth Gilmore states, the former ‘requires inequality’, while the latter sustains structural gender inequalities. Turning to the issue of gender wealth inequality in Egypt, I offer a snapshot of how Egyptian feminists respond to historical gender injustices and resist structural gender inequality through two specific cases.

The fight for equal inheritance rights for Egyptian Christian women

In Egypt, inheritance laws are guided by Sharia Law, which grants men a much larger share than women. In the past, women, particularly, in rural areas and Upper Egypt, struggled to receive their rightful inheritance, as a study from 2009 in Souhag and Quena governorates revealed that ‘only 40.5% of women receive their inheritance without asking for it, while 59.5% of women are completely deprived of their inheritance.’ An amendment to the inheritance law came into force in 2017, criminalising the act of denying an heir their legitimate share.

However, Christian women in Egypt face an even greater challenge as for years, they have had to abide by Muslim laws of inheritance. The Islamic Sharia rules specify that male sons are entitled to receive double the inheritance share compared to their sisters when inheriting their parents’ estate, whereas such distinction is not part of Christian principles in Egypt. Ultimately, for the Christian population, the church is the main authority on marriages and divorces of its followers, but inheritance laws are left to the state to decide. This institutional tolerance on State and Church levels perpetuates patriarchal power, as it upholds male privilege. Egyptian lawyer Hoda Nasrallah, a Christian herself, fought for a Christian woman's right to receive equal inheritance, eventually winning the case in November 2019, which was a ground-breaking moment towards gender justice for Egyptian Christian women.

Nevertheless, this triumph faces challenges and constraints imposed by authorities, restricting its accessibility to Egyptian Christian women. Hoda Nasrallah continues her fight for the rights of other Christian women, as her recent report with EIPR shows that ‘Christian women in Upper Egypt and the Canal governorates are the least fortunate, as no ruling has been issued in these areas obligating the application of the principles of Christian jurisprudence in matters of inheritance, while their counterparts in Cairo and Alexandria were able to obtain their right to inherit equally with males.’ This adds another dimension to the existing inequalities, highlighting the intersection of geography and spatial context with gender and religion, particularly affecting more marginalised women in Upper Egypt.

Breaking the silence on the absence of gender wealth justice in Egypt

Another feminist effort in the pursuit of gender wealth justice is led by the Center for Egyptian Women Legal Assistance (CEWLA), which has been working for nearly 30 years to provide prevention, protection, and services such as legal aid, social support, and psychological support to women facing various forms of violence in Egypt. They advocate for gender-responsive laws and policies, as well as the end of gender-discriminatory laws.

In their work on advocating for a new Personal Status Law in Egypt and their proposed gendered legislation, they call for joint wealth rights between married couples, ensuring that accumulated wealth throughout the marriage is split equally in case of divorce. With rising divorce rates in Egypt, many women have dedicated their lives to the well-being of their households and caregiving, leaving them economically vulnerable with no professional prospects due to the classical gender division of labour. CEWLA seeks to challenge the normalised assumption that household wealth is equally shared among its members, based on Islamic good faith that men need to (and will) fully support their families.

This assumption also exists when we measure inequality. All inequality measurement tools come with their value judgments when addressing income inequality and household share of the income. The problem lies not only in what these tools communicate but also in the assumptions and value judgments they create and what they exclude. Measuring income inequality at the household level assumes that all household members enjoy an equal share, neglecting the gender power dynamics at play. However, the lived realities of women, which CEWLA witnesses daily, present a very different picture.

Unfortunately, the feminist initiatives in both of these cases are facing backlash from society as they challenge institutional discrimination and patriarchal domination. In the first example, the courts have been resistant to address the filed cases, and the second one has ignited significant controversy in Egypt. However, as the struggle against injustice and gender inequality persists, gendered resistance continues. As Angela Davis said: ‘You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.’

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, the International Inequalities Institute, or the London School of Economics and Political Science.