Nine years ago, Amira Abdel Rahman (49) obtained a no-alimony divorce and was granted court-approved residency in the marital apartment—an old-rent flat in a Cairo neighborhood—as a custody residence for her two children. Despite receiving a monthly alimony of 2,000 EGP, it barely covered living and education expenses, forcing her to work two private-sector jobs without managing to save for her or her children’s future.
Last month, her youngest child turned fifteen, prompting her ex-husband to demand she vacate the apartment. He threatened to file a lawsuit to reclaim the marital home, citing that the children were no longer under maternal custody and claiming he wished to live with them—despite their objections due to his violent behavior and refusal to financially support them.
Amira consulted her lawyer, who explained that the father remains legally obligated to support his children until they reach working age, and a judge would allow the children to choose which parent to live with. If they choose the mother, she loses the right to alimony or custody housing, though the father can file for repossession, and she can request an extension through court. The judge may approve or deny the extension at their discretion. If eviction is granted, the teenage children (aged 15 and 17) can then file a case requesting the father provide housing support. However, a recent ruling from Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court dashed that hope, declaring that custody housing rights end once children reach legal custody age—leaving Amira under threat of eviction at any time.
Speaking to Zawia3, Amira said:
“I don’t know where to take my sons with rent prices soaring. One is in middle school and the other is preparing for final high school exams. They need me to study and care for them. Their father only sends 2,000 EGP a month and refuses to pay for tutoring or extra books. I earn 6,000 EGP from two jobs and have no other income. My parents passed without leaving a pension, and the apartment I inherited was sold years ago—my share barely reached 40,000 EGP, all spent on the children’s needs and basic furniture.”
She’s trying to negotiate with her ex-husband to let her stay until the boys reach legal adulthood, offering to waive their alimony in return—since rent in their area starts at 5,000 EGP monthly. If the talks fail, she says she may be forced to send her sons to live with their father against their will, while she moves into her aunt’s apartment in Cairo. Her siblings live in other provinces, and she cannot afford both rent and education costs.
On April 12, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, headed by Justice Boulos Fahmy Eskandar, ruled that a mother’s right to custody housing ends when children reach the legal age for custody, based on Article 18 (bis 3) of the 1929 law (amended by Law No. 100 of 1985).
Article 20 of Law No. 25/1929, amended by Law No. 100/1985, states that women’s custody ends when the child—male or female—reaches the age of fifteen. After that, the judge may allow the child to stay with the mother without paid custody until adulthood or until the girl marries.
In its ruling, the Constitutional Court emphasized that if a child stays with the mother beyond age fifteen based on court approval, it does not constitute a legal extension of mandatory custody. Rather, it’s considered a voluntary arrangement, which does not entitle the mother to remain in the marital home.
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Three Daughters… and a Fate at the Mercy of the Law
Although Soha Mohamed (52) obtained a divorce on grounds of harm 12 years ago and was granted custody of her three daughters—then aged between two and seven—the years following her separation have brought unrelenting material and social hardship. She received a court ruling entitling her to remain in the marital home in a neighborhood of Giza, yet she was awarded only 1,200 EGP monthly in child support. For years, Soha relied on financial help from her late father, who passed away seven years ago. Since then, she has lived on a modest pension of 1,500 EGP. With only a mid-level education and limited work experience, she was unable to find a stable job and instead accepted temporary, low-paid work—ranging from shop assistant to nursery supervisor to cleaner—earning between 1,500 and 3,000 EGP, never enough to secure a future for herself or her daughters.
When her youngest daughter turned fifteen in January, her ex-husband began demanding that she vacate the apartment he owns, claiming he now wants to live there with his new wife and child. Soha pleaded to stay with her daughters, explaining she had no alternative housing. She had inherited a flat in Giza from her father, but her brother took it over and now lives there. The father refused to compromise and filed a lawsuit to reclaim custody housing.
Speaking to Zawia3, Soha said:
“My daughters still need me. One is in middle school, another is in high school, and the eldest is at university. They can’t live with their father—he falsified his salary documents to reduce alimony and avoids financial responsibility. He’s left them to hunger and hardship. They told the judge they refuse to live with him and his new wife, and the judge upheld custody in my favor. But now I’m facing the unknown. I don’t know where we’ll go if we’re evicted.”
She added that attempts to rent a new place had proven difficult. Rental prices in her working-class neighborhood range between 2,500 and 3,000 EGP, and many landlords refuse to rent to divorced women. Her lawyer advised that she may obtain a court order to temporarily extend her custody rights and remain in the home until her daughters marry, but this depends entirely on the judge’s discretion—especially since the ex-husband owns the property and wishes to reclaim it.
Soha continued:
“I read online that the Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of ex-husbands reclaiming the marital home once the custody period ends. That makes my chances very slim. I’ve started looking for a tiny flat down a side alley so I can move in with my girls before an eviction order is issued. I know we’ll face financial hardship because I’ll have to pay rent from my small income, but thankfully, my eldest daughter just started a job at a call center to help me. I only worry it might affect her studies.”
According to Egypt’s Personal Status Law No. 25 of 1929, a custody-holding mother is entitled to remain in the marital home. In cases of divorce or conflict, if she has children under the age of 15, she may file for residential entitlement. Once the custody period ends, the ex-husband has the legal right to reclaim the property. If the woman is awarded housing support payments (ajer maskan), she is no longer entitled to remain in the marital apartment—neither as a custodian nor as a former wife.
Women Between Eviction and Negotiation
In this context, human rights lawyer Entessar El-Saeed, director of the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law, argues that the recent ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court failed to advance gender justice. Instead, it reinforced a legal framework that prioritizes private property—usually held by the husband—over the custodial mother’s and children’s right to secure housing after custody ends. The ruling, she explains, overrides previous jurisprudence by the Court of Cassation, which had offered a degree of social protection for divorced women by allowing them continued residence. The Constitutional Court now deems that approach a violation of private property, without considering the burdens women often carry post-divorce without adequate economic guarantees.
El-Saeed told Zawia3:
“That earlier interpretation was an attempt to recognize the lived reality of custodial mothers, especially those lacking alternative housing or financial support. Reversing it is a significant setback, opening the door to evicting mothers from custody housing without any viable alternatives.”
She added that the ruling tilts the balance in favor of ownership over shelter and care, reflecting a traditional legal outlook that overlooks the post-divorce economic gap between men and women. She called for a legislative review grounded in gender and social equity. While the ruling does not explicitly bar housing support payments (ajer maskan), it also doesn’t compel the state or the father to provide them, creating a legal vacuum that leaves mothers vulnerable to homelessness or substandard housing.
“Courts often set housing payments far below real rental costs,” she continued. “And with weak enforcement mechanisms, many mothers are forced to accept degrading conditions or forfeit their rights altogether.”
Noha Sayed, executive director of the “Sawt” initiative supporting women’s rights, believes the court ruling favors fathers at the expense of children’s stability. She argues that any parent who starts a family must bear its responsibilities—especially when children are teenagers, facing emotional stress from forced relocation rather than enjoying the stability they need at such a critical stage.
Sayed adds that many girls are pressured to stay with their fathers just to remain in the family home, or wait until marriage to secure alternative housing. She urges lawmakers to revise the pending personal status law to prioritize children’s best interests without undermining the rights of either parent.
According to the 2024 Annual Statistical Yearbook from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt recorded 265,606 divorce cases in 2023, compared to 269,834 in 2022—a slight decrease of 1.6%.
Most divorces occurred in urban areas, with 150,488 cases (56.7%) registered in 2023, down 3.7% from 156,278 in 2022. In contrast, rural areas saw a 1.4% increase, with 115,118 cases in 2023 versus 113,556 the year before—reflecting the gradual spread of divorce beyond major cities.
The data showed that women aged 25–30 were the most affected demographic, with 44,375 divorce certificates issued—17.4% of all cases. Women aged 75 and above had the fewest cases, with just 172 divorces (0.1%). The average age of divorced women in 2023 was 34.4 years.
Nationally, the divorce rate dropped slightly from 2.6 per 1,000 in 2022 to 2.5 per 1,000 in 2023. The urban divorce rate stood at 3.3 per 1,000, while the rural rate was lower at 1.9 per 1,000.
Final court-issued divorce rulings in 2023 totaled 10,683, down 3.6% from 11,077 in 2022. Of these, urban areas accounted for 98.5% (10,519 rulings), compared to 10,811 the previous year. Only 164 rulings were issued in rural areas—just 1.5% of the total—down sharply from 266 in 2022, marking a 38.3% decrease.
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The Ruling Eliminates Judicial Discretion
The verdict issued by Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court on April 12 has effectively formalized legal circumstances that were previously subject to judicial discretion and occasional leniency. According to lawyer Aya Hamdy, head of the support offices at the New Woman Foundation, some judges used to allow custodial mothers and their children to remain in the marital home beyond the end of custody, especially if the children chose to stay with their mother after turning 15. Other judges, however, ordered the mother to vacate the home once the custody period legally ended, creating inconsistency in rulings.
Hamdy told Zawia3 that the new ruling has now established a rigid legal precedent, stripping judges of the ability to make exceptions—even when the mother and children have no alternative housing, or when the mother is raising daughters. From now on, such considerations will no longer influence decisions, as the constitutional ruling overrides previous judicial flexibility in favor of a strict legal framework.
She explained that once the children turn 15, the mother loses her legal right to receive a housing allowance (ajer maskan), which she previously received for caring for them. At that point, her caregiving becomes voluntary. While the children can file a separate housing claim against the father to secure rent for their mother, court-awarded amounts are often insufficient to cover real rental costs.
Human rights lawyer Hala Douma noted that the full reasoning behind the Constitutional Court’s ruling, presided over by Justice Boulos Fahmy Eskandar, has yet to be published. As a result, the legal grounds for the decision remain unclear. However, based on media reports of the verdict’s summary, it appears the court merely reaffirmed existing legal conditions and deemed them constitutional—contrary to the claims made in many family court disputes over custody housing.
Douma added that prior court rulings that allowed custodial mothers to remain in the marital home after the custody period—based on judges’ discretion—are now rendered obsolete by the new ruling. To challenge them, affected individuals must file lawsuits to disregard these prior judgments, arguing that they were issued under an unconstitutional interpretation. If such a claim succeeds, those previous rulings could be annulled.
She further clarified that under the current legal framework, a custodial mother’s entitlement to housing payments or residence in the marital home ends once the children reach the age of 15. Any exceptions—such as shared residence with the father—are rare and subject to strict conditions aimed at serving the child’s best interest. However, most housing allowance judgments are meager, as they are calculated based on the father’s declared income—which is often difficult to verify.
Easy Prey for Biased Laws
Mai Saleh, a gender and social equity consultant, argues that most social laws in Egypt merely codify pre-existing realities that are not necessarily just. Divorced women, she notes, often endure lengthy legal processes just to obtain a court order allowing them to remain in the marital home, bearing the financial burdens of litigation and struggling without shelter until that point. Once the custody period ends, mothers are effectively thrown back to square one—left without housing, as if their role as caregivers has expired—regardless of the sacrifices they’ve made.
Speaking to Zawia3, Saleh warns women not to leave themselves vulnerable to laws skewed in favor of men or to patriarchal social customs. She urges them to secure independent income rather than rely on government assistance such as Takaful and Karama (a social safety program), or depend solely on remaining in the marital home for shelter.
She explains: “The way laws are enforced often involves manipulation—seizing women’s belongings or denying them rightful housing access. Many had hoped that Egypt’s personal status law would be amended in line with the recommendations of the National Council for Women and civil society organizations, to uphold women’s dignity and prioritize the best interests of children. But instead, we got a Supreme Constitutional Court ruling that ignores the emotional harm to children who are uprooted from familiar homes and become victims of legal weaponization.”
Saleh adds that many women are forced to relinquish custody of their children in exchange for the right to divorce, especially in families that reject the idea of a divorced daughter bringing her children to live with them. In such cases, mothers are coerced into leaving the children with their father, reducing children to bargaining chips in post-divorce power struggles.
She emphasizes that mothers must not abandon their maternal role or force their children to bear the consequences of adult decisions. Instead, the state must provide proper social security for women, especially single mothers and housewives, so that they don’t find themselves homeless after custody ends—or, in the case of childless divorcées, after years of marriage. Saleh calls for the implementation of shared marital wealth laws or Kadd wa Sa’aya (the right to joint marital labor), a concept endorsed by Al-Azhar that recognizes women’s contributions during marriage.
Punishing Women for Motherhood
Feminist activist Aya Mounir, founder of the “Superwoman Initiative,” argues that the recent ruling by Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court is not surprising given the broader reality facing women in Egypt. While mothers are left with the full responsibility of raising children, fathers are often treated as part-time or temporary providers. Courts do not impose minimum housing support requirements, frequently issuing symbolic rulings with negligible amounts that cannot cover even a single room. Once the children reach the age of 15, fathers are legally absolved of the obligation to provide a custody residence, while the mother’s unpaid care work and economic sacrifices go unrecognized. At the same time, fathers retain full legal guardianship and financial authority over the children.
Mounir believes that the marital home should legally belong to the child, with custody determining who stays. She calls for broader awareness: that mothers should not bear the sole burden of care when fathers refuse responsibility and seek to remarry. Many single mothers, she notes, have suffered gender-based violence, been denied access to education, lost job opportunities, and are unsupported by workplaces that fail to account for caregiving responsibilities. The lack of gender-sensitive legal protections has effectively punished women for motherhood—excluding them from employment, exposing them to biased court rulings, and depriving them of the chance to rebuild their lives after divorce.
Speaking to Zawia3, Mounir adds that divorced women are also frequently discriminated against when it comes to housing. Many landlords and residential compounds refuse to rent to single mothers, insisting on tenants being a married couple, due to stigmatizing views about divorcées. These women are often harassed, doubted in their ability to pay rent, and subjected to invasive moral and social scrutiny—including sexual harassment.
Lawyer Heba Adel, founder of the Egyptian Women Lawyers Initiative for Women’s Rights, explains that divorced mothers no longer qualify for housing allowance once their children surpass the legal custody age. If children choose to stay with their mother, the father was previously obligated to provide housing costs if he reclaimed the marital home. But following the Supreme Constitutional Court’s ruling, fathers are no longer required to cover such expenses after age 15. Though the ruling may appear consistent with current laws, it establishes a new constitutional precedent that effectively bars mothers from demanding either housing or allowance once the custody period ends.
Adel adds that mothers with children over 15 will now face legal hurdles when trying to file claims for housing expenses. Fathers will likely cite the constitutional ruling as a defense, reinforcing the idea that the marital home legally belongs to them. This, she warns, is a blow to the rights of custodial mothers and also limits the protections available to children—who may still need maternal care but fall outside the legal custody framework. The ruling creates a dangerous legal gap for children between the ages of 15 and 18, during which they still need both shelter and nurturing.
While some argue the ruling only reaffirms existing personal status laws, many rights advocates say it effectively constitutionalizes a legal doctrine that eliminates judicial discretion. Previously, some courts had extended custody rights based on the child’s best interest, allowing mothers and children to remain in the home. That flexibility is now lost, potentially voiding earlier court rulings and threatening to displace mothers and children who have no alternative housing—particularly given the steep rise in rental prices and the economic, social, and gender-based pressures facing divorced women in Egypt.
