Single motherhood is a social concept that is clouded with stigmatizing notions across the world, and Egypt is no different. According to data from the Egyptian Statistics Observatory, there are more than 12 million single mothers in Egypt as a result of divorce, separation, common law marriage, and widowhood. To this day, divorce is considered the number 1 culprit for destroying the nuclear family, and women carry most of the blame for not creating a ‘stable household’ for their children. After graduating with a degree in architecture, Samia* married a man eight years her senior and gave birth to a son soon after. As they approached their third year of marriage, tensions were rising between them, but she found herself pregnant with her second child. His contribution to the family and to the parenting of their child was almost non-existent financially, physically, and emotionally, Samia* says. She was four months pregnant when she took her son, moved out, and separated from her husband due to his neglect of the family. “He used to leave the house at eight in the morning and come back home at eight in the evening…
‘I Chose the Wrong Father for My Children’: Stories of Single Mothers in Egypt
October 1, 2019
