Egypt’s attorney general has issued a travel ban on parents who defy court-ordered alimony. Defaulters are to be added to no-fly lists and placed under arrival surveillance to protect women and children of divorce.
The directive, issued Monday, 20 April, by Attorney General Mohamed Shawky, is meant to uphold the authority of judicial rulings and safeguard the rights of those in whose favor judgments were issued, particularly the rights of wives and children, which are legally protected rights surrounded by special guarantees ensuring their preservation. It authorizes the Public Prosecution to bar such individuals from leaving Egypt and to flag them upon entry, using powers rooted in its constitutional mandate to enforce judicial rulings.
The Prosecution urged those convicted to promptly settle the amounts ordered by the courts to avoid further legal measures permitted by law.
This decision came shortly after a series of incidents that shook Egyptian society, all centered on the failure to pay child support.
On 17 March, Egyptians were shaken by a case in Alexandria in which a cancer-stricken mother, abandoned by her ex-husband and unable to pay her bills, allegedly agreed with her eldest son to kill the entire family rather than leave her five children with no one to care for them after her death. The case sparked widespread calls for reforming Egypt’s family laws.
In another incident, on 12 April, a woman in Alexandria jumped from her 13th-floor balcony during a Facebook Live broadcast, following a dispute with her ex-husband over support for their two daughters.
A day later, on 13 April, a young boy’s video went viral, as he pleaded to the camera that his mother was planning to throw herself in front of a train because his father had stopped paying support. The Interior Ministry confirmed the father had left the country and was withholding payments unless his ex-wife dropped her lawsuits against him.
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