Gender equality in travel authorisation for children of less than 12 years || Newspapers (Arabic)

Al-Safir newspaper carried a report stating that the Islamic Charee3a Council had put an end last December to the phenomena called “husbands kidnapping their children” A new law amendment was introduced after a request from the Family Rights Network and is now in effect and deals with cases falling during the period between the divorce and issuance of the mother’s custody verdict. The Islamic Council introduced the amendments on D clause of the 22 decree thus now stating: the father or any guardian is forbidden from traveling with minor kids, during the custody period without an official of judicial permission from the mother.
This amendment effectively puts an end to legal complications that appeared after a previous decision to raise the age level of mothers’ custody of girls and boys to 12 years old within the context of Sunni family law. In addition, it brought effective equality between men and women regarding the official authorisation for children before traveling. Nonetheless, this equality is still somewhat limited to the 12 years custody period, since a mother still needs the father’s permission to travel with her kids until they turn 18 years old.
For her part, Iqbal Doughan, president of Family Rights Network, welcomed those amendments despite their limitations, indicating that the network will continue advocating for raising the age limit to 18 years, so that it becomes in line with present regulations in Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria.

Source: Al-Safir 4 January 2013